Gloria Grandolini

February 2024 - Gorgonia polyps

About the Image(s)

This image is a close up of the details of the polyps of the Gorgonia sea fan. I want to use this close up, together with last month’s photo and the full size sea fan for a tryptic. The calyces in which the polyps are embedded are in the 2 rows along the branches of the sea fan.
In this case they are still alive as I was lucky to pick up the fan on the beach right after a storm.

I tried to use the full 1.4x magnification of the canon RF macro lens, so I did not have to crop much. Not sure if I used all the magnification.
I cannot figure out how to see the info ex post. Still focusing was very hard. I guess I could crop more of the image to use the shaper section only.
I regret not having used the focus stacking for this photo, but the sea fan is now dead.
I need to practice the focus stacking so that I am more comfortable using it.

Shot with Canon R5 on a tripod.
0.5 sec at f/9.0
ISO 100
Canon Lens 100mm (RF 100m f 2.8 L Macro IS USM)

I used the Lightroom Denoise feature. Increased the contrast a bit and adjusted whites and blacks.

This round’s discussion is now closed!
4 comments posted

Stuart Ord

I've no idea what it is in life, but it made an interesting macro! The colours and textures are fascinating.

I know I often bang on about focus stacking,and it is a great technique. But not always necessary! At 1.4x it probably is usually necessary, but getting the plane of the subject parallel to the sensor (or vice versa!) is often 9/10 of the battle. I'm not sure about here as I'm not familiar with the subject.

(We should all remember perhaps to take a non-macro of unfamiliar subject to help the others to understand. This site accepts up to 4 images in each entry,the final result and up to 3 "original" images, which we can use for this. Let's give it a go!)

Posted: 02/09/2024 20:17:48

Gloria Grandolini

Hi Stuart, thanks, this is detail of last month's sea fan.

Posted: 02/09/2024 21:21:36

Pat Glenn

I can't believe how much of a tiny are of your whole specimen that is now in this photo. the magnified view has so many polyps that it is hard to find enough focus - I see center to center left the most focus - with maybe 4 together in focus. so many more not in focus so it is hard to get a prominent focus spot. with so many items I do feel like I need something to stand out more. focus stacking I assume will help. colors are nice and being so close in also give it that impressionistic feel of not knowing what it is but imaging many things. it will be interesting to see how your final triptych works. Posted: 02/20/2024 01:04:10

Gloria Grandolini

Thanks Pat. Maybe I need to crop further and leave just the polyps more in focus. I find it really hard to achieve sharp images all around when I try larger magnifications. And I definitely need to practice focus stacking.. Posted: 02/21/2024 02:17:40

PID Digital Dialogue

Group 95