The Strawberry – A focus stacked macro image created with a focus rail and some Photoshop fun. Similar to the previous installment of The Smaller Side of Fruit, the focal point was adjusted across a number of images, which were then composited together. Rather than adjusting the focal point of the lens which changes the magnification, I adjusted the focal plane by moving the camera itself. This allowed me to blend the images by hand in Photoshop CC quite easily as the magnification remained constant across all of the images.
I stared at this photo for a long time, trying to find a nice balance between the layers. I stared at it so long in fact, that I completely missed the giant bruise in the center of the Strawberry. I guess that is a consequence of pixel peeping. Bruise or no bruise, I like this photo a lot. Just for fun, I ran all of the images through CombineZP and it spit out a pretty decent composite. I however, really did enjoy doing the layer masking by hand.
The Strawberry is a composite of 12 images shot at 1/20, f/8, ISO 100 and flash at ½ power. The image as a whole is pretty awesome in my eyes. But, taking a closer look at different zoomed in parts is really neat!
