I stopped at the nearby Sourland Mountain Preserve to see if any butterflies have arrived. I only found some really tiny butterflies (or are they moths?). While walking down the gas line trail, I noticed a deer watching me from the bushes. It looks like she has a wound on her head between the eyes that was covered with flies. Back home, there was a wary groundhog, a bull frog in my pond, and a young fawn going through my wildflower garden eating the buds before they can bloom.
Individual images in the slide shows can be viewed here.
Flowers – more experiments with focus bracketing and focus stacking. Yellow Moth Mullen, Dianthus (Pink, Telstar, Picotee?), Pale Purple (unknown), and a large Yellow Zucchini flower. This time I used a tripod for the camera, but the flowers still moved with a slight breeze. I can see that I did not go for a deep enough bracket as there are some artifacts in some of the images. Helicon Focus does a good job of aligning the stack of images even with some motion due to the slight breeze.
Verbascum blattaria – Moth Mullein. Composite of 24 focus stacked images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Dianthus flower cluster. Composite of 50 focus stacked Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Light Purple Widflower. Composite of 25 focus stacked images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Zucchini Flower. Composite of 11 focus bracketed images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Focus Stacked Macro images of a Bumble Bee on a Pink Zinnia Flower. Fuji recently released a firmware update for the Fuji X-T2 and X-H1 mirrorless cameras that allow the camera to take a series of focus bracketed images. The camera starts with a user selected near focus point, then for each subsequent image changes the focus point an increment further away (toward infinity). The bracketing settings are number of frames (2-999), step (1-10), and interval (seconds). Each of images below are focus stacked composites of 25 images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec) with a step of 10, and interval of 0 seconds. I used the Helicon Focus program to process the focus bracketed images to create the focus stacked composite. The result is an image with a depth of field much greater than could be obtained with a single image even with narrow aperture. Note the tiny mites on the back of the bee.
Bumble Bee on a Zinnia Bloom. Focus stacked composite of 25 images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec). Images processed with Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Bumble Bee on a Zinnia Bloom. Focus stacked composite of 25 images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec). Images processed with Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)Bumble Bee with Mites on a Zinnia Bloom. Focus stacked composite of 25 images taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (ISO 200, 80 mm, f/2.8, 1/250 sec). Images processed with Helicon Focus. (DAVID J MATHRE)
As noted above, I used a setting of 25 images, step size 10, and interval 0 seconds. I chose 25 images because that is about the number of images that can be taken (raw + jpg fine) in a burst before the buffer fills and the interval between images becomes longer. This allowed me to take the images hand-held (without using a tripod). I am not sure what the interval represents, and if it is different with each lens. The setting of 25 images and step size of 10 gives me a about half an inch of “in focus” range at a close focusing distance. Saving only jpg images would permit more images to be taken (deeper depth of field) and/or a smaller step size (greater resolution). I still have a lot to learn about using the focus stacking capability with this camera. Lots of trial and error. I am glade that digital memory is cheap, although processing lots of images takes time.
Gone to See Europe 2014. Day 36: Semester at Sea, Summer 2014 Semester Voyage. Scotland.
Ten, Twelve, Eighteen, and Twenty One Year Old Glengoyne Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Image taken with a Fuji XT-1 camera and 32 mm f/1.2 lens (ISO 800, 32 mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Photoshop CC.
Scotch Whisky Tasting – Glengoyne Distillery. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and Zeiss 32 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 32 mm, f/1.8, 1/60 sec). (David J Mathre)
