A Rosy Affair!

[Vicky]

Hi,

Happened to get a bunch of roses yesterday...

Ended up spending a good hour in the kitchen late last night while everyone in the house was off to sleep...

Won't write much.. let the pictures do the talking:)

#1 With The Sigma
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_9045_stack.jpg
400D + Sigma 18-50 @ 50mm... focus stacked from 3 shots


#2 Reverse Macro
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_9077.jpg
400D + 28mm FD reversed... single shot @ f/22


#3 The Nifty Fifty
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_9006_stack.jpg
400D + EF12 extension tube + 50mm 1.8 @ f/4.. focus stacked from 4 shots


#4 Desaturated - Reverse Macro
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_9091.jpg
400D + 28mm FD reversed... single shot @ f/16


#5 Playing with Shallow DOF
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_9057a.jpg
400D + 28mm FD reversed... single shot @ f/4


#6 An FSMP! Focus Stacked Macro Panorama!:eek:
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l96/rx100/IMG_9021_stack.jpg
400D + EF12 extension tube + 50mm 1.8 @ f/4.. focus stacked two planes from 5 shots each and then stitched
manually in Photoshop CS3..total 10shots:eek:


Thanks for looking!

C & C Welcome:)

Viky

[KrishnenduKes]

Critique Approved

My points:
1 is terrific
2, is kinda nice but...point of interest is not well defined
3 is good,
4 is not my cuppa
Nor is 5
6 is again good for me.

I am seriously thinking of procuring those reverse mounts that you have.

[Aryan]

First one is awesome. Loved all the pictures, but the first and the last one takes the cake.

P.S: Is there any difference between the first and the last shot?

[Xavier]

First one is awesome. Loved all the pictures, but the first and the last one takes the cake.

P.S: Is there any difference between the first and the last shot?

Different flowers, I guess.. Similar shot though

My fav would be the 3rd one. Didn't like the 5th one. The DoF is too shallow for me.
Lovely set though :)

[KrishnenduKes]

P.S: Is there any difference between the first and the last shot?

Yes there are... spot the differences!

[archistar]

terrific series... same for me, #1 & #6 takes the cake and it took a minute for me to spot the diff :D

fantastic Vicky, loved them all...

[powerslave]

First and last are my favorites too. #2, 4, 5 seem to be OOF. :) Good lighting on all.

[Vicky]

Critique Approved

My points:
1 is terrific
2, is kinda nice but...point of interest is not well defined
3 is good,
4 is not my cuppa
Nor is 5
6 is again good for me.

I am seriously thinking of procuring those reverse mounts that you have.

Thanks for the feedback Ken!

My personal favorites are #5 for its soft, dreamy feel and #6 for its sharp clarity and punchy colors!

First one is awesome. Loved all the pictures, but the first and the last one takes the cake.

P.S: Is there any difference between the first and the last shot?

Thanks Aryan!

First was shot with the Sigma 18-50 @ 50mm, f/5.6.. and focus stacked from three shots, whereas the last one is a Focus Stacked Panorama shot with the 50 1.8 + EF12 Extension Tube @ f/4. First took five shots of the upper portion with different points in focus then took another five shots of the lower portion with different points in focus. Then focus stacked each set to get two shots - one of upper portion and one of lower portion. Then stitched them manually in CS3:)

My apologies for forgetting to mention the shot details. I've added them now:)

Different flowers, I guess.. Similar shot though

My fav would be the 3rd one. Didn't like the 5th one. The DoF is too shallow for me.
Lovely set though :)

Thanks Xavier!


terrific series... same for me, #1 & #6 takes the cake and it took a minute for me to spot the diff :D


fantastic Vicky, loved them all...

Thanks Archit... glad u liked these:)

First and last are my favorites too. #2, 4, 5 seem to be OOF. :) Good lighting on all.

Thanks for the feedback PS!

Though #2 & #4 don't have critical focus, #5 is more a case of very shallow DOF which was intentional to get that soft, dreamy feel to it:)

[nav75]

#1 & #6 for me. Wish I had given roses like that to someone more than a decade back...:o

@Vicky: You said you stitched 10 shots for #6. What's the res of the final image?

[nelson_sanjoy]

Vicky : Now we seriously need a tutorial from you on reverse macro + focus stacking + photostiching with the softwares you use :);) ofcourse if you are ready to share ...

