It seems like the dead of winter here in San Francisco, but the magnolias are starting to open and bloom in Golden Gate Park. My wife, the ex docent at the Arboretum in the park, tells this story: Prior to the Pan Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco in 1915 (the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina district was built for this) the only magnolias that grew in North America were in the South. Someone brought a blooming magnolia from Japan to the exhibition. When it was over they decided to stick it in the ground where the Arboretum was planned to be. Twenty years later it bloomed and San Francisco went gaga. People lined up for a mile to see it. Now, there are magnolias all over San Francisco.
These photos were taken today with my new Canon 100 L macro lens. My for-macro use review: It's a great lens, but so was the old non L lens. Unless you need the extra two or so stops Image Stabilization will give you, and the weather sealing, stick with the old, cheaper non L lens. I can't comment on how much better it performs as a non-macro regular 100 mm lens, since I haven't used it that way yet.
If you like macro flower photography, check out my flower gallery, all taken with the old Canon 100mm macro lens:
Very nice images, Tony. I prefer the second, as well. I like the cool blue and against the warm white. Great detail!
Years ago I owned a Canon FD 100 f4 macro. It could achieve 1:2 by itself, and would achieve 1:1 with the supplied extension tube. It was extremely sharp, even wide open. Unfortunately, the lens was stolen. I wish I still had it!
This image is a composite of four images, each with a different area of depth of field in focus. Using Photoshop I stack all four photos and take the areas of best focus from each photo. Sometimes an out of focus area leaves a halo which I can get rid of, but actually like. I accentuated the halo by darkening the blue around the edges. Some of it is posterization also. Is it too distracting/fake? Honest opinions please. Thanks.
Posted by Rudy Ruberti on January 19, 2010 at 8:39 PM
These are both really nice. Did you blend these manually? I've had poor results trying to blend macro shots.
Yes, I did blend them manually. My technique is to stack them in layers in Photoshop. Then I start from the bottom. I make only the bottom two visible. I change the blend mode on the one on the top of the stack to difference, then I use the move tool to align them as closely as possible. Changing the mode to difference allows you do easily do the alignment. Since I shoot freehand, sometimes the sizes of the flower are off a bit too much; in that case I use Edit/Transform/Scale to scale the top one to match the size of the bottom one. Change the blending mode back to normal, then just use a mask to select the best areas from each photo. I repeat the process, working my way up the layers. If you shoot with a tripod, you probably can use auto align and skip the manual alignment. I tried using Helicon focus, but even using a tripod, there is too much flower movement from the wind, to yield good results. The above process is tedious, but after you've done it a few times, goes pretty quickly.
Discussion
7 repliesThese photos were taken today with my new Canon 100 L macro lens. My for-macro use review: It's a great lens, but so was the old non L lens. Unless you need the extra two or so stops Image Stabilization will give you, and the weather sealing, stick with the old, cheaper non L lens. I can't comment on how much better it performs as a non-macro regular 100 mm lens, since I haven't used it that way yet.
If you like macro flower photography, check out my flower gallery, all taken with the old Canon 100mm macro lens:
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7487708_Ksx4K#483169444_gAdHp
You have some great pix there.
Years ago I owned a Canon FD 100 f4 macro. It could achieve 1:2 by itself, and would achieve 1:1 with the supplied extension tube. It was extremely sharp, even wide open. Unfortunately, the lens was stolen.
--P