Almost Under Control

Well, the grass didn't get cut yesterday. It was soaking wet first thing after  overnight rain. By midday it was drying out fairly well when it poured with rain again. So it ended up as another day experimenting with stacked macro photography.

In one of his comments Adrian  (Adrian's Images) pointed out that the Canon was accompanied with software to control it from a computer. I hadn't bothered to install it as I have usually been disappointed with programs given with cameras and from previous experience Canon try to take control of everything. Anyway I decided to install it all on the MacBook. Adrain also pointed me to a set of instructions which go with Zerene Stacker detailing how to use the program which gives full control of the camera. It certainly does. Full control over shutter speed, focussing, ISO, etc.. Using the program gives very precise control over small changes in focus which is just what is needed for stacking. Also what the camera sees is show nice and large on the laptop screen. Much better than squinting through a viewfinder or at a small preview screen.

Three results of a couple of hours playing in the kitchen.

The first is of some moss, a bit over exposed which resulted in some haloing. That gave me a chance to use the Retouching facility in ZS which did a reasonable job of manually copying (painting) bits from single shots which were in focus to the final stacked result:


13 stacked photos

The second of a small succulent about 20mm across, was the opposite, under exposed, but that was easily fixed in post processing:


29 stacked photos

Finally a close view of a pine cone:


44 stacked photos

One thing I did find. Three red pixels. They always showed as a tiny red dot. With the change in focus comes a change in the position of the subject so the red dot came in a slightly different place as each photo is processed on the stack. This resulted in short red dotted lines. Fortunately they were easy to eliminate with the Retouching facility in ZS. At first I though they might be dead pixels in the camera but when I checked previous stacked photos they were nowhere to be seen. New dust on the sensor or fault in the computer software?

Heading Towards Spring

Although there have been several days with bitter winds and a few frosty mornings, February hereabouts has been quite mild. Average temperature would be around 6˚C but several days have seen  double figures by mid afternoon.

Recently some of the Crocuses have started flowering:





More of the tiny (2mm) flowers are showing on the Corkscrew Hazel bush and some of the catkins are starting to elongate as they open up:



Other bulbs are beginning to show through in the garden and just up the lane the daffodils in a sheltered spot are about to open their flowers.

In the fruit cage one of the raspberry canes has got well ahead of itself producing leaves and flowers. The rest are only showing new buds so far as are the blackcurrant bushes.



A couple of Muscari flowers are just opening and the daisies in the lawn are beginning to appear:



I will probably have to give the grass a trim today as it has continued growing for much of the Winter.

Bumbling Heather

Following a look at the great stacked shots on Adrian's Images and the way things stand out against a black background I had another stacking session with this set up using the black foam lining in a postal package:

 

 I decided to try some macro shots of the heather from my garden.

 
26 focus stacked shots


31 focus stacked shots

The black background looks better to me and I only used the LED table lamp for lighting. Later I spent some time experimented with the camera settings to get a better balance on the exposure.
 

While I was cutting the pieces of heather I had a surprise when I found a bumble bee on the under side of my secateurs. I put them down on the top of a wheelie bin, grabbed the 50D which always has the macro lens set up and managed a few hand held shots before it flew away. Afterwards I wondered how well Zerene Stacker would cope with those:

 

Much better than I expected, especially as the bee was not completely still. Six stacked hand held shots.

Stacking a Few More

Tried a few different subjects to get more practice with taking multiple focus stacked macro shots.  Added an extra LED lamp to help with exposure and reduce the flatness of the finished result. I knew that retort stand and clamp would be useful one day:



First and last of 16 focus stacked shots of a rose which, incidentally, has continued to produce a few flowers right through the Winter:

 

The finished focus stacked photo:



A small white flower from the rockery (11 stacked shots):



Wire covered in calcium deposits (11 stacked shots):




Rose Hip (10 stacked shots):



Dried Mealworm (15 stacked shots):



Iris Seeds (14 stacked shots):




All stacked using the trial version of Zerene Stacker. Only the wire photo had a touch of post processing as it was too light.

Focus Stacked

Having looked around for a focus stacking app for the MacBook I ended up installing the trial version of Zerene Stacker which gives 30 days full use before deciding whether to buy it.

My first attempt, eight focus stacked images of a flower on my Venus Flytrap:


Canon 50D, 70-200mm lens plus Raynox DCR-250 Super Macro Conversion Lens, LED ring light.

Not a startling image but I'm pleased with it as a first attempt working with jpg images.

I must admit I prefer the look of the program compared to CompineZP on Windows. You can see the final image being built up which gives a chance to see if any of the initial images might be causing problems. It was much easier to use and really flew through the align and stack process.

Busy Bees

On the few occasions recently when the Sun has shone my heather plants have been swarming with bees. I would guess they are coming from a local smallholding where there are lots of bee hives. They were making the most of a sunny period with the temperature reaching 14˚C.









I only saw one bumble bee. Usually it has been the opposite, lots of bumble bees and few honey bees.

They were not alone - seemingly basking in the Sun was this lone hairy caterpillar:





It appears to be the caterpillar of the Ruby Tiger Moth which feeds on heather, amongst other things. The adult can be seen here on the ukmoths site.

Temptation

On and off I have been keeping an eye on the new nestbox, the funny shaped one! I haven't seen any activity near it for ages. As any movement in the nearby greenery triggers the auto record I had it switched off during windy weather. Today I thought I might add a bit of temptation in the form of three dollops of bird friendly peanut butter (no added salt):

 

 I have always thought that there is at least one bird watching to see what I am up to.
Within ten minutes there was someone taking a quick look:

 

Pity that in the shade there was virtually no colour but I'm pretty sure it was a Robin. It didn't investigate the peanut butter but that may attract some others in the coming days.