The How:
My wife and I were unpacking our Christmas ornaments, when I ran across this Harley ornament which I had not used since getting ride of my real-life bike. I decided to shoot a macro of the ornament; something different than flowers and bugs. Also, this gave me a chance to work with my lite tent, and practice controlling light and reducing blown out highlights on this shiny object. Used my Sony a6500, 90mm 2.8 macro lens, set a f22, ISO 200, 1/4 sec in Aperture priority mode with a -1EV. Tried using flash; only have two and couldn't get the results I wanted. Switched LED lights: a strong shop light in the back to increase separation from the black foam core the item was sitting. A weaker, warmer light from the top to light up the seat, etc and a hand held light off to the left. Front lighting only came from reflections on the front panel. In retrospect, I would probably add more light to the front of the bike to reduce the shadows. Post editing done in ON1: I purposely underexposed to make sure I wasn't blowing highlights. I reduced the black slider to bring back some of the black background. Brushed in some white slider to the white tires which I felt had become too warm, did some dodge/burn on t he ornament to brighten up some flat areas. I realized too late that the ornament had shifted on it's stand, it not straight but if I use the straighten tool, it crops off the back tire.
This round’s discussion is now closed! 7 comments posted
Carol Sheppard
(Group 95)
You know, Christmas Ornaments work well for Macro!! Nice even lighting, although I am trying to understand the bright area within the triangle by the back wheel? Your focus is nice and sharp, and the ornament fits well within your choice of composition. I also really like the way your background blurs behind the bike but not in front or underneath it. Honestly I didn't notice anything about the bike being shifted on its stand; it looks quite natural to me. I would try f18 next time; I wonder if it would eliminate any residual softness. I have been told that at its most narrow aperture, you get defraction on all lenses. Posted: 12/11/2019 13:14:46
Bob Crocker
(Group 57)
Thanks Carol, that bright area you see is the reflection off the bike 'stand' coming from the light above the tent . It gave me the look I wanted on the seat and handle bars but the unintended consequence was that reflection. Toned it down as much as I could with highlight slider but it was too much. Should have moved that light around, I guess. Lesson learned. I agree, diffraction they say can start as early as f16, lens dependent. It's hard for me to tell the difference between f18 and f22. That would make a good test for a PSA group, or maybe they have done that already. I understand that there are some editing programs that claim they can fix most diffraction as long as they have detailed lens data from the manufacturer. Mmmmmm Posted: 12/13/2019 14:29:30
Denise McKay
(Group 77)
I think you've done a great job with this ornament Bob! It's so hard to light shiny objects, and this is very well done.
The composition and focus is very nice. Posted: 12/14/2019 10:13:22
Doug Wolters
(Groups 10 & 80)
Bob --
In reply to your question - Yes, I've done a billion focus stacks. The 24 is only those which I have named. No animated rail, just manual turns.
Lately I've done some focus stacking by just turning the lens. The rail does not always work -- you can run out of rail. Turning the lens is almost as good. The result is maybe a little less "vivid" than the rail.
You have a very good shot of the Christmas ornament.
Thanks Doug, I've done a little focus stacking and want to do more. I like the results, even though sometimes they turn out 'odd'. But I guess the 'slices' to take, the better the results. Posted: 12/16/2019 10:10:13
I like this image a lot. I have no idea how to accomplish this (yet), but I seem to remember someone in another PSA group I'm a member of doing some kind of copy and paste function that, for instance, would use the background color to overlay the white reflection. Posted: 12/16/2019 11:27:06
Bob Crocker
(Group 57)
Although this was in a white 'tent' and I had considered adding a background in post, what I actually did was raise the camera angle to eliminate the white background. The ornament sat on a black foam core which turned more gray due to the lighting. The background dropped off to soft, even at f22, due to my lens being fairly close to the subject. If I were to stick with the white, back part of the tent, in post I would increase the white slider to make sure it was really white (no shades of gray), move photo in layers, add a new layer containing the background I want to change to which is placed under the original photo, then go back and highlight/ select the original photo to make sure its the active layer, then select the Multiply Blend mode. The white areas will 'disappear' and be replaced with whatever is in the layer underneath (say that new background you want to add). Don't know if I explained this well but there are YouTube videos out there that go into it deeper. Posted: 12/27/2019 09:17:36
