Assorted flower stacks

[jgknight]

It was a cold wet day here in Wagga Wagga and what better way to spend some time doing some stacking. These flowers come out of my garden at home.

[lauriek]

Lovely set as usual John!

[sonyalpha]

A truly superb set John:

# 1 and # 4 are my favourites..........the first for colour and composition and the second for interest..............it looks as if those graceful stamens are wearing granny's comfy carpet slippers:

sonyalpha

[rjlittlefield]

John, you're making Zerene Stacker look really good here! (Most appreciated, of course. )

I notice in the last image that there is barely visible contouring in the background, especially on the right side.

I suspect these contours are due to slight differences in exposure from frame to frame. This is fairly common when using flash.

On the other hand, they might be due to Zerene's brightness correction being led astray by other differences between frames.

In either case, you might try changing the setting of Options > Preferences > Alignment > Brightness to see which way gives the better result.

Lovely images -- beautifully "simple"and simply beautiful!

--Rik

[jgknight]

Thank you Laurie and SA for your comments and yes SA they do look a bit like granny's comfy carpet slippers. javascript:emoticon(':D') javascript:emoticon(':lol:')

John, you're making Zerene Stacker look really good here! (Most appreciated, of course. )
I notice in the last image that there is barely visible contouring in the background, especially on the right side.
I suspect these contours are due to slight differences in exposure from frame to frame. This is fairly common when using flash.
On the other hand, they might be due to Zerene's brightness correction being led astray by other differences between frames.
In either case, you might try changing the setting of Options > Preferences > Alignment > Brightness to see which way gives the better result.
Lovely images -- beautifully "simple"and simply beautiful! --Rik

Thanks for that info Rik. I will investigate further. I know I do tend to get going with the flash and sometimes I am a bit too fast between recycling so that could be something I need to look into further.

That may not be the problem though. With this last shot, I had a pale yellow background which came out grey so I used some artistic license and changed it to a brighter yellow. I also have a bokeh filter in PS which I sometimes use to cover up some of the dust marks on my sensor. I notice if I don't have the bokeh setting just right, it can cause the contouring you see. I cannot remember if I used bokeh on this one or not. I don't think I did. This is why I will check out the settings and play with them.

As for me making ZS look good - it is the other way around. ZS is making me look good. It is such a great program and I rave about it to anyone who will listen. javascript:emoticon(':lol:')

I have not had much success with tiny insects yet. Maybe if I can find a Raynox at the right price I might do better.
This is about as good as I can do at the moment.

[Joaquim F.]

Very nice images, specially the first is beautiful!

Cheers

[jgknight]

Thanks Joaquim. I would love to aspire to your level of quality.

[PaulFurman]

Well done John, these are difficult subjects. How many frames? Stopped down a lot?

[jgknight]

Well done John, these are difficult subjects. How many frames? Stopped down a lot?

Paul, all these were taken at f11 of f8 on my Canon 30D with 100mm Macro lens. Stacked frames between 50 and 25, the exact number of images appear below my signature on each photo.

The lighting was about as simple as you can get..... Built in flash with a diffuser on the front of the lens made from a kitchen cutting mat.

[Pau]

John,

Lovely flash diffuser, i use one very similar (not very expensive )

...and of course lovely pictures

[morfa]

Beautiful flower stacks John!

I like #4 in particular – great sense of depth and lovely clarity!