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Archive 2015 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product

  
 
Peter Figen
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


I'm slowly working my way through different lenses with this camera and have been thinking about how to dramatize this rather utilitarian piece of gear that so many of us have, and since almost no one here shoots very much product type images, and even fewer go the wide angle route, here you go.

Three Chimera softboxes with Balcar heads dialed way way down. Twenty-nine slices in Helicon Focus. The nearest point on the product is very close to the close focus limit.







Sep 05, 2015 at 02:45 AM
dhphoto
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


I used to shoot still-life advertising for a living, don't do much any more.

That's a nice shot, you certainly wouldn't have been able to get that DOF with film.



Sep 05, 2015 at 04:44 AM
wtlloyd
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Hmm, 29 slices of 50 megapixel pie...bet that took a while to crunch!


Sep 05, 2015 at 06:56 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Looks great here, not often we see product shots and the craftsmanship is stunning.


But just the act of downsizing fixes dof for a 50mp image crunched to web size. I bet it is really impressive at full size.

I recently did a test of the 11-24 versus the 17TSE in a landscape. The 17TSE is still the king if you can achieve focus.

I don't have a clue how you found 29 distinct focus settings within the range of DOF for this shot. You must have the eyes of an eagle. Or did you automate it?

I also would like to hear how you put it together. As we know, each image is slightly different in size as the focus changes so does magnification.



Edited on Sep 05, 2015 at 09:38 AM · View previous versions



Sep 05, 2015 at 09:19 AM
Gunzorro
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Stunning, Peter!


Sep 05, 2015 at 09:28 AM
jcolwell
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Very nice!


Sep 05, 2015 at 09:32 AM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Helicon Focus does have a function that will automatically focus the slices for you if you have an autofocus lens, but since this is a manual focus lens, it's just move it a tick and shoot. The further back you get in your slices, the larger the move in focus can be as the depth of field is larger, but you always have to insure that you have focus overlap. Having done a lot of these now, I just get a feel for how far to turn the focus ring each time, and probably under do it. I think it took between 10 and 15 minutes to put together in Helicon. Helicon does resize each frame to accommodate for the focus breathing and does a much better job than Align Layers in Ps, which is often off just a bit. I find the point of closest focus with Live View and shoot that first, then go past the rear most point. The new "C" mode in the latest Helicon is much better than previous versions at doing complex depth images like this than the older versions. There are only a couple of areas of "glow" where you have to manually go into the image and retouch out an area that was out of focus and "glowing", so to speak next to an area of sharp focus - an effect that naturally happens as you change focus.

The biggest effort is the retouching of all the little crap that is revealed at high resolution in pieces that were never intended to be put to the microscope. And even though this was shot on black plexiglass, the only part that I kept from the original were the reflections themselves. The rest, both above the horizon and below is all done in Ps. That's also the only way to keep a perfectly level horizon, and one that is placed exactly where I want it to be. I will probably go back now and very slightly blur the horizon to give a hint of the feel of depth of field, as it's still too crisp for my tastes.



Sep 05, 2015 at 10:12 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Peter Figen wrote:
Helicon Focus does have a function that will automatically focus the slices for you if you have an autofocus lens, but since this is a manual focus lens, it's just move it a tick and shoot. The further back you get in your slices, the larger the move in focus can be as the depth of field is larger, but you always have to insure that you have focus overlap. Having done a lot of these now, I just get a feel for how far to turn the focus ring each time, and probably under do it. I think
...Show more

Thanks for the explanation Peter. You are at a whole different level of photography here.




Sep 05, 2015 at 10:25 AM
nolaguy
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Peter, your skills, knowledge and generosity never cease to astonish. As Ben eloquently notes, you're at a whole different level. Which makes you weird and a demigod. I'm a big fan of both.



Thanks buddy,

Chuck




Sep 05, 2015 at 10:38 AM
dhphoto
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


nolaguy wrote:
Peter, your skills, knowledge and generosity never cease to astonish. As Ben eloquently notes, you're at a whole different level. Which makes you weird and a demigod. I'm a big fan of both.



Thanks buddy,

Chuck



Maybe, but you should have tried doing that on 10x8 transparency film with no retouching at all and perspex/plexiglass attracts dust like mad



Sep 05, 2015 at 10:40 AM
nolaguy
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


dhphoto wrote:
Maybe, but you should have tried doing that on 10x8 transparency film with no retouching at all and perspex/plexiglass attracts dust like mad


I wouldn't be surprised if Peter has.

