Oly bracketing, Troels "technicque", Tripod &

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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Yawns
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Location: Benavente, Portugal

Oly bracketing, Troels "technicque", Tripod &

Post by Yawns »

I'm starting to have a smile on my face... :)

Differential (2) ; # of photos set to 100.. interrupted when nothing was on focus .. later stacked only 59
speed set to 1/50 to minimize flickering ; f/5 : Iso 200
"magnification" around 0,5 (1:2)
Stack "quick preview" with Helicon Focus ...(it's faster)
Final picture stacked with Zerene (Pmap + Dmap merged)

Live animals immobilized with Co2

Image2019-03-03- 59 Ph ZS retouched by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

basically the same as above.. except 92 stacked

Image2019-03-05-00.56.00 ZS retouched by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

setup
ImageIMG_20190305_003613 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

don't look at the mess...
ImageIMG_20190305_003602 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

HANDHELD
Even with my elbows firmly on the tabletop I don't manage to stay perfectly still and the variation between photos produces many errors and detail loss...

Requires me a lot of retouching.. where retouching is possible

Image50 Photos - 2019-03-03 - C. UNED by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

ImageScreenshot 2019-03-04 at 00.22.21 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

small videos on youtube showing the variations in a sequence of 50 photos

... handheld, elbows on tabletop, trying to stay as still as possible ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCTlNN1pOy0

Outdoors... handheld, elbows on the ground

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHK4jIfpPo8

António

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

Excellent results, Antonio. :)
Chris R

dolmadis
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Post by dolmadis »

Yes, Excellent. Which lens please?

John

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Nice pictures Antonio!

I have also had difficulties with handheld focus bracketing.

Both the Olympus camera stabilization and the Zerene stacking software alignment are very effective, but it is obvious that using them together creates some troubles. And they are both working hard trying to eliminate my not so steady hands.

Perhaps the combined rotation, shifting and tilting of the image stabilization creates some minor distortions in the perspective that confuse Zerene. There is indeed a lot of annoying repetition of very small details.

But the worst problem in my opinion is the sudden lack of sharp pictures in a stack and the repetition of some sharp ones. Looking closer at the numbers from my investgiations makes this very understandable.

If I want to make a 2 cm deep bracketing sequence at f:4 starting at mag. 1:2 I need around 50 exposures at Differential Step=2. Each of theese focus steps are just 0.36 mm deep growing to 0.46 mm at the end.

That means that if I just move my hands with the camera 1/3 -1/2 mm back and forth I will seriously disturb the resulting depth map. There will be missing pictures of sharp details and some disturbing repeating of sharp details out of register.

A younger person with a steady hand might do better. But I think I have to stick to using a tripod or other ways of stabilizing my camera.

Of course the problems will diminish with greater working distance and/or bigger f-numbers.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Troels, this problem would also be reduced by greater redundancy, so might this be an argument for using step size of 1 instead of 2 when trying to stack handheld?

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Lou,
My guess is you are right if the only problem is camera movement in the z-axix, that is uneven lens to object distance during the bracketing (remember the 60 mm macro does not change its physical length during focusing.).

But when I scroll through my source Pictures in Zerene after alignment I also notice some small, strange distortions between Pictures.

[Edited some not so wise arguments]

I try to imagine the situation where the sensor uses its image stabilization mechanics to match each point on the subject to the corresponding point on the sensor.

If I do some unvoluntary panning and tilting, the sensor is not only shifted to catch the same picture crop but it is also tilted in an attempt to compensate for the altered angle of incoming light.

I imagine it is inevitable that this will result in a slight shift in the perspective. It is probably invisible in a single picture. But a slight difference in perspective between frames will make it impossible for Zerene to make perfect alignments between frames.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

That's interesting. I haven't noticed that yet but maybe I haven't been looking closely enough.

nanometer
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Post by nanometer »

Nice lighting setup!

Yawns
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Post by Yawns »

dolmadis wrote:Yes, Excellent. Which lens please?

John
It's the Olympus M.Zuyko Digital ED 60mm f2,8 macro

JH
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Post by JH »

I like the pictures, interesting light and method.
Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

dolmadis
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Post by dolmadis »

Hi Antonio

That hexagonal lighting frame looks very interesting and obviously very effective.

Could I just ask to the dimensions (roughly)?

Thanks


John

Yawns
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Location: Benavente, Portugal

Post by Yawns »

dolmadis wrote:Hi Antonio

That hexagonal lighting frame looks very interesting and obviously very effective.

Could I just ask to the dimensions (roughly)?

Thanks


John
it's an hexagon .. every wood piece (side) has 20cm
I regret I did not do an octagon (8 sides)

pontop
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Post by pontop »

"Live animals immobilized with Co2 "

That sounds interesting. Would you mind going through how you do that?

/Bo

Yawns
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Post by Yawns »

pontop wrote:"Live animals immobilized with Co2 "

That sounds interesting. Would you mind going through how you do that?

/Bo
check MikeSturtevant post here:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=34817

and this one
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... highlight=

prpbably there are other posts in the forum....

more techie .. with C02 containers..

https://www.instructables.com/id/Feed-a ... -with-CO2/

but Cider (fruit) Vinegar and Bocarboante are cheap and work just fine.

MarkSturtevant
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

Just passing through as I go from one thread to another.
The handheld stacking problem may have a solution in the form of fixing the subject to the camera, as it were, in such a way that any movement of the camera during the stack is exactly matched by movement of the subject.
Andre De Kesel does this, as shown here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/andredeke ... 817963808/ but I was thinking of a rig where the subject is physically held to the camera body by a sliding but otherwise rigid armature.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

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