A primrose panorama
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
A primrose panorama
There are around 800 images focus stacked into a 4x5 pano of a primrose. It's just under 1x magnification and if printed at 240dpi would be 30"x55"
Larger version here (but resized by PhotoBucket): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/ ... 48114a.jpg
Larger version here (but resized by PhotoBucket): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/ ... 48114a.jpg
- rjlittlefield
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- rovebeetle
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Well, the technical details were point and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot ...
It took about 4 hours of steady shooting to capture all of it. I used both rotation around the entrance pupil and back rise and fall. The center row was shot first, then the back (camera) was lowered and the top row shot. The bottom two rows were shot by raising the camera. The El-Nikkor 50mm seems to have a large enough image circle to do 4 full rows at this magnification. The focus stacks were done by moving only the camera so the lens/entrance pupil didn't move.
I shot in RAW + jpeg mode, but only used the jpegs. Zerene Stacker pMax was used to focus stitch the individual frames. Microsoft ICE was used to stitch the focus stacked frames and output in Photoshop layers. Each seam was manually blended in PhotoShop. The output from ICE was aligned very well, but there were a few places that required selecting the blend path. Levels were used on each layer to even out the lighthing and bring the background to black. The post processing took an additional 4 hours, but a lot of that time was just waiting for the computer to do the work.
To relate the size of the image, the border added for web display is 1250 pixels wide. Here's a 100% crop:
It took about 4 hours of steady shooting to capture all of it. I used both rotation around the entrance pupil and back rise and fall. The center row was shot first, then the back (camera) was lowered and the top row shot. The bottom two rows were shot by raising the camera. The El-Nikkor 50mm seems to have a large enough image circle to do 4 full rows at this magnification. The focus stacks were done by moving only the camera so the lens/entrance pupil didn't move.
I shot in RAW + jpeg mode, but only used the jpegs. Zerene Stacker pMax was used to focus stitch the individual frames. Microsoft ICE was used to stitch the focus stacked frames and output in Photoshop layers. Each seam was manually blended in PhotoShop. The output from ICE was aligned very well, but there were a few places that required selecting the blend path. Levels were used on each layer to even out the lighthing and bring the background to black. The post processing took an additional 4 hours, but a lot of that time was just waiting for the computer to do the work.
To relate the size of the image, the border added for web display is 1250 pixels wide. Here's a 100% crop:
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- rjlittlefield
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Amazing.
In these big projects, sometimes the devil can lie in the most prosaic details.
Like, how did you keep the subject from changing shape just a little bit in those four hours?
The last time I tried shooting anything as delicate as a primrose, I ended up with a better movie than a stack!
--Rik
In these big projects, sometimes the devil can lie in the most prosaic details.
Like, how did you keep the subject from changing shape just a little bit in those four hours?
The last time I tried shooting anything as delicate as a primrose, I ended up with a better movie than a stack!
--Rik
ICE does a pretty good job of morphing the images to fit and the individual focus stacks were shot fairly quickly. One 77 image stack took 16 minutes or a little over 12 seconds each. I'd say it was probably more a matter of luck than skill that this arrangement stayed stable enough to complete the shoot. I've had to abandon several recent attempts with other flowers where the movement was large enough to see between each image.rjlittlefield wrote: Like, how did you keep the subject from changing shape just a little bit in those four hours?
It might be fun to try. It could be the first gigapixel macro and would probably need 20 or 30,000 imagesHarold Gough wrote: Not a technique for Morning Glory?
- rjlittlefield
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Could well be. Canon just came out with their Rebel T1i. 15 Mpixel stills plus 1920x1080 @20 fps HD video. List price $800, body only. Very interesting device. Remains to be seen if the video frames are good enough to be worth stacking.
--Rik
--Rik
- rjlittlefield
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Thanks, I really appreciate the selection.
Here's a link to a Deep Zoom (Silverlight 2 required) of the image: http://www.efrench.members.winisp.net/C ... 114aDZ.htm
(updating url)
Here's a link to a Deep Zoom (Silverlight 2 required) of the image: http://www.efrench.members.winisp.net/C ... 114aDZ.htm
(updating url)
Last edited by elf on Mon Feb 15, 2010 7:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Really beautiful result, and a heroic accomplishment.
I too love the painted feel this photograph has, which is presumably in part due to the wonderful lighting used.
One does wonder where technology will take us with respect to challenges like this in say 5 and then 10 years from today. It's hard to extrapolate in the presence of seemingly limitless exponential improvement in technologies. Moore's law is everywhere!
I too love the painted feel this photograph has, which is presumably in part due to the wonderful lighting used.
One does wonder where technology will take us with respect to challenges like this in say 5 and then 10 years from today. It's hard to extrapolate in the presence of seemingly limitless exponential improvement in technologies. Moore's law is everywhere!
-Phil
"Diffraction never sleeps"
"Diffraction never sleeps"