After the rain

[Discus-n00b]

Went out after it rained yesterday and got a few shots. All handheld with 100mm macro lens and hand holding a 430ex II flash. Let me tell you how tough that was LOL. 5d Mk II with battery grip and metal L bracket and a 100mm attached in one hand and the flash with diffuser in the other.....tough to get steady or hold for any amount of time. Oh and no camera strap either, dangerous. Only dropped the flash once, glad it wasn't the camera. I think I got some fairly good ones given the conditions though, lemme know what you think.

I could of taken a lot of the backgrounds to full black but I honestly didn't care for it. To unnatural. By leaving some of the background visible only slightly I feel like it gives a more natural appearance to it without being distracting. A full black background to me, would look to staged like I brought the flower into a box and sprayed it with a bottle.

[Rapture]

awesomeeeee

[melita]

I like that picture .

[Second Hand Pat]

Really nice Matt. You have me wanting to go out with a spray bottle and speed light to play with prickly pear cactus flowers. No rain here.
Pat

[Akili]

I like the one of the lily.Great shots!!!

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks all!

Pat just wait another month or so, then you can almost always count on it every afternoon lol

[Second Hand Pat]

Thanks all!

Pat just wait another month or so, then you can almost always count on it every afternoon lol

True enough Matt but do not think the cactus will be blooming.
Pat

[rickztahone]

Great pics Matt. TFS

[Discus-n00b]

Rained yesterday, was a little late catching the sun hitting them but here are a few. Not much PP going on hence why the flare is in the second one.



Posted this in the random thread but here as well. Stacked image, missed a few focal points.

[Darcon]

Really good pictures! Especially first package.

[brewmaster15]

Rained yesterday, was a little late catching the sun hitting them but here are a few.

Posted this in the random thread but here as well. Stacked image, missed a few focal points.

I like this one best Matt. The others are great too but this one has an interesting perspective and i really like the colors mingled with the water drops... its the most creative to my eye.

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks Al, wish I would of hit a few more focal points. Missing a few caused some blurry patches on the flower when I combined all of the images. Really really like the framing myself with the water drops and color.....just missed the mark on focus! lol Might of been one of my favorite images I've taken in quite some time otherwise.

[Discus-n00b]

I went back to try stacking again. I think this is an 81 image stack, though I could of done more looking at it. I think it turned out quite well, I'm pleased with my second efforts.
Orchid by Matt, on Flickr

[SMB2]

Matt just saw this thread. Great shots,all. I like the last Phal. shot.
What are you using for your stacking program? Do you use a focusing rail or just incremental manual focus changes?

[Discus-n00b]

Thanks! Incremental manual changes unfortunately, would love to get a rail. I was using Photoshop, and still am to an extent to correct some things but it's stacking and blending tools really are not that smart at all. I'm trying out the program Helicon Focus 6 and aligning/stacking there then moving it to photoshop to correct any issues that I can with it. So far results are good, much better than Photoshop delivers.

The last shot was done with Helicon Focus 6. Shot above it was purely done in Photoshop.