Watching this 6 years later and listening to the ideas of "Computational Photography" and sensor resolution, it would be interesting to do this interview again looking back on what Don has learned as AI and faster computers have obviously changed things. Physics haven't changed and diffraction is still diffraction as well as the basics of focus stacking, but what has changed for Don. Looking at his work in a slightly distant future, it still holds up! Amazing work and its still very solid. I'd just love to know what his workflow is today. Thanks for this interview and tutorial.
Don - you're such an inspiration! Nice guy too! No, I haven't managed to make the little macro tool yet just in case you remember. What a wonderful contribution you make!
Thank you... I've been struggling in postpro for focus stacking... and almost gave up. but now, I think I am starting to make some focus stacking pictures again...
At 5:30 "the water droplets are evaporating". Not if you were to use a 50/50 mixture of water and glycerine. We use this blend in photographing food so know it lasts a long time.
Not sure if it was said somewhere in the comments below, but the quickest way to hide all the layers except one selected is to hold ALT and click on the layer you want to keep visible :) Anyway great video, thanks for sharing :)
Don, great information! Thanks for the insight. I've been doing focus stacking for around 2 years now and I'm still picking up tidbits here and there from you, professional photographers, so thanks for posting this video.
This would definitely be possible 20 years ago in Photoshop, all you need is layers and layer masks. But you would have to do it all by hand, both alignment and masking/blending and there was also no automated correction for barrel distortion or vignetting yet. Mind you, digital photos would have only been around 3 Mp at that time.
First time viewer from Ireland. Brilliant tutorial with a lot of what were unanswered questions for years, suddenly answered - I'm subscribed and looking forward to more great vids. Could you please post up the name of the thing he was using for clamping and where to get one
Thanks Mark! You'd be looking for a "third hand tool" which you can easily find on eBay, Amazon, or many other marketplace websites at very inexpensive prices. If you have any further questions or curiosities, just ask!
18:19 - ADD? Didn’t you mean OCD? When it comes to having to have all details perfect? Just saying… ☺️😉 Thanks for a great video, both of you!!! Really appreciated!!! 👏👏👏🤗💓
I might have missed something but when it came to photographing the snowflake, why couldn't Don take a photo(s) with the snowflake parallel to the sensor so that there wouldn't be any depth of field issues? The snowflake looks like its at a 45 degree angle to the camera. What am I missing?
Great show. I have enough trouble doing usable stacks using a tripod and focus ring without rails, so handheld stacks are mind blowing to me. Must take a lot of practice. Don is super knowledgeable and obviously very skilled. However, that bright magenta is really hurting my eyes though (but I blame nature for that).
Love this photo and the one of the snowflake! I am a total beginner and not even sure what all the terminology means so am excited to start learning. You have done a great job talking about this and have inspired me! BIG question though, how can I turn macro photography into a career that pays?!! I see you are writing a new book on macro photography too and am excited to order a copy. Will it also touch on selling artwork or will that be another book?! Thank you!
Maybe one of the best avenues to start is looking at product photography - everything from jewelry to electronic components. Build a portfolio around these items and then approach companies needing images of their own products. Once you have a reputation and an established brand, people will start coming to you... but there is no quick way to this end. It takes years. Focus on macro photography as a service - either delivering a product to customers or teaching others. It's a smaller market to be sure, but there is always room for more people practicing the art. :)
The new Fuji X-T3 shoots at an outrageous 30 frames per second but only when not autofocusing. All the reviewers are saying that's a useless spec because who uses 30 fps without continuous autofocus? Macro photographers do!
What creativity, great stuff. Do you know anything about Helicon FB extension Tube as a means of taking the multiple macro shots in camera as I find that part almost impossible, especially outside in any amount of breeze
I was wondering if you could explain how he takes the photos if he doesn't use a tripod. Does he basically move the focus ring manually as he holds down the shutter, or does he set his focus at a point and move the camera in and out very little to just move the focus point. Wasn't completely clear. Newbie when it comes to macro so would love to know.
