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.
Birds at the bird feeder. Blue Jay, Brown Cowbird, House Finch, and Northern Cardinal. The blue jay has to take the sunflower seeds away to pound them against something hard. In addition to the adult cowbird, it appears that there are several juveniles. The cowbirds are brood parasites, laying their eggs in other birds species nests. I wonder if it was with the house finches? Another bird spending a lot of time here is the bright red cardinal.
Male Northern Cardinal. Image taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 600 mm f/4 VR telephoto lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
