Flowers and Plants Gallery
The vernal equinox has just passed. Spring, for those of us north of the equator, has officially begun. A week or so ago, Liddy and I took a moment to wander along the banks of the White River. The willows were blooming. Their little fuzzy flowers in full show.
Don't pluck the red Lehua, if you wish for weather fair Tis Pele's sacred flower, which she guards with jealous care Her Akuas all are watching, and to her they will complain For surely as you do it, she sends down the rain
This is a Hibiscus. Well, you knew that. What you don't know is it a composite of seventeen images shot with a different focus point then stacked and blended. I think the result is absolutely stunning. My new Canon R6 camera can shoot multiple exposures at different focal lengths. It steps the lens focus point from the near starting point out through so many shots at a preset distance. This is one of my first photos using this technique. I don't think it will be the last. So many opportunities!
This yellow hibiscus is a composite of 25 images. Each image is photographed with a slightly different focal point. The images are brought into Photoshop and then Blended such that you see all the detail through the final image. For those that don't know, this technique is called focus stacking. One of the features in the Canon R6 is an automatic focus stack. Set your Aperture and exposure. Set the number of exposures to take Focus on a point close to the camera Release the shutter. The camera calculates the Depth of Field and steps from near to far focus until it reaches the end of its focus range or has taken the number of exposures you set. For this hibiscus, I was shooting with my EF100mm f2.8L Macro IS USM lens. The aperture was set to f/8.0, and the shutter, 1/30th of a second, ISO 800. I would encourage the use of a tripod, but this was handheld attesting to the capability of the image stabilization. Photoshop tries to render the whole image sharp so the background leaves, branches, and everything else is also rendered in sharp focus. To make those objects fall away, I duplicated the top (nearest) layer. This layer has all the background out of focus, soft. By applying a layer mask and concealing the flower part of the layer, allowing the stack to show through, we enjoy a very sharp flower with a less distracting soft background.