Yep, he's moving the camera slightly forward while continuously firing. It's possible with practice however you should look into a focus rail or similar to ensure accuracy and minimise failures,.
Yes, I am moving the camera very slightly. You often don't even have to think about it, just push your torso forward slightly in the water droplet exactly, or flex your left thumb that's gripping the end of the ring flash in the snowflake example. Very slight movements, and it's easy to keep them relatively aligned - Photoshop takes care of the subtle misalignment which you would also face if you were using a rail. The largest alignment needed is when you shift the focus of the lens, since this also changes your focal length and thereby your field of view. Hope this helps!
@@DonKomarechka What if your lens doesn't suffer from focus breathing; would a camera with focus stacking capabilities be the best option? Unfortunately for me, my Laowa 65mm macro lens breathes quite heavily.....but produces amazing pictures. I'll take your advice and move my camera instead of the focus ring when attempting focus stacking.
Love Don's work!!! This show has been most helpful, especially the idea of using the individual shots to make adjustments to the blended version. Question, after making the stack in PS Don, what is the recommended format for saving the stacked images? I recognise that its saved as a huge TIFF file, is there a way to have the final edited image be a smaller file while retaining quality (perhaps a file size close to the original raw file size)? Thanks again for this very informative episode.
Hello! I Love your Photography and I LOVE your explanations! I am trying.. to learn your process for taking photos and also editing them. I am hope to come to one of your classes one day! Question - Do you always use Jpg? I am having problems following your editing process using raw files. I get them all over to photoshop in layers - align - then blend - photoshop creates the layer mask but then it won't let me edit them! Thank you for your help!!
What did you use to get perfect round water look like? I tried but water is too soft to get that result using syringe and where coming flat type round. Any tips?
It's not the water that's the surface that you're placing the droplets on that is extremely important. In this image I was using blue fescue, but most bluegrasses would work as they have a power coating on them that causes water to bead up. The same is true of eucalyptus! You'll also find that wildflower seeds, spider webs, and other plants like young leaves from lupin flowers or barberry shrubs will yield nice round droplets simply using a spray bottle. I can carefully place spherical droplets using a hypodermic needle onto certain flower petals and vine tendrils as well (passionflower and grapes work well), but there is a lot of trial and error. For every object I've found to work well, I've tried dozens that failed miserably. Just keep at it!
In this instance it was just a simple spray bottle filled with tap water. I have used a hypodermic needle in other cases to carefully position them. Either way works!
It's an accumulation of a few steps here: import your images, align them, *duplicate all of your layers*, then align one set of them and flatten them together. This allows you to have an unblended (non-focus-stacked) set of images that perfectly align to the results of Photoshop's "auto-blend" tool, so that you can paint in fixes with layer masks. Hope this helps clarify things!
There are a number of options available - previously I was using the Canon CP-E4 but recently discovered the Bolt P12 which offers 12 batteries of boost rather than the 8 found in thew CP-E4. They make them for Canon, Nikon, and Sony flashes: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Bolt_P12/Ntt/Bolt%2BP12/N/0/kw/search/BI/8924/KBID/10335/DFF/d10-v1-t12
Great show. Learned a lot. May i comment. Nothing about photography. The mic is supposed to face the speaker sideways not pointing towards the mouth. Its a condenser mic not a dynamic.
Great show, My ocd has been driving me crazy looking for a workflow to solve the missing %20 of the Photoshop auto focus stack. Thanks Don!
Don komarechka is the treasure of photography world
Watching this 6 years later and listening to the ideas of "Computational Photography" and sensor resolution, it would be interesting to do this interview again looking back on what Don has learned as AI and faster computers have obviously changed things.
Physics haven't changed and diffraction is still diffraction as well as the basics of focus stacking, but what has changed for Don.
Looking at his work in a slightly distant future, it still holds up! Amazing work and its still very solid.
I'd just love to know what his workflow is today.
