Trivia that matter
More fun with Helicon Focus. The image above was assembled from 50 frames, the one below from 55, all at f5.6. The final depth of field in both cases is about an inch and a half. Click to see at full resolution.
Update: Uploaded a better version of the Humvee.
This year the local comic convention was within reasonable bicycle distance, so I visited it today and grabbed a few snapshots of the cosplay. Here are a couple. I’ll be posting them at my Flickr page as I edit them.
Update: Another W.W. variation.
Saturday was the fall orchid show at the botanical garden. Although it was Halloween, Dracula vampira 1 was missing. However, there were plenty of others to photograph, some spectacular, some bizarre.
The show gave me an opportunity to test Helicon Focus, another focus-stacking application. The picture above was compiled from four slices using the default settings, the one below from five.
I also ran a stack of images that Photoshop had trouble with through Helicon. It did much better, though the result could be just a tad sharper. The lack of resolution might be due to the particular settings, and once I figure everything out I might be able to get better results. (The same set processed by Zerene Stacker can be seen here.)
It was well after noon by my watch (though still morning according to the sun) when I spotted these today. Four o’clocks are also staying open into the afternoon hours. They still don’t open at 4:00, though.
I’ve been experimenting with the trial version of Zerene Stacker. The picture above of Dr. Huey, the most common rose in cultivation, ((Dr. Huey is frequently used as a rootstock for garden roses. Often suckers from the vigorous rootstock overwhelm the grafted variety and take over, producing a tremendous display of red in late spring. Dr. Huey rarely reblooms, though. This is the only year I’ve seen it in flower during later months.)) was assembled from 63 slices, each at f/5.6. Z Stacker works pretty well, but the final image tends to be grainy, and there are often some thread-like artifacts. I cleaned most of them up, but you can find a couple near the right edge of the picture in the full-sized version. (Click to embiggen.)
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, September 10, 2015
Back inside the cathedral with tripod and panorama head. This time I used the old zoom at its widest setting rather than the fisheye lens, so this panorama is more detailed than most of my others. It’s best viewed in full-screen mode.
I recently discovered that Photoshop is capable of focus-stacking, though you have to dig through the menus to find the commands. I thought I’d see how well it works before investing in something like Zerene Stacker or Helicon Focus.
The picture above was assembled from 24 frames at f/5.6, with the camera mounted on a focusing rail. I could have added some more frames to get further depth, but this was enough to show that the process works.
So Photoshop works pretty well when the subject is uncomplicated. How well does it fare with something more intricate, such as Bidens bipinnata?
(Click to see the barbs on the needles.) Not so well. Photoshop has problems with depth perception, it seems. If I’m going to do stacked focus regularly, I probably will have to use a dedicated program.
Another one of my pictures is a Botany Photo of the Day.
I
Cenchrus longispinus, “sandbur,” which is replacing crabgrass in Wichita lawns. Those minutely-barbed spines penetrate skin with alarming ease and resist extraction. They have a particular affinity for socks.
II
Whoa to the white liberal … who doesn’t pay homage.
I assume this was a spellchecker accident. If not, then whoa to French and his editor at National Review. (Update: It’s fixed now.)
… when naked ladies pop up everywhere.
Another one of my pictures is the Botany Photo of the Day.
At one point in As You Like It, Rosalind, the female lead, while dressed as a boy, pretends to be a girl as she gives Orlando, the male lead, a workshop in courtship. In Shakespeare’s time, Rosalind would have been played by a boy, so you would have a boy portraying a girl disguised as a boy pretending to be a girl. This sort of ambiguity ought to be irresistable to a certain class of otaku, and I’m surprised that there hasn’t been an As You Like It anime yet.
All the girls were acted by females in the “Shakespeare in the Park” production of As You Like It I saw Sunday evening, as were many of the guys — the latter not very convincingly. It might have worked better if most hadn’t been so chubby and if they had been able to project their voices better.
See if you can guess how I spent Sunday evening. A hint:
There was a reverse trap involved.
I’ve been playing around with Topaz Simplify, seeing if it is worth $40.
The monsoon rains paused long enough for me to walk in to work today. I spotted the above on a traffic light pole. I have no idea what it signifies.
I finally finished going through all the pictures from Figments and Filaments last week, and my eyes are bleary. You can see them all here.
The Dealers’ Hall at Figments and Filaments 2015
Here are a couple of panoramas from the weekend. Above is the dealer’s hall at the Figments and Filaments site; below is the booth of one of the vendors. (If you need fancy trim for a sewing project, Calontir Trim is the place to go.) These are best seen in full-screen.
