Techniques for macro shots

barbosas · 05-24-2007, 12:58 PM

Hi!!

what post processing techniques do you use for flower macro shots?

thanks

**Buddha Jones** · 05-30-2007, 12:10 PM

Good question, I was going to post mine in a new thread, check back tomorrow and I will post mine and you can give me your thoughts on it.

barbosas · 05-30-2007, 04:58 PM

i'm asking because i've seen realy nice macro photos here on the forum.

i don't have a true macro lens at the time, i'm trying to grab one, but my budget is very tight

**Buddha Jones** · 05-30-2007, 06:29 PM

I had one for about a day

. All of the macros that I have posted in the past week are from my 18-55 kit lens with magnifying rings on them.

**Buddha Jones** · 05-30-2007, 10:50 PM

Ok, here is my process for my macro photos. Honestly I have never really closely compared the original to the final product with a fine tooth comb so this will be a new experiance for me, here we go.

ISO 200 / 55mm / f8.0 @ 1/60 per sec with fill flash from the AF360
Here is the original.

Here is the first step. I duplicate the layer and do an unsharp mask of 20% with a radius of 80 pixels and a threshold of 0.

Here is te second step. Another duplicate of the original layer and I do an unsharp mask of 300% with a Radius of 0.3 pixels and a threshold of 0. Finally I drop the opacity to 70%.

Here is the last step. Another duplicate of the original layer. This time I desaturate the layer, invert the colors and then set the layer mode to overlay. Then I drop the opacity to 30%.

From here, depending on how I want the image to look, I adjust the opacity of the layers, sometimes I erase a section of a layer if it starts to make things to blurry or whatever.

Here is the final product. I erased step one's layer from directly over the flower to get some detail back.

Well there you have it. Good, bad or indefferent.

barbosas · 05-31-2007, 04:37 AM

That looks nice Budha, i'll give it a try with my A35-105mm (the best i can arrange for now :P)

**Buddha Jones** · 05-31-2007, 06:59 AM

Cool, glad I could try and help. I know that Ben has posted a few PP techniques, he may be able to offer up some more assistance, as well as any of the talented photographers on this site. (A catagory I do not put myself in yet)

barbosas · 06-04-2007, 04:23 PM

Thanks again, i posted some photos using your technique here:

Some flowers and plus... in Lisbon

check them out