Picked on my morning walk.
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Gorgeous colors in a very small bloom.
With the bloom just 3/4″ across I used the 80mm El Nikkor reversed on the Nikon BR2A ring for best resolution, all on the Nikon PB-4 bellows, making for a twice life-sized image on the sensor.
Leica SL2-S, 80mm El Nikkor f/5.6N reversed at f/16, PB-4 bellows, 3 strobes, 10 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
Picked on my morning walk.
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Aptly named – a real showoff.
Taken using the 200mm Micro-Nikkor IF AiS at f/22. Leica SL2-S, 3 strobes with one set for strong side lighting, ISO100, 19 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
Using Helicon Focus’s Retouching feature.
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Because of the depth/tilt of the subject I used the tilt and shift functions of the Nikon PB-4 bellows to get the top and central bud/flower groups sharp:
With subjects like this with considerable depth and complexity Helicon can struggle and may render ghosted images in certain areas. The app has an excellent retouching tool which permits selection of the sharpest constituent image for that area and allows you to brush over the area with ghosting, replacing it with the correct/sharp area from the single constituent image. I had to use that tool on a couple of the leaves here which Helicon originally ghosted. It takes less time to do than to describe and is a unique feature of Helicon specifically aimed at stacked images, and not something that is available in regular processing apps like Lightroom. If you look at the leaves just above the central petal group in the enlarged version you can see a couple of ghosted areas I omitted to remove.
Here’s the setup – the camera is turned together with the bellows through 90 degrees on the tripod, whereupon the bellow’s swing front panel becomes a tilting one and the shift becomes rise/fall. Then tilt and rise are applied. The 135mm Leitz Elmar used here has a decently broad image circle, allowing this approach without robbing edge definition so long as the tilt is not too extreme. The shift function also helps by restoring the image toward the center of the image circle. Very cool and you can focus stack with far fewer images than would otherwise be called for. The 80mm El Nikkor with its larger image circle would have been a better choice for tilt and rise use, but the greater working distance of the 135mm Elmar makes lighting easier.
Leica SL2-S, 135mm Elmar at f/16 on the Nikon PB-4 bellows, 3 strobes. 30 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
From the garden.
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In the larger version you can clearly see two tiny bugs. As they move between exposures I edited out all but one occurrence before focus stacking. The 135mm Leitz Elmar optical unit does an outstanding job here – not bad for a 66 year old lens. Absent the bug removal the image is straight out of Helicon Focus.
Leica SL2-S, 135mm Elmar head in 16580L M39 adapter at f/11, Nikon PB-4 bellows with M39-to-Nikon F adapter. 75 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus. Three strobe lights, ISO 100.
Here’s the lighting setup:
The umbrella top light casts illumination into the innards of the flower, the main umbrella light is at the left and the naked strobe at the right confers the ‘Dutch master’ sidelight effect. These are 40 year old Novatron strobes, still as good as new. They can be found for pennies on the used market. I allow four seconds between images which ensures constant color balance and exposure. Do it any faster and you run into issues, even though the strobes recharge in one second.
Yum, yum.
I drop it in rolling boiling water (with bay leaves, peppercorns and vinegar) to sear the skin, then simmer at 185F for 20 minutes/lb., let it cool in its water then grill it for 10 minutes on a medium-high grill. Meanwhile I boil off the water to form a treacle which is brushed onto the grilled octopus. The key is not to boil it in 212F water which makes the flesh rubbery. A wonderful local Asian food market always has these in stock.
Leica SL2-S, 100mm Macro-Elmar-R at f/16, Bellows-R, 3 strobes. 12 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.