While traveling the Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain NP, I ran upon a nice aspen grove that was in great fall color. I pulled off the road and wandered back into the landscape to find a good vantage point. While wandering the hillside, I ran upon a wonderful patch of Blue Harebell (Campanula rotundiflora) wildflowers. One of the things that caught my attention was the raindrops still hanging onto the wonderful blue bells; a short while earlier, a mountain rain shower moved through the area. I decided to photograph one of the bells, using the focus-stacking technique. Focus-stacking is accomplished by photographing multiple images of the subject (the subject must not be moving and the camera must be on a tripod), using a very shallow depth of field (DOF), and varying the focusing point on the subject. After photographing, the images are combined into one image using a suitable software (Photoshop will work, but I prefer Helicon Focus). Here is the result of capturing/combining 9 images:
I’ll share some images of the colorful aspens in another post.
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
- Bogen 3221 tripod with Graff Studioball SB-QR ballhead
- ISO 250
- Aperture f/3.5
- Shutter 1/1000 sec.
- Combined 9 images in Helicon Focus