Stacking - Take Two

Today in the Mac Lab at school I took a simpler approach to stacking my photos, and what do you know, it worked this time.  Of course!

First Image

the focus is placed on the furthest point in the photograph

Final Image

now, the focus is uniform throughout

D80, 1:2, 1/2, f/29

Argus

This is a macro shot of the aperture dial on my Papa's old Argus camera.  He gave it to me before he passed away and I will hold onto it forever.

Nikon D80, 1:1, 1/2, f/29

Stacking - First Attempt

The other day in class, we were taught how to apply a technique called 'focus stacking' to our macro photography.  Basically, we take a series of photos, only moving the focus a little bit each time, of every plane on the subject.  Then, using Photoshop, we align and stack the photos on top of each other to combine all of the focused areas to create one, almost fully-focused photograph.

This is my first attempt at it, and though it looks pretty cool, it was not what I was looking for as an end result.

Nikon D80, 1:2, 1/2, f/29

Kodachrome

About six months ago I bought an old Argus camera at a thrift store in downtown Asheboro.  When I got home, I made sure to wind it as much as I could before trying to open it in case there was film - and when I opened it, there was! It was a canister of some old 35mm color film called Kodachrome.  Unfortunately, my professor Kevin told me that there wasn't any chemical left to develop Kodachrome, but I could develop it in black and white if I wanted to.  I haven't decided yet, but maybe I will soon!

Nikon D80, 1:2, 105mm, 1/4,  f/13

Fruit for Thought

I ate a grapefruit for lunch today, and after devouring it, I decided to photograph it! I loved that the pink and yellow of the fruit contrasted with the cyan bowl.  I used window light and my sister, Keely, held a large piece of white paper around it to add more light.  I cleaned it up a little in Photoshop and evened out the lighting some.  This is the first thing I've randomly shot in a while, and I think it looks pretty yummy!

Nikon D80, 18-135 mm, 1/20, f/7.1

Spirit Turtle

Right now I'm learning about the different ratios and what they look like in an image in macro photography.  This week, Irene assigned 1:1-1:10, meaning I had to shoot an object from 1:1 all the way to 1:10.  It was interesting to see the subtle changes as the ratio increased.  I used a small clay turtle whistle from Mexico as my subject!

Nikon D80, 1:3, 105mm, 1/10, f/11

What is it?

One of my assignments for macro this week was to create an abstract photograph of a subject of my choosing.  Can you guess what this is?

Nikon D80, 1:1, 105 mm, 1/10, f/11