Thanks for this interview and tutorial.
Don - you're such an inspiration! Nice guy too! No, I haven't managed to make the little macro tool yet just in case you remember. What a wonderful contribution you make!
Thank you, Dom. Thank you, host!
I am very fan of macro legend Don komarechka
Super Helpful really happy to be finding this!
So glad!
Wow! What a presentation. Excellent.
This is definitely the most interesting and useful show ever! Thank you, Don.
My brain hurts - so much great info!!
Thank you again for this "Watch Me Work" series. The little nuggets I glean from each show are priceless!
fantastic tutorial / podcast. great images. love it I would have though the used a focus fail and not just handheld!! wow
Thank you... I've been struggling in postpro for focus stacking... and almost gave up. but now, I think I am starting to make some focus stacking pictures again...
At 5:30 "the water droplets are evaporating". Not if you were to use a 50/50 mixture of water and glycerine. We use this blend in photographing food so know it lasts a long time.
And it has better adhesion characteristics to boot....
Fantastic show, thank you. I'm just starting with macro/micro photography, I'm truly inspired by Don's amazing work!
Not sure if it was said somewhere in the comments below, but the quickest way to hide all the layers except one selected is to hold ALT and click on the layer you want to keep visible :) Anyway great video, thanks for sharing :)
Great show. I hope you will continue with similar workflow videos.
Don, great information! Thanks for the insight. I've been doing focus stacking for around 2 years now and I'm still picking up tidbits here and there from you, professional photographers, so thanks for posting this video.
You're very welcome John. :)
This would definitely be possible 20 years ago in Photoshop, all you need is layers and layer masks. But you would have to do it all by hand, both alignment and masking/blending and there was also no automated correction for barrel distortion or vignetting yet. Mind you, digital photos would have only been around 3 Mp at that time.
Great info! I am going to start this kind of photography in the next few days. I am looking forward to this
Did you shoot any macros Lisa? Do share!
Really good interview and questions for Don to do his skills conveyance to...
its just amazeing seeing his skills in work
Absolutely fantastic video ... THANK YOU so much for sharing your knowledge and techniques
Wow....did I hear him right...he is HAND HOLDING???? As in no tripod? This man is talented and I've got a lot to learn!
First time viewer from Ireland. Brilliant tutorial with a lot of what were unanswered questions for years, suddenly answered - I'm subscribed and looking forward to more great vids. Could you please post up the name of the thing he was using for clamping and where to get one
Thanks Mark! You'd be looking for a "third hand tool" which you can easily find on eBay, Amazon, or many other marketplace websites at very inexpensive prices. If you have any further questions or curiosities, just ask!
I was just looking for an answer to the same question Mark! I'm also from Ireland! Excellent tutorial.
Great show. Fred, do more like this!
Good show thank you.
18:19 - ADD? Didn’t you mean OCD? When it comes to having to have all details perfect? Just saying… ☺️😉 Thanks for a great video, both of you!!! Really appreciated!!! 👏👏👏🤗💓
Yes! You caught that, eh?
I might have missed something but when it came to photographing the snowflake, why couldn't Don take a photo(s) with the snowflake parallel to the sensor so that there wouldn't be any depth of field issues? The snowflake looks like its at a 45 degree angle to the camera. What am I missing?
Great show. I have enough trouble doing usable stacks using a tripod and focus ring without rails, so handheld stacks are mind blowing to me. Must take a lot of practice. Don is super knowledgeable and obviously very skilled. However, that bright magenta is really hurting my eyes though (but I blame nature for that).
Awesome video!
I love this! Thank you both.
Amazing and a lot of fun!
Excellent Tutorial many thanks
Love this photo and the one of the snowflake! I am a total beginner and not even sure what all the terminology means so am excited to start learning. You have done a great job talking about this and have inspired me! BIG question though, how can I turn macro photography into a career that pays?!! I see you are writing a new book on macro photography too and am excited to order a copy. Will it also touch on selling artwork or will that be another book?! Thank you!