Regardless, I did say demi.



Sep 05, 2015 at 11:01 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


That might just be — no, it is — the sexiest photograph of a thoroughly unsexy piece of equipment that I can recall seeing... ;-)


Sep 05, 2015 at 12:13 PM
USM IS
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


It achieved it's goal, the photo makes it so good looking I want one even though I don't need it.........maybe.

Mike



Sep 05, 2015 at 12:19 PM
Jeffrey
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Nice imaging and NICE CART! Where can I get one of those?


Sep 05, 2015 at 01:33 PM
Claude
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Wow! Great job!
Claude



Sep 05, 2015 at 02:00 PM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Dan - That was exactly my goal. I bought it off of Amazon when I needed a second cart for shooting a job at Honeywell Aerospace. I liked the idea of the wide tires for going over rougher surfaces, and it is a great cart for that. Rock N Roller makes a wide range of carts in different sizes. I first saw musicians using them and after buying one for my musician gf, I got one for me too.

I used to shoot a lot or this kind of stuff on film - though it was all 4x5 not 8x10, and back in the day, we would spend hours making sure everything was as clean as possible and leave the set up until we saw processed film and re-shoot if there was something that had been missed. It was probably not possible twenty-five years ago to make this image, that is true. But today, you could shoot it on film, scan it all and cobble it together the same way. That would work, but no one would have the budget to process or scan that much film, let alone the time. The total time for this was about five hours.

That being said, about four years ago, I did a shot of a turbocharger for Honeywell that I like so much in digital that I went out and bought a box of 4x5 T-Max100 and shot twenty sheets - two sheets each of ten focus slices. I drum scanned those at 2667 for approx. 800mb files and put them together for a fully focussed image. Neither Ps nor Helicon would actually work on files that big. I mean, both programs got through the process, but the results were horrible and in order to actually do the project, which was a month long labor of love for me - I used Align Layers in Ps get the layers the same size and manually masked and painted in all the relevant focussed areas. That was the most time consuming and tedious digital job I've ever done, but it made a really beautiful image and made me appreciate what Helicon does when it works correctly.



Sep 05, 2015 at 02:08 PM
JameelH
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Rather than move the focus ring, have you tried focus stacking using a macro rail. Is there a difference in how the alignment changes between the two approaches?

Another alternative to plexiglass is to use a mirror and have black foam board. The reflection of the foam board gives the same effect as a black reflecting surface.

Btw, awesome result.



Sep 05, 2015 at 06:42 PM
Peter Figen
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Regarding using a Macro Focusing Rail. Yes, I have one - an RRS, and it's great for macro stuff where micro adjustments are necessary, but when you use one for focus stacking, it's almost always better to move the focusing ring, as then the front of the lens doesn't move and change the perspective, which is more apparent the wider you go. I have done them both ways and this is just faster and better with fewer artifacts to fix later.

I think I see what you're trying to suggest with the mirror and black fomecore. Reflecting the fomecore into the mirror? I guess that's a different approach. What do you do about the secondary reflection from the back surface of the mirror, and where you find a mirror that big. What I like about the plex is that it's in effect a neutral density front surface mirror. Maybe if you can show a diagram so I really get how you use it.



Sep 05, 2015 at 07:17 PM
JameelH
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Peter Figen wrote:
Regarding using a Macro Focusing Rail. Yes, I have one - an RRS, and it's great for macro stuff where micro adjustments are necessary, but when you use one for focus stacking, it's almost always better to move the focusing ring, as then the front of the lens doesn't move and change the perspective, which is more apparent the wider you go. I have done them both ways and this is just faster and better with fewer artifacts to fix later.

I think I see what you're trying to suggest with the mirror and black fomecore. Reflecting the fomecore
...Show more

See the following as an example

http://www.learntotakephotos.com/photography_tips/mirror_reflection_photography.php



Sep 05, 2015 at 07:21 PM
Fast6
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Canon 5DS R and 17mm T/S-E for product


Peter Figen wrote:
That being said, about four years ago, I did a shot of a turbocharger for Honeywell that I like so much in digital that I went out and bought a box of 4x5 T-Max100 and shot twenty sheets - two sheets each of ten focus slices. I drum scanned those at 2667 for approx. 800mb files and put them together for a fully focussed image. Neither Ps nor Helicon would actually work on files that big. I mean, both programs got through the process, but the results were horrible and in order to actually do the project, which was
...Show more

You should show us this photo



Sep 05, 2015 at 08:09 PM
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