[Vicky]

#1 & #6 for me. Wish I had given roses like that to someone more than a decade back...:o

@Vicky: You said you stitched 10 shots for #6. What's the res of the final image?

No, #6 is stitched from two focus stacked shots, and each of these shots were focus stacked from five shots each. That means I used a total of 10shots to get this one:)

Final cropped file size is still around 16mp though!

[Vicky]

Vicky : Now we seriously need a tutorial from you on reverse macro + focus stacking + photostiching with the softwares you use :);) ofcourse if you are ready to share ...


I'm most willing to share Nelson, but I don't really see anybody having much interest in this though:(

[Bibudesh]

I'm most willing to share Nelson, but I don't really see anybody having much interest in this though:(

Count me in, i do not see any thread to follow, so how do I show interest?.

BTW Amazing shots vicky, and my fav is no.6 .. :)

[KrishnenduKes]

I'm most willing to share Nelson, but I don't really see anybody having much interest in this though:(

I have sent you PMs and replied on threads several times on starting tutorials. You have not replied often. I have been interested all the time. When you did not reply, I started looking elsewhere, other people for support and help. But I do think that you are a PP genius, nothing short of it, and we can do with several tutorials from you in varying domains under different headings. Including the "the kind of look" that one should look to attain in a photograph after PP.

[Vicky]

Vicky : Now we seriously need a tutorial from you on reverse macro + focus stacking + photostiching with the softwares you use of course if you are ready to share ...

Count me in, i do not see any thread to follow, so how do I show interest?.

BTW Amazing shots vicky, and my fav is no.6 .. :)

Thanks SP! #6 is my fav too:)

Frankly speaking, I'm very scared of the word 'tutorial'... I simply don't consider myself experienced or perfected enough to be giving tutorials and lessons:eek: However, I'm most willing to share whatever little I know in terms of the technique that I follow to achieve these reverse macro shots. In fact, I've already shared the basic principle & its limitations in bits and pieces as and when anybody asked for it:)

As for Focus Stacking, I'm myself very new to it and this was only the very second time that I tried my hand at focus stacking. Its not very hard though.. most of the process is automated and done by the stacking software. I used CombineZM for the same.

I will however, do a collective write up on reverse macro + focus stacking + pano stitching very soon:)

Another hindrance is that I don't see anybody around here that has the reversing rings or old FD lenses that are a prerequisite to doing any reverse macro work:(

I have sent you PMs and replied on threads several times on starting tutorials. You have not replied often. I have been interested all the time. When you did not reply, I started looking elsewhere, other people for support and help. But I do think that you are a PP genius, nothing short of it, and we can do with several tutorials from you in varying domains under different headings. Including the "the kind of look" that one should look to attain in a photograph after PP.

Yes Ken, I did get some pm's from you for starting a PP tutorial... and I'm so sorry I didn't reply to a few of them:o... but you see, the subject of PP is soooo vast!:eek: What do I address? Where to start?

If I've done a particular effect/pp on a photo and someone wants to know how I achieved that look, then I'm most willing to share my work flow for that effect.

Moreover, with PP i don't have or follow any technique or flowchart... I just do whatever comes to mind until I get the look that I'm happy with:) Which might even be very different from what I originally set out to achieve!

In general, I'm all for sharing whatever I know. You must have noticed, I always provide my full exif data and details of the equipment used for each shot. I always try and give a basic idea of the setup and the technique used in my experimental shoots too. Unfortunately, I don't have a shooting buddy or mentor...whatever I know today, I've learned form information shared by fellow photo enthusiasts on forums like these... so, this is my way of giving back to the community:)

Last but not the least, thanks for the compliments Ken!:)

[Bibudesh]

@vicky- Give it a start and we'll follow...
As far as PP is concerned, there is no need of any tutorial, all u can do is open the best modified shot u have (no.6 for an e.g.) and let us know the steps in brief...
Sometimes it so happens (with me atleast) that u do something randomly in PP which eventually gives amazing results, people asks about 'How to' and u have no reply ... HDRs posted by me are the consequences of same incidents..
Honestly I don't know wat I did to get that result...

My point here is I need a guideline to streamline the knowledge about PP .. It may happen that while sharing u'll also learn something from learners! ..

[nelson_sanjoy]

I'm most willing to share Nelson, but I don't really see anybody having much interest in this though:(

Thanks @Vicky I think once you start there will be a lot of people to follow - This forum is at its nascent stage - you never know your guide may become a bible for reverse Macro graphers in coming days ...