Early Bird
by Nicolaus Wegner
Casper Arch/Wind River Basin
First flowers of the season it seems. We don't get much up here until mid to late June wild flower wise.
Tech funbar, because sharing is caring (Don't believe me? Ask a care bear):
Gave Mark M's f5.6 thing a try tonight...with grass...which was actually pretty stupid of me. But hell, it's fun to try new methods. ;]
This lil guy is as close to the lens as I could get him, less than 6 inches or so I think? Can't quite remember what the closest focus point is on the 16-35 m2, but this is about it I think. Wide angles are fun!
10 image dof blend at f5.6. No automated software or auto stacking (would have been more fu than fun me thinks). All done with a wacom tablet and pen. Not bragging, just stating how ridiculous this was for me attempt with so many merging layers of grass. You can't see it in this photograph, but there are a few areas where the lens distortion was just too much in between stops and I was unable to get everything perfectly aligned. Maybe if I fixed lens distortion first this would be easier? Anyone try that before?
Anyways, hope a few think this is purty. If not, please tell me why, as I could use some advice, never seem to get contrast right.
Comments
11 commentsInteresting POV wildflowers seem to be late all over. I do seem to see a bit of softness in the upper part of the image, don't know if this is what your talking about. It's a little cramped down there in the lower right corner, and I think the softness in the other part of the image contributes to that, but hey this is an experiment right. I think a little more DOF and a sharper background would provide enough detail to relieve the cramping.
Paul
Paul, maybe it's the web version, but the full file is pretty sharp, front to back (10 DOF shots covering the entire focal range of the lens!). Minus my blending mishaps, which are too small to see here. Are you referring to the clouds or the grass? I agree with you on the front right corner. I did not compensate enough when composing the shot for that area. Some of the foreground had to be cropped out as it was impossible to get focus on. In fact, the very bottom of the image probably needs cropped out even more as it is a bit oof. Next time I will do better.
Sounds like a lot of work! Isn't that why they have tilt/shift lenses?
Hahah, Harley, I totally agree with you, but I currently don't have $2400.00 to invest in a 17mm TS-E. Gotta stick with my current gear for the foreseeable future. I do have a 24mm TSE but I wanted the larger pov that only a wide angle can give. ;]
Mohammad, I was testing out Mark M's remark on f5.6 being the sharpest aperture for the 16-35L2. Seems like he is right, but next time I won't be shooting crazy amounts of grass at different layers at such a low aperture. Besides images like this really aren't what people want on their walls. Pretty much every print I have sold was mountain related. These are more for me than anything else. Not many people have photographed the wide dramatic views Wyoming's great basins offer 4 unique seasons a year. Figure I might as well since I live right in the middle of them.
Avishek, it was not too complex to work out, but it took longer than I normally invest in a single image. I need to find a quicker manual method for doing this. I may try working out lens distortion before blending next time and see if that helps any.
Thanks for the comments.
It is the grass, and it could be compression issues. I think your onto something here. Don't sell the public short, they can be pretty sophisticated. or not.
Paul
I know your technical work should pay off well for a large print and nice job with that. I like this quite a lot.
Lon