Hi, From Greece (Ex UK)

Lets get to know each other better. Here's a forum to post images and short autobiographies of ourselves as well as any other info you would like to post about yourself.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

russellsnr
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 5:51 am
Location: Rhodes, GREECE

Hi, From Greece (Ex UK)

Post by russellsnr »

Hi, although new to your website I am not new to photography however I am only an amateur and photography is a hobby/pastime. Up until recently I photographed Landscape/Seascape but looking at trying something different so chose flowers,. After some searching online I decided to try shooting flowers indoors with constant light and have had relatively good success, flash however I have found to be harsh even through a softbox. However I cannot decide on the software as I really do not have any experience with stacking images as such, I read that many use Helicon Remote to shoot there images and others do this manually some use for putting images together Helicon Focus some Zerene Stacker others free software like CombineZP but note this has not been updated for some time or is no longer supported. My equipment is Windows 7 64 bit, Canon 6D, Tamron 90mm (the older version), also found a B.P.M Focuslide (Made by Butterfield Photographic, Portslade, UK. no longer trade I beleive) sat this on a Manfrotto Junior Gear Head.
Would be interested to no how many use the automated option via a computer with Helicon Remote, those who go down the manual route and why? And who uses what stacking software? Yes I no you can download trial versions of the big two but advice from those with a lot more experience than me in taking these kind of images. Many thanks for reading this and for ALL advice that may come across. Russ.
Thankyou,
Russ

russellsnr
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 10, 2018 5:51 am
Location: Rhodes, GREECE

Thankyou

Post by russellsnr »

Well just like to say thankyou for the warm welcome recived in ALL the replies. Russ
Thankyou,
Russ

ChrisR
Site Admin
Posts: 8662
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:58 am
Location: Near London, UK

Post by ChrisR »

You are welcome. Sorry that it took more than a few hours.
Chris R

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23543
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Russ, welcome aboard!

The long delay before significant responses is unusual for this site, but please don't take it personally. As a guess for the reason, I'll mention that people often seem less than eager to tackle questions that appear to be asking about community consensus on broad issues.

That's true for me too, but since nobody else has tried answering your questions, I'll offer at least a little info.

For shooting stacks, there are a lot of possibilities in several broad categories. One standard reference is the web page "Is it better to use a focus rail or the ring on my lens?", at https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/d ... versusrail . If the apparently large flower that you posted elsewhere is typical of what you want to do, then as that web page explains, you'll probably get better results from using the ring on your lens, either manually or under computer control. Helicon Remote is one good way to do it under computer control, but there are a lot of other options that offer various tradeoffs.

That concept of "tradeoffs" is one that you'll see a lot in my writings. In fact when I give classes on focus stacking, one of the early slides just says
And the Answer Is:

"IT DEPENDS!"
That slide can be found as #18 of 154 in http://zerenesystems.com/presentations/ ... 151009.pdf , which are basically course notes from a 1-hour introduction to focus stacking.

The presentation is also linked on the main Tutorials index page at https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/d ... rialsindex . Quite a few other tutorials and related documents are linked there also. That page, plus the Zerene Stacker FAQs, are good places to go for information about Zerene Stacker.

As for what software to recommend, that question is always troublesome for me because I'm the individual who is responsible for Zerene Stacker. I wrote the software and all its documentation, I answer all the emails sent to support@zerenesystems.com, and when somebody buys a license, I get most of the money. Obviously I'm not an impartial observer. Adding a complication, photomacrography.net is staunchly noncommercial and has a culture of fact-based agnosticism, so I try to avoid anything that even looks like it might be an advertisement. I'll be happy to answer other questions about tools and techniques, however.

--Rik

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