Diatoms

[Macro_Cosmos]

Lovely circular diatoms. Experimenting with graduated backgrounds swapped out in post. Turned out to be quite pleasing. Not sure if doing so falls under the title of "excessive post processing". The diatom itself has minimal corrections of course, aside from focus stacking. I think for DIC, PMax produces better results. I would then run it through some kind of deconvolution sharpening and noise reduction since grittiness is produced.

Diatom here is a DMap.


And, here is a PMax.


Probably still depends on personal choice and subject matter. The PMax stack was very deep ~500 shots, whereas the DMap was 200.
Both 100x DIC.

More info here:
#1 https://flic.kr/p/2jZY4K9
#2 https://flic.kr/p/2k12rid

[rjlittlefield]

Experimenting with graduated backgrounds swapped out in post. Turned out to be quite pleasing. Not sure if doing so falls under the title of "excessive post processing"

When in doubt, just say what you did.

In a case like this, where somebody says that they're experimenting with a new technique that is producing good results, it would be especially helpful to see the original image along with the as-modified. That helps to make clear how much of the final image comes from the shooting and how much from the post-processing. Consider for example the butterfly scales at https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... hp?t=41069 , versus the original image (linked in the thread) at http://www.kurtwirz.ch/A/Photomacrography_01.JPG .

--Rik

[Macro_Cosmos]

Experimenting with graduated backgrounds swapped out in post. Turned out to be quite pleasing. Not sure if doing so falls under the title of "excessive post processing"

When in doubt, just say what you did.

In a case like this, where somebody says that they're experimenting with a new technique that is producing good results, it would be especially helpful to see the original image along with the as-modified. That helps to make clear how much of the final image comes from the shooting and how much from the post-processing. Consider for example the butterfly scales at https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... hp?t=41069 , versus the original image (linked in the thread) at http://www.kurtwirz.ch/A/Photomacrography_01.JPG .

--Rik

Yeah, that's a good idea. Lovely scales the author has too, even that finite Nikon is a beast when used by a skilled photographer.
Here's the original stacks, unedited. For the second one, I did clone out a rather large dust particle.

[Sumguy01]

Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.