About the Image(s)

"One of my photographic enjoyments is photographing flowers and has been for many years. In my view flowers are stunning subjects and there is more to making a great flower image than just finding a bloom and snapping away. For instance the right light, no wind, the right composition and also post processing are to be considered. When I am viewing a flower I look at the bloom in its entirety and not at a section. I would suggest almost every time a person comments on a bloom "Oh what a beautiful flower", (and how many times each of us have said those words), their focus is on the total bloom not part of it. Hence when I photograph same I take the image as I see it. That is my aim and I have found that the best way to do so is my focus stacking.

I am also conscious that a cluttered background can be a major problem that can be very distracting and can make or break the image.. Does my background complement the flower? Or does it distract? To avoid this I prefer to fill the best part of the frame with the subject so as any background complements my subject and not distract the viewer. So that is why I use a shallow DOF.

I would like to make this fact quite clear that this is my method of photographing flowers - not everyone will like this way and I accept that. My aim is to show the beauty of the subject in all its minute detail which I must add still amazes me after all these years.

I am very fortunate to now use an Olympus OM1 with a 60ml pro macro lens which enables me to use the focus stacking format. Combine multiple images for a depth of field greater than can be obtained with a single shot. The camera takes a series of shots at focus distances both in front of and behind the current focus position and creates a single image from the areas that are in focus in each shot. My camera is set at 15 shots with a differential of 4 between each image. Sometimes I would need less however for practical purposes I leave my camera at 15 which after taking the initial image comes forward for a further two then another 12 behind the first image. I use Aperture priority set at F4 (sometimes F5.6) in raw format which gives me a satisfying result. This camera is so good that sometimes I can hold the camera with no problems. I should add that the Olympus in focus stacking format also includes a JPEG image. The initial point of focus is a point closest to myself and the camera does the rest.The RAW images are then taken into Helicon ( a focus stacking software) where the in-focus sections are merged into one image. I then use ACR to finetune the blended image. .

The attached image is of a Campanula flower following a shower of rain. I slightly darken the background of similar flowers, which in my view, do not distract.. I have only included this image as an example of what can be achieved using Focus stacking.