With our first snow arriving yesterday, I am sensing my subjects for this project will soon be retreating into the soil for the season (with or without the help of our electric mulching mower.) 🙂 I have basically completed them over 4 different sessions outside, with just a few left to develop, observing and learning a few things along the way. For as much as I enjoyed the creative aspects, some ideas also require knowing how to address the technical side of what you are hoping to achieve.
Similar to how Ansel Adams once stated “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” – it can also work in reverse. I had the concept, but getting the sharpness I envisioned some work beyond just a tripod and stopping down the aperture.
Focus Stacking
This was my most extensive work with focus stacks, with some Leaf Creatures requiring blending up to 35 exposures. For anyone unfamiliar with this technique, focus stacking addresses optical limitations in depth-of-field similar to the way HDR (high dynamic range) addresses limitations in tonal values from light to dark. Many people are likely familiar with the concept of bracketing exposures, this is the same thing, only with focus. It is especially useful when doing closeup work because sufficient depth of field can become an issue at higher magnifications.
Some cameras now incorporate focus bracketing into their features just like exposure bracketing. I appreciate the focus bracketing feature Fujifilm added to their line of cameras, even to my older XT-2 via a firmware update. It is also the primary reason I chose to use my Fuji XT-2 over my Nikon D810 for this project. This at least gives you a starting set of images to work with, but the work is not done completely in-camera (yet). Helicon Focus is my preferred tool for merging them – and I am very grateful it still runs on my aging Mac with reasonable speed. It isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn close.
When you start looking at very small increments of focus planes, especially with overlapping elements that are in focus and out of focus, there is only so much software can do (as amazing as it is). So every photograph requires examination at 100% to figure out where the AI needed some help. There is a little bit of guesswork involved in picking how many exposures you think you will need to cover the subject front to back, and the focus increments to use, but I quickly learned what combination worked best for these subjects. Helicon makes it fairly easy to grab small elements from any image in the stack to override what the software assumed. That is a must-have feature with any software doing this work.
How it’s made
This post just offered a small bit of insight into one of the technical challenges of this project. I never really know if people care about this type of information. I am normally not one that fusses over camera types and settings because they are largely unimportant to me. I care about the idea the most. Now, some equipment and software may be necessary and helpful to execute that idea, so it is disingenuous to say equipment doesn’t matter. In fact, it can matter a great deal. Having an idea is great – being able to execute it can be another challenge in itself.
In the midst of all this are a lot of mixed feelings about photography in general that I’ve been having lately. Being involved on the business side of it, chasing endless image theft, the toxic aspects of social media and humanity, and seeing the devaluing of photographs in general really gets to me at times. It can be a brutal reminder that the amount of work and gear involved in any particular photograph can be irrelevant. So being able to just escape from all of that with a little childhood play with leaves in my yard helped get my mind off it. It reminded me about what drew me into photography to begin with – having fun and exploring.
I use Helicon focus as well and I do like hearing the inner workings behind projects. In terms of the things that have angered you I find the devaluation of good photography quite frustrating and don’t get me started on the negative aspects of social media
Thanks Howard. Yeah, Helicon is quite the neat tool. I am pretty late to the game in using it, but can understand why it is so popular.
Good grief, 35 frames for focus stacking… the time it must have taken you for the 100% inspection and fixing of any small flaws… I do not envy you! Stacking 10 frames already brings me to the point where I say “that’s just not worth it”. 😉 Kudos for the dedication and perseverance.
With regards to social media – you know my take on it. I can recommend staying away from it all as a great way to avoid the feeling of despair. It’s not like the worst of humans comes out online (well, for some probably) – instead, for the most part, I found that a very vocal minority dominates it, fully exploiting this “attention economy” that is entirely rewarded by SM’s algorithms. Most humans are pretty decent people, and those are the ones who aren’t ranting on social media, who aren’t shouting on TV, etc.
The software does 80-90% of the work honestly. Just some areas get a bit ‘confused.’ And thankfully I really don’t have the whole frame to inspect because of the black backgrounds. It would be a lot more difficult with a landscape, but I can’t imagine needing so many frames then.
I just shake my head so many times on SM. Even with copyright issues where people complain they were reported – I see dozens of comments that are just completely wrong about the whole thing, giving bad advice, and giving prayers for the “victim” of the report. Good grief.
You’re right, the black background surely helps a lot. With “normal” macros, the transition areas were always the most painful ones to inspect. 😛
As for social media… these sites carry many mundane and trivial things to us that we’d normally don’t care about, or engage with. You and I won’t change someone’s wrong understanding of copyright and similarly, fighting other wrongs on social media is so very often a futile, uphill battle…
That’s why I like blogging so much more – it takes out the randomness of social media, and being exposed to WHATEVER a person that we might care staying connected to puts out there. In more recent years, I’ve made more and better connections by following links in blog rolls and comment sections than through social media.
agree 100%. I am already tapering off some SM activities, I am on the fence about what to ultimately do about it. I know I can’t change anything except my caring about it.
The saying “if you want to hate what you love, make it into your day job” comes to mind in response to your paragraph about being on the business side of photography. As for social media, since the pandemics started, I have had serious doubts that it’s the way to go for humanity. Since many of us started doing more of it, for obvious reasons (the need to socialize and being prevented from doing it in person) it has become clearer that we all need to do a lot less of it. Many people I really liked in person I am now disgusted at after watching them on social media. Maybe it’s not the right medium for human socialization. Some point and shoot Canon cameras feature built-in automatic focus stacking. Focus stacking is something I have to do for work, so I stay out of it on my play time. I am glad you had fun playing with the leaves. Very cool video on the previous post and interesting, evoking images as a result.
I can relate to everything you wrote. I have also lost a lot of respect for some people I know just over their social media behavior, which may be a good thing as some subjects don’t come up in face-to-face conversations much – showing just how superficial some of those in-person interactions are. I’d like to think such remote interactions are possible in some ways. I grew up with BBS groups and participated in photography forums back in the day. But for those, you went in and consumed material you wanted to read (although the same human social quirks developed even on those), it wasn’t pushed in a feed influenced by algorithms and advertising motives. On the flip side, I am appreciative of many people I have connected with that I would have never met in person. It is really hard to sort through all of it, and my overall impression of humanity has suffered for sure. It takes some work to look for examples that contradict that mindset.
You’ve given me renewed respect for my XT-2! That was a very cool video and I may never venture into focus stacking but I now feel it’s possible. Excellent post, Mark.
I actually had a paragraph on also using Iridient X-Transformer to process the raw files vs. using Lightroom, but felt it went a bit too much off topic and I deleted it. If you haven’t used it for Fuji files, it is worth a trial.
I admire the artistry, beauty, and creativity of this concept and finish images, and I’m also fascinated by its technical process. These leaf creatures beg appreciation from both the 10,000 ft level as well as close up. They’re unique and beautiful, and that having fun part is certainly a bonus!
Outstanding work, Mark!
Thank you for the kind words Earl. It is fun working on them at 100% zoom – even with an “obsolete” camera, the details are pretty amazing.