Late season Clematis

[Hali]

I wasn't sure where to put this but since it's more of a close up than a full plant/nature shot I put it here. Late season clematis flower. I think because it was so late in the season there weren't many insects around to chomp on the petals so it's much prettier than those from early in the year. Sadly I just cut down the plant so I won't see anymore until next year. Focus stacked 8 images in Helicon focus, tried it in photoshop but there were more artificats there.

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[MikeZ]

Beautiful shot. I've yet to try stacking shots, but now I'm motivated from the look of this image. Is Helicon the only/best tool to process the photos?

 

[Hali]

Beautiful shot. I've yet to try stacking shots, but now I'm motivated from the look of this image. Is Helicon the only/best tool to process the photos?

Thank you Mike. There are a few programs out there. You can use Photoshop, Helicon focus and Zerene stacker. I have used Photoshop and Helicon focus and prefer Helicon focus. I think it does a better job. I used to do a lot more of it and have bought a lifetime license, so I'm a more inclined to use that than photoshop. If you want to try it, you can get 30-day trials of both Helicon and Zerene iirc.

 

[Kwazy]

Zerene does the best job at stacking as long as your images are well-aligned. It is particularly good at reducing the blur in areas where focal planes overlap (meaning, where you have something in front of something else). Photoshop is the best at aligning images before stacking them, but isn't great at the overlap thing. I found Helicon a little buggy when it comes to retouching.

 

[MikeZ]

Thanks guys. As usual there is no clear winner, so I need to research a bit and download the free trials. Appreciate the info.

 

[micheric]

Beautiful shot Hali.

 

[Hali]

Beautiful shot Hali.

Thanks so much, Mike! They are one of my favorite flowers.

 

[Bear]

I wasn't sure where to put this but since it's more of a close up than a full plant/nature shot I put it here. Late season clematis flower. I think because it was so late in the season there weren't many insects around to chomp on the petals so it's much prettier than those from early in the year. Sadly I just cut down the plant so I won't see anymore until next year. Focus stacked 8 images in Helicon focus, tried it in photoshop but there were more artificats there.View attachment 11911

Putting it here works for me. Great shot and like Mike, I think it’s time to try photo stacking. Time to use my gear to its fullest!

 

[dougsmit]

Outdoors is pretty ugly around here this week so I am left with flowers from houseplants. This stack shows a 'bloom' from a houseplant Aglaonema, I believe, stacked using the free DPP4 stacking utility which works well enough for my amateur needs. This series is rather close to 1:1 using the RP. If the plant continues to open, I may try it with the R7 now that it is taking a break from outdoor, macro duty due to the weather.