More montis and more...

[Reef Bass]

I thought I posted this thread but somehow it didn't go. If it is a duplicate I apologize.

My Dinosaur Egg Monti. This thing is see it across the room bright. By reducing my exposure to avoid blowing out the bright areas, I was able to get a moody look. It was very upset with me for moving it to take its picture so its polyps are extra puckered up tight.

My Sunset Monti:

My Reverse Sunset Monti:

My Purple Stylophora. It was sold as "Light Pink with Purple Tips Stylophora". It has colored up amazingly and is super purple.

And finally a recent acan aquisition. I'm fairly stoked about it:

 

[Maxxumless]

Beauty pix there! What camera/lens/lighting you using there?

 

[Recty]

Looks really great man, you've nailed this type of photography down to an art.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

This is ridiculous. Not only counting this post, but accounting for all of the others, you can truly call yourself one of ReefCentral's greatest!

 

[Reef Bass]

Grant and TS, thank you very much. I am very flattered. You guys (and others here) helped to guide me to where I am today and I appreciate that. I do feel as though I am beginning to put all the pieces together metaphorically though I still have much to learn about post processing.

I am amused that I am still such a macro psycho, but it really revs my motor, floats my boat, etc. I just picked up a bomb trachyphyllia that I have yet to shoot... And I'm today I take custody of a Tubbs Alien Eye chalice. I'd do a happy dance but I haven't had enough coffee yet. Maybe later.

Maxxumless, thank you too. I use a Canon 50D with Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens. My lighting is just my tank lighting, though I have the brightest lights in my club (400w MH w/ 20kK bulbs and T5 actinics). I shoot in RAW mode and adjust color temp in post using PS CS4.

 

[Recty]

Now you need to try out exposure stacking or focus stacking, whichever it is called, and try to get a whole monti in sharp focus.

 

[Reef Bass]

Yeah yeah! You are SO right. That was the reason I upgraded from PS Elements to CS4 (that and the discount I was offered...). I had focus stacking in mind the second I picked up my new trachy.

I am concerned that the carpet on which my tripod sits will allow too much physical motion between frame captures when I adjust my focus. I'll probaby have to weigh the tripod down seriously to help reduce that potential for unwanted motion.

If I had a budget I'd commission Tremont to build me one of his fine precision controlled stages so I could slice up the subject simply by precision movement of the stage forward or backward instead of twisting the lens focus ring.

 

[klepto]

that reverse sunset is lovely. I love how bubbly the polyps look.

 

[Recty]

Hmmm, I've never tried focus stacking, so take this with a grain of salt.

I've got a crappy tripod and I can focus without the tripod moving at all. This is with using my 50D and the 100mm macro like you're using.

Like you said, hanging some weight from it might help a lot, but really, unless you have some sort of weird, plush, jello like carpeting, I cant imagine light touches to the focus ring moving your camera around.

If it does, I'm pretty sure you can do image alignment on it and make it all work out. If you had to, you could probably bring it all into Photoshop in a bunch of layers, do the work yourself of aligning the shots, then save them back out as files and do the focus stacking.

OOOOOORRRRRRRR... if you have a spare piece of plywood around, or a Home Depot close by, go get a 3x3 sheet and stick down underneath your tripod legs, that would probably really help.

 

[Reef Bass]

Most of the time I'm shooting my tank I'm using remote live view, so my 1920x1200 laptop screen is showing what's coming through my lens. When I go to even lightly adjust focus, it looks like the great SF Quake of '06 on my display. My enlarged view of the scene may be contributing to my perception of the degree of the issue.

You must be getting good with PS these days to suggest what aligning the pics in post. Actually, it's a good idea. However, your plywood suggestion appeals to the lazy side of me and I do just happen to have a large piece left over from the construction of my new lps tank stand. So thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to have to give it a go.

 

[Tremont]

Have you tried using a manual focus rail or even a manual linear stage for doing the stack? I think pretty much everything I do with my motor drive solution could be done manually with a nice stage/rail.

A focusing rail you could just buy outright. However, linear stages are extremely nice and precise and without a stepper motor they can be purchased used for much cheaper than a focus rail (check ebay or swing by "Action Systems" in Redwood City to browse used stages). The only work you would have to do would be drilling/tapping the stage to get it mounted onto your tripod - and if you ever wanted to go with the stepper motor driven solution, most stages have stepper motor mounts.

-Tre

 

[Recty]

Yeah, the plywood thing sounds pretty easy to me as well.

If you really want to do cheap and easy stacking, I think what I would try is make sure the plywood is really smooth on the part touching the carpet, then take a shot and ever so slightly move the plywood forward, which should scoot the whole package, tripod and camera and all, forward by just a little bit. Take another shot, and rinse/repeat until you're done. Since you're using your laptop in Live View, you could very easily determine if you're keeping in line or not.

Yes, you'd probably still have to do some aligning, but at least you arent bumping the lens around trying to change your focus.

Kind of a ghetto manual focus rail system built out of carpet, plywood and a little elbow grease.

 

[rams]

Reef Bass you truely are obsessed with macro shots and I LIKE IT!!! Dinosaur Egg Monti is a sweet looking coral and the acan pic is amazing.

 

[swjim]

Those are all beautiful. Excellent work!

 

[zef004]

Nice monti pic

 

[Aadler]

darn, now i need to find me an egg frag

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks all.

The dinosaur egg continues to brighten. It's awesome. I should put in a spot where I can take a good picture of it without having to move it so I can get one with its beautiful polyps extended.

I had an issue last night where some shelled critter (snail, hermit) knocked over a red milli frag against it, so now there's a 3/8" patch of severely unhappy tissue on it. Grrrrrr. It will heal.