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 #2383 14 Apr 2020 at 10.56am | |   |
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In reply to Post #2381
That could be a little game-changer 
Just had a play and at 1/32 I can get 7 shots at either burst rate
Better still is 1/16 - 5 shots quite a light difference too!
At 1/8 I can only get 3.
Thanks for that tip - that wouldn't have occurred to me at all 
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#2382 14 Apr 2020 at 10.47am | | |
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In reply to Post #2381
Always manual with macro
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#2381 14 Apr 2020 at 10.41am | | |
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In reply to Post #2380
Sorry, yes I was thinking manual, I don't think ttl would work for a burst
If the flash is charged for a full power burst, you should get a few shots on lower power before it has to recharge
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#2380 14 Apr 2020 at 10.27am | | |
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In reply to Post #2379
1/32 what sorry?
Flash power?
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#2379 14 Apr 2020 at 10.19am | | |
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In reply to Post #2378
I haven't used it for macro but for some fast karate sequences I was using 4 flashes in two groups firing alternately, it halved recycle times but is still wasn't quick enough, a little hack that worked for short bursts was to set the flash on full, let it charge then drop to say 1/32, you won't get 32 shots out of it but you should get at least half a dozen shots at low sequential speed.
Give it plenty of time to cool between bursts!
Continuous lights have a problem of their own in the pulse frequency, if you want consistent exposures you have to drop the shutter speed too low. Low energy lights indoors I'll be at around 1/20th. I have some video lights that are OK to around 1/80th but I will get a slight variation
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#2378 14 Apr 2020 at 9.47am | | |
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In reply to Post #2377
Salted!
I think flash is just not the thing for me. The time it takes to recharge is too long between shots to expect most subjects to remain motionless. At 10 frames per second without flash I've a much better chance of some stackable images.
Adding flash might allow a touch more DOF but nowhere near enough to warrant the expense of the frame rate.
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#2377 14 Apr 2020 at 9.42am | | |
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In reply to Post #2376
I've found the humble pringles tube to be as good as anything, even comes with its own diffuser and the snacks to keep you going 
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#2376 14 Apr 2020 at 9.36am | | |
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In reply to Post #2375
No - me neither. The nearest I came to an idea was those soft silver foil/white reflectors on a wire frame that you can bend about.
If you could somehow mount that and bounce a top-mounted flash off it. Not much weight but still just too bulky.
What about a high CRI torch mounted?
That at least gets around the problem of the flash not keeping up with the burst rate!
I'm never going to get the sort of quality that you see with an MPE65, Cross polarisation and a dead or frozen subject though, so It's more about getting the most out of natural light and accepting the limitations of that.
I'm happy with what I'm getting at the moment anyway.
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#2375 14 Apr 2020 at 9.23am | | |
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In reply to Post #2373
I’ve not come across a way of avoiding the specular reflections from a ring light. The benefit of them is the even spread of the light because of the proximity of the source to the lens. For a more diffuse source the light has to be larger and would be blocked by the camera, lens and photographer. A longer focal length helps with lighting as you get more space. Maybe one of those little soft boxes you can get rigged up on a bracket close to the lens might work as a more natural looking reflection. I can’t think of a way that isn’t going to add bulk though.
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#2374 14 Apr 2020 at 8.05am | | |
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In reply to Post #2372
Try it on trial first and see how it does YEMV as they say. full version free for 30 days.
The only editing I've been doing before stacking is the RAW conversion to TIFF which just maximises the exposure and a small bit of NR and capture sharpening.
Some of the more "random" framings have needed aligning and cropping in PS before stacking in Helicon, the alignment algorithm in PS seems to catch what Helicon sometimes can't.
Having said that I really should dust spot the layers first to avoid dust trails in the merge!
Spent all day yesterday exploring it.
The retouching is brilliant too, you get a circular brush which appears on both the selected layer view on the left and the stacked merge on the right in the same position, so you literally just find and select the layer with the sharp bit you want and paint it into the merge on the right.
Easier done than said!
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#2373 14 Apr 2020 at 8.04am | | |
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In reply to Post #2370
I do love the slo-mo stuff but if I got into that I'd be bulk-buying hard-drives! I have enough Gb of back-up as it is just from RAWS
Liquid drops are the thing I'd go straight for if I did, they always look really cool.
Re: Ring flash, all the shots I've seen of wildlife seem to have this awful highlight circle in the eye which looks very unnatural to me, that's one of the reasons I've not invested.
The other being more bulk to carry around as mentioned.
Just out of curiosity is it possible to get the benefit of a ring flash without that hard ring of reflected light? Can you effectively diffuse a ring flash I guess is the question?
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#2372 14 Apr 2020 at 8.00am | | |
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In reply to Post #2371
I'm glad you said that before I tried it
Got some work this week but got a couple of ideas for some shots later in the week. One will need cross polarising but I can't find the filter or my stepping rings 
When you do the focus stacks are you doing any editing before stacking?
I'm looking forward to trying it out but the comments on focus breathing may explain why it's been hit and miss in the past, I know my 60mm is quite bad for that, the in camera function only works with certain lenses so I suppose it uses a correction profile
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#2371 14 Apr 2020 at 7.35am | | |
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Worth bearing in mind is how much disc space Helicon Focus uses.
I did a big back-up to clear what I thought was plenty of space - about 42GB free.
While manipulating a stack of about 20 I got a disc warning - 2Gb left 
I did have PS open at the same time with layers as well but it turned out Helicon was using something like 25Gb +
Possibly when you have multiple renders to compare, it makes lots of copies of the TIFF layers too.
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#2370 13 Apr 2020 at 5.08pm | | |
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In reply to Post #2369
I had to dust off the cobwebs a while ago on the macro stuff. Wife wanted some iris shots of the family for some reason, probably a biometric scam or a picture for the loo maybe. Anyway, I used to do a lot of macro stuff in college and as a medical photographer. I really missed having a 200mm or a 120mm medical but got some reasonable pics with a Sigma 105mm on the D500 with a Metz ring flash. I had a Z 6 and a Nikon 60mm Micro on hand as well but the specular highlights were contained in the pupil and easy to edit out when using the D500 and the 105.
On lockdown I’ve been doing some poor-mans Slo-mo Guys stuff with the RX100 iv, some moon shots with a Nikon P1000 and turning one of the bedrooms into a camera obscura, it has kept the kids occupied anyway. Pinhole camera next.
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#2369 13 Apr 2020 at 4.14pm | | |
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In reply to Post #2368
Same here - you may remember donkeys years ago I think it was the Daily Mirror used to do a "what is it" competition. An oblique, usually close up photo of some everyday object that you had to guess.
Always fascinated me.
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