"Portrait of a Lupine Flower" photo

I'm on a roll, continuing to go through photos from my recent holidays in France and England. This one is from the little cottage we stayed in, in the town of Arundel (West Sussex), in the back yard. 

It's the detail of a Lupine flower, with selective focus showing only the inside of the petals, with some little 'hair'

"Portrait of a Lupine Flower" (c) Gilles Royer 2015

As usual, this is also posted in my +500px gallery, at the following link: https://500px.com/photo/113351803/portrait-of-a-lupine-flower-by-gilles-royer

Please let me know what you think of it, as well as any suggestions for improvement. 

My entry for One Minute On Earth 2014

If you haven't heard of it (and I hadn't before this year!) please go and check the www.kujaja.com website. It is a group of photographers who are running photo competitions, but also books for dedicated charities. One of their key book is the "One Minute On Earth" (OMOE) where photographers from all over the world all take a shot at the same time - this year it was at 9pm UTC on Saturday 21st June.

I decided to enter, because the photographers running it are so passionate, and it is such a great cause. For the Eastern coast of Australia, it meant it was Sunday 22nd June at 7am that I'd have to click, which is a great time to capture the first lights before the sun rises.

After a bit of to and fro, I decided to go for a shot in an iconic location, being the view of the Melbourne CBD, from the St Kilda Pier.

I put my alarm clock early enough, to have time to wake up, drive there, and set up before 7am (the photo must be taken between 7am and 7.01am). But... alarm went off, I snoozed, and I went back to sleep, only to look again at the clock to see 6.20am!!! I can tell you I've never been ready so fast, and the drive, luckily, was quick at that time of the morning (lucky - no cops either, I might have sped a tiny bit!!!), and I parked at 6.50am, with only 10 mins to walk the length of the pier, set up the tripod, and do a few tests shot. 

But apart from that, I must say it was weather perfect conditions for such a shot - although very cold (not to self - bring gloves next time!) - the air was very crisp, which made for a very sharp shot. Also, no rain, no wind, and at 7 am, the first lights are about to arrive (official first lights were at 7.10am, with sunrise at 7.35am).

Anyway, here's my entry for this year's OMOE 2014 photo book:
http://www.kujaja.com/en/photo/29362

Also, please have a look at all the entries posted on that website (http://www.kujaja.com/en/photobooks/photos/one-minute-on-earth-2014), the level of quality is really great, and the initiative is really fantastic - imaging a virtual community of photographers, all clicking at the same time around the world, unified for a common cause. Great work Gido and Francisco for organising it!

I also stayed a bit later than 7am, waiting for the sunrise, and posted one on my 500px gallery:
http://500px.com/photo/75013109

I made it to the Trending Profiles @500px

I've quite excited I've made it to the new "Trending Profiles" page in 500px, under "Macro" category. Direct link here -> http://500px.com/profiles?categories=Macro

Just thought I'd let you know :-)

New post - ArtScience Museum in B&W

Just posted a new photo in my 500px gallery, titled "ArtScience Museum in B&W". You can see it here http://500px.com/photo/72633735

This is obviously a photo from the iconic ArtScience museum in Singapore, in the Marina Bay Sands area. This is an amazing architecture, shaped as a lotus, and is an engineering prowess too.

Focus Stacking - a worked example / tutorial

Over the last couple of years, I've developed a great interest in macro photography, partly because of the birth of my daughter (limiting the opportunities to travel the wold as much), and partly because of the incredible diversity of our environment, where even small bugs and flowers can reveal beauty,

Whilst posting flower macros on my portfolio on 500px.com, a very nice follower suggested I tried focus stacking technique. I hadn't heard much of it, but a quick Google search revealed that this allows, a bit like HDR processing for exposure, to combine multiple images with different focus areas into one image with a deeper depth of field.

By its very nature, macro lenses (and shots) have a very shallow depth of field, the closer you get to the subject. This of course allows for beautiful separation of subject against its background, as well as nice bokeh effects, etc. but this means that 1) the subject has to be parallel to the plane of the sensor and 2) only part of the subject (if very close) can be in focus. 

Whilst this creates a nice creative effect, that I don't mind in a shot such as this one: http://500px.com/photo/60868800/dew-on-agapanthus-by-gilles-royer, it was worth having a try at this new technique. 

I'm very happy with the results I got, and here are some very basic steps to achieve it:
1. Get your tripod out! 
Whilst I usually try to keep my shots handheld for most images, for focus stacking, you need at least 4 images (and I've gone up to 12 photos) to merge together, so tripod is a must, so you get consistent framing and exposure (note that the framing slightly changes across your shots as you modify the focus, but the stacking process takes care of this)

2. Set your camera to manual focus
This is imperative, as you are going to change, on the same photo, the area of focus, so the best is to do this manually (some more advanced options involve macro rails and live view, but I don't have either!!)

