I am a commercial photographer and I work with some pretty awesome boutique craft cannabis cultivators, here’s a stacked focus image of Alt-Sol Cannabis Bruce Banner:
I took about 20 single images shot @ f11 with two studio strobes, my Laowa 100mm 2x Macro lens on a tripod using a focus rail. This technique allows for the entire image to be in focus, in a standard macro the field of view (what’s in focus) is super narrow, with most of the image blurry bokeh with stacking the images by combining them back together via software you can get clarity. Then you can have fun cropping in for those hyperreal details.
I am starting a home grow very soon and I can’t wait to post some of my own cola, cutting, nug shots.
I have a buddy that does image stacking with a focus rail. He takes close to 100 shots and then the computer takes hours to compile them. The finished photos are so crisp and clear it’s incredible. Best of luck with your new garden and I can’t wait to see your pics.
Photos look great! What software are you using to stack? I had a trial of Helicon Focus which worked great but it expired and I have been too cheap to purchase a license
TLDR: Any tips you can give for a noob with little to no budget to get good nug shots with an old SLR?
Absolutely beautiful images! I just got an old model SLR from a friend for $125. Its a canon rebel T5 and it came with two lenses. I am guessing neither is a good macro lens but not sure. My friend said i should buy an older canon mount macro lens but they start at like 200 for a good used one. One of my lenses is marked with “EFS 18-55mm MACRO 0.25m/0.8ft” and the other is labeled “EFS 55-250mm macro 1.1m/3.6ft”.
I don’t expect to get results like you but any tips for me to get better up-close nug shuts with this old setup? Is there are budget way for me to try out this image stacking technique without buying equipment? Friend just told me she thinks she has an extra tripod i can have, so thats one step closer.
Thanks @SensiBowl I will give that a read. also been watching some youtube vids. I am getting to know the camera and already seeing much better results than yesterday. I just tried my first focus stacking photo. Foreground is Hella Jelly, middle is white creme, and back is alien OG. I didn’t do any post processing except for the stack.
I’m always in awe of stacked macros; seeing what cannot be seen without so much technology on both the hardware and particularly software front, plus all the skill you bring to the mix.
Looking forward to pics of your personal grow(s) once you get it up and running!
I have the same camera with a bunch of lenses (no macro) mostly for distance, telephoto . Great camera that can do so much more than I thought. My wife’s a photographer. I’ve still never used it for taking pics of my plants . But for everything else and I love it. I also paid 600$ a few years ago with no lenses brand new so I’d say that’s a good deal regardless. Nice score
I used photoshop to stack mine because I am just beginning and I already have it. A few stacks I got blurry spots but I also took very few images and didn’t even use a tripod. So considering that, fantastic results. This one was using 6 photos I hastily snapped of a lower on Monochrome Rain by @NugLifeFarms420 it has a few blurry spots but still looks so much better than I was getting with phone. Especially since this is in the tent under super bright LED.
