by Ryan Shain
I was out this week capturing spring flowers at my local Arboretum, Morton Arboretum to be exact. I was in the Arboretum the night before in a different area, but I had this image on my mind. I naturally had to head back the following night to capture this image. The lighting and weather cooperated beautifully for me, and it was wonderful night to be out . This was my first attempt at photo stacking images, and I think it turned out pretty good. What do y'all think?
My technique was not to move the camera at all, but rather to manually select my focus area. This is a 5 image photo stack, and the process was rather easy with Photoshop CC. If anybody has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I find this process fascinating, and I am going to post another image that combined 19 images.
Thank you for making some time to have a look at this image, and maybe leave any thoughts you may have. 
Canon 70d, Canon 24-105 L, F/11, ISO 100, 1/15 second, tripod, shutter release, and 5 image photo stack with Photoshop CC
Comments
27 commentsWhat a happy scene! Nice composition The sharp focus fron to back is a treat. Well done.
Ryan, this looks great. The flowers really pop and it's a wonderful collection of daffodils set of nicely by what looks like a rhododendron in the back and the tree trunks . In fact, there's a bit of a hyper real feeling...funny thing is that I've had folks make that comment about some of my stacks but I never paid much attention. I've done a lot of stacking, mostly in macro work. My major bit of advice is that unless Photoshop has fixed their stacking algorithms, there are always a few oof pixels included around the edge of each segment. Those oof pixels won't show here (even in a 1600 px image) but if you got to 100% in PS, you see the bits of softness. That drove me to get Helicon focus, but other major NPN stackers like Zerene stacker. The good news is you can test drive both of those.
Ryan: Great Flora image
! I love the scene and the comp. The color ain't bad either and the stack looks good. 2 thumbs up! >=))>
This is super neat! The flowers looks surreal or maybe it was the light. Really cool. Stacking is easy if there is no wind and tripod stays still. I never can get those two right though ;) Great work.
aF
An outstanding image. Really delightful.
What a nice and joyful scene with all those flowers! I was amazed you could find them this perfect in nature, but then I read your description, haha. Very nice job with the stacking, looks good! I have been exploring stacking as well (mostly macro) and it is a real joy to experiment with it.
Nothing much to say except that it is a beautiful image. Thanks for sharing.
Nice job on this Ryan. The colors are very cool. My only wish would be that the purple in the background was carried through to the left side of the image on the other side of the tree trunks but what can you do? Get them to plant another tree maybe ;-)
This is gorgeous, Ryan - hard to tell whether it is a photograph or a painting!!!!
Amazing sharpness and colors throughout. It does look almost beyond belief, like a painting or glossy illustration. I'm curious if you used TK masks to boost those colors selectively. I like the pink/purple colors as background for this feast of color. And the daffodils peeking out from behind the 2 trees are a pleasant surprise. The composition is spot on with the verticals balancing out the horizontal layer. Great job.
Print it, frame it, and sell it. Great work, you must have had zero wind.....
This is a gorgeous photograph!
As a landscape photographer I've never used stacking. it just never occurred to me to. I would have thought it would be most beneficial in macro photography where depth of field is always a limiting issue. Maybe I need to get with the times - I haven't been paying much attention lately. How did stacking affect the appearance of your photo?
My wife lived near enough to walk to Morton Arboretum as a child. She remembers it it fondly.
Hi Ryan, A very joyful and colourful woodland glade scene. It does seem to me to be a lot of extra processing for the sake of it. I would have thought that this could be achieved in a single shot. The results are very good though.
That is a serious frame of color!! Nice.
Thank for the thoughts so far on this image y'all
Igor,
I did not do too much to the saturation, I use the TK'S masks most of the time and I do select certain ares of the photo with the lights,darks, and midtones masks. I did selectively select the light on the tree trunks to add a bit more warmth to that part of the time. I have included a screen shot below of the raw file. I optimized the scene for how i felt when I saw this image. I was overwhelmed with beauty and happiness.
Ian, Buck, and others,
I choose to stack these image because I could not achieve the depth of field I wanted in this scenario with my setup. The camera was about eye level, slightly higher with the flowers, and I tried different setups, moving the tripod and camera up a bit at f16,18 and 20 to capture this image in one shot. So I gave photo stacking a shot after a quick tutorial in the field with th I phone.
What's interesting about your LR image you just posted is that if I click on it I get a large version of the original image.
Very well made. A beautiful scene when we still have snow everywhere. The focus is excellent from front to back everything is clean and the colors are gogeous. I like it a lot.
Gorgeous!
Hi Ryan, I have been off for awhile but glad I got back and saw this image. Really a beautiful scene so full of color and pleasure! Perfect as it is for me. Really nice work! Cheers, Nick
I'm a little late to the party, Ryan, but wanted you to know that this is really an awesome image. Love the stack and I can't find a thing that I would change. Beautiful work man!!!!!!!!!
Ryan, sorry I missed this one earlier. This is truly stunning and agree with all the positive input it respectfully deserves. Good going with the stacking, experimentation is the name of the game......
Pure delight ! Great stacking, fascinating patterned effect and wonderful composition and textures. Thoroughly deserved EP
Hey Ryan,
Simply beautiful with outstanding color,
Congratulations on the WP . . .
Hi Ryan
What an awesome presentation! The colors are mesmerizing ...... congrats on a well desesved WP
Albert Darmo
Canada
Congrats on the Well deserved WP, Ryan. Awesome image.
Thank you to everyone who has viewed this image, and left a comment, and thanks again for all the kind and positive support from NPN.The congrats are very much appreciated y'all.
This image makes a fantastic print as a side note!!! :)
Congratulation on the WP, Ryan - this is a stunning work of art!