3. Set your scene 
In this example, I've got an area of my garage set as a temporary studio - one sheet of black cloth as background, a double garden light (thank you Bunnings!) with 500W bulbs, and something to hold a flower (that's where your creativity is also tested)

4. Frame your shot
Set your tripod to the right distance, your lens to the desired distance (if not a fixed lens), and check your exposure (I prefer to use an aperture-priority mode, with an aperture at 5.6 or whereabout)

5. Take shots and vary the focus as you go
There are no rules, but I prefer to start with the very first area of the subject (here, the front petal of the flower) in focus, then manually move the focus area (I do this with the view finder, but if you have a camera with live view, that's probably easier), shoot, move the focus, shoot again, and repeat until the further away area is in focus

Here are the 10 images I shot for this example - you can see the change in focus area as you scroll down

6. Get to your computer
Now that you have all your photos (and downloaded), you need a software to merge (stack) them - once again, a quick Google search pointed me to a few options, and I tried ZereneStacker. 

7. Let the magic happen
Once in ZereneStacker, simply drop all your files into the drop area, and select Stack > Align & Stack All option. There are 2 options available, PMax and DMap - I haven't yet worked out the exact differences, so I run both and then select the best outcome. In this example, this was the PMax version I kept

And here is the result (also posted on 500px: http://500px.com/photo/70665337/chrysanthemum-in-focus-by-gilles-royer)

Hope you found this tutorial useful. Happy to have your comments, and suggestions re other software / how to improve this technique

The Story Behind... Coeur de Rose #2

I posted another macro image of the heart of a rose, titled "Coeur de Rose #2", on my 500px portfolio (http://500px.com/photo/63838513) - the first one posted a few days ago is also available here (http://500px.com/photo/63352323)

Coeur de Rose #2 (c) Gilles Royer 2014 - Nikon D200 / Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro / f/5.6 @ 1/160

This continues my series of macro shots taken in the garden. This one is from a bush of old-style white roses - as the roses were already planted when we arrived in the house, I'm not sure what exact species these ones are. I guess they are a type of Hybrid Rugosa, but can't be certain - please send me a note if you know.

As usual, I shot this one handheld, and under natural light, in the late afternoon sun.

I really enjoy shooting those macro pictures, where the subject is a detail of a flower (or another object, for that matter) - here, the stigmas (centre) and stamens are the stars, providing a sharp contrast of orange / yellow colours against the softer white background of the petals.

I tried a few different angles, and ended up with this one, looking from the side into the flower, (with the couple of petals in the foreground completely blurred out by a f/5.6 aperture. This also lets the sunlight hit directly the centre, and illuminate it.

I did a bit of editing in Aperture (which is the Apple software I use for both cataloguing my photos and doing most of the post-processing, where required) - I first cropped the shot a bit, to remove some of the green background (still a bit can be seen on the right-hand side), and then adjusted a few parameters; mainly increasing the definition and saturation, to enhance once again the centre of the shot, and magnify the details.

Thanks for reading!

The Story Behind... Bouton d'Or

The Story Behind... Bouton d'Or

I've just posted a new photo on my 500px portfolio, titled "Bouton d'Or" (http://500px.com/photo/62475749)

Bouton d'Or - (C) Gilles Royer 2014 - Nikon D200 / Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1

As for most of my images, this one was again captured in natural light. Those little yellow flowers (of which I don't know the name, actually) grow in a pot, in a bush. The flowers are quite small (only  2-3cm in diameter) but the colour is very nice and strong, and I find them very elegant.

I shot this one in the afternoon, but because they are in the shade of some much bigger trees, the light was more diffused, not too harsh. The 'dew' drops were conveniently placed with the use of a spray bottle! I found that having water drops really enhances the structure and texture, so if I'm not early enough to catch some dew, I use that little trick :-)

As for composition, I cropped the original shot, only by a small amount, to remove some of the green background (and let the yellow petals stand out more), and decided to place the flower just slightly off-centre (fully breaking the rule of thirds, but rules are there to be worked around in the name of art, aren't they?). I added a bit of contrast and saturation in Aperture, to see more of the details, and opened the shadows so that the bokeh in the background shows a bit more.

Happy Sunday!

Another sale!

Just thought I would share the great news, of my newly posted photo, Coeur de Bleuet, sold today. I know it's only a download link, so I'll have to wait a bit more to be a millionaire, but still excited!!

The photo is available for viewing (and purchase :-)) in my 500px portfolio: http://500px.com/photo/61893995

Cheers!