drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

All three Photos are a series of 39 shots bracketed +2, 0, -2, each exposure series of 13 shots was focus stacked in Helicon Focus and then the three focus stacked shots were processed in Photomatix Pro, Photomatix Lightroom 32bit HDR Plugin, and Lightroom Enfuse plugin, and then back to LR for some final adjustments, my objective was to have a final photo as close to natural as possible.

Photomatix pro


LR 32bit HDR Plugin


LR/Enfuse Plugin

MJL Loc: Wild Rose, Wisconsin

Wow! I think you accomplished your goal. :thumbup: :thumbup:

conkerwood

Fantastic to see someone else is combining HDR and focus stacking, I was beginning to think I was the only one daft enough to be taking so many shots for one pic, though Biker Chic has just started experimenting too. I have also settled on Helicon Focus for stacking as I found that the PS CS6 focus stacking tool just wasn't up to the job compared to Helicon. As for the pic you have achieved it has worked out really well and is an interesting comparison between the results for three different pieces of software. Your aim was a natural look and you certainly achieved that and produced a lovely pic. Nicely controlled DOF and top quality HDR processing, what more could you want? The only problem I can see, and its exactly the same problem we all face with focus stacking, is the blur around the top petals caused by blooming. The simple fact is that where there is distance between the foreground and background (in this case between the top petals and the leaves behind) you are always going to end up with a blur, there is, as far as I can tell, no direct way around it. I have tried indirect methods (cloning, background replacement etc) which work but are time consuming but if you come up with anything I would love to hear about it. In this case, however, I think your best option could be to blur the area of leaves that are in focus at the top so that all of the background is blurred and then the blur from blooming would no longer be obvious. I look forward to seeing a lot more of your work.

Peter

Stevieboy Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

Superb artistic effect....You would love Harold Davis's work. You may wish to check out his book on "photogaphing flowers."

Steve

drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

Thank you MJL.

drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

No you are not the only one daft enough, in fact you are the one that got me started on this, and I agree with the blooming, and fixed the problem late last night by bluring the background, thank you for your comment.

drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

Thank you Steve, and I will check out Mr. Davis, I think I have seen some of his work.

Fotoholic Loc: Austin, TX

These are REALLY pretty!

drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

Thank you Cheryl

jfantasma

This I have yet to learn. Is there anywhere that has information on this? My wife has a huge flower garden and I like to frame her flowers for her at least once a year. I think she would love a photo like this.

I know you just said how you did it but is there a video?

By By the way these are superb if you didn't get that from all my babble lol. Amazing detail and definitely looks natural

drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

Thank you for your comment, There is a lot of information out there, how to photograph flowers, how to photograph macro, how to HDR and how to focus stack, I like to use information that I have read on this forum and others, view the work of other photographers, watch videos on you tube, The Digital Photography school has a lot of how to blogs, then all you have to do is combine everything into one package. I have not seen any videos on the use of HDR and focus stacking combined, could be others have.

tinusbum Loc: east texas

never heard of doing that,great results! tom

drhanson Loc: Coos Bay, Oregon

Thanks Tom for your comment.