Maybe one of the best avenues to start is looking at product photography - everything from jewelry to electronic components. Build a portfolio around these items and then approach companies needing images of their own products. Once you have a reputation and an established brand, people will start coming to you... but there is no quick way to this end. It takes years. Focus on macro photography as a service - either delivering a product to customers or teaching others. It's a smaller market to be sure, but there is always room for more people practicing the art. :)
Thanks for the show. Having Don I always get a storm of ideas. I will buy his coin against bitcoin !
Loved it
The new Fuji X-T3 shoots at an outrageous 30 frames per second but only when not autofocusing. All the reviewers are saying that's a useless spec because who uses 30 fps without continuous autofocus? Macro photographers do!
Nice job
Unbelievable, Wow thanks for sharing I’ll be back! Nice video.
What creativity, great stuff. Do you know anything about Helicon FB extension Tube as a means of taking the multiple macro shots in camera as I find that part almost impossible, especially outside in any amount of breeze
Gorgeous!
I was wondering if you could explain how he takes the photos if he doesn't use a tripod. Does he basically move the focus ring manually as he holds down the shutter, or does he set his focus at a point and move the camera in and out very little to just move the focus point. Wasn't completely clear. Newbie when it comes to macro so would love to know.
Yep, he's moving the camera slightly forward while continuously firing. It's possible with practice however you should look into a focus rail or similar to ensure accuracy and minimise failures,.
Yes, I am moving the camera very slightly. You often don't even have to think about it, just push your torso forward slightly in the water droplet exactly, or flex your left thumb that's gripping the end of the ring flash in the snowflake example. Very slight movements, and it's easy to keep them relatively aligned - Photoshop takes care of the subtle misalignment which you would also face if you were using a rail. The largest alignment needed is when you shift the focus of the lens, since this also changes your focal length and thereby your field of view.
Hope this helps!
@@DonKomarechka What if your lens doesn't suffer from focus breathing; would a camera with focus stacking capabilities be the best option? Unfortunately for me, my Laowa 65mm macro lens breathes quite heavily.....but produces amazing pictures. I'll take your advice and move my camera instead of the focus ring when attempting focus stacking.
Great interview, amazing tips! Ty...Subbed
Great video, really inspiring. What is the name of that kind of tweezers?
Love Don's work!!! This show has been most helpful, especially the idea of using the individual shots to make adjustments to the blended version. Question, after making the stack in PS Don, what is the recommended format for saving the stacked images? I recognise that its saved as a huge TIFF file, is there a way to have the final edited image be a smaller file while retaining quality (perhaps a file size close to the original raw file size)? Thanks again for this very informative episode.
is there any way in photoshop to create multiple crops saved to an artboard or something to compare them?
Mindblown
Hello! I Love your Photography and I LOVE your explanations! I am trying.. to learn your process for taking photos and also editing them. I am hope to come to one of your classes one day! Question - Do you always use Jpg? I am having problems following your editing process using raw files. I get them all over to photoshop in layers - align - then blend - photoshop creates the layer mask but then it won't let me edit them! Thank you for your help!!
Great work!!!. Could you mention how you set the drops?..do you use just water or do you add any substance such as glicerine?...thanks!
Begoña Sanchez Azcunaga since he said the evaporate fast , i think he just used water ( maybe with a seringe
What did you use to get perfect round water look like? I tried but water is too soft to get that result using syringe and where coming flat type round. Any tips?
It's not the water that's the surface that you're placing the droplets on that is extremely important. In this image I was using blue fescue, but most bluegrasses would work as they have a power coating on them that causes water to bead up. The same is true of eucalyptus! You'll also find that wildflower seeds, spider webs, and other plants like young leaves from lupin flowers or barberry shrubs will yield nice round droplets simply using a spray bottle. I can carefully place spherical droplets using a hypodermic needle onto certain flower petals and vine tendrils as well (passionflower and grapes work well), but there is a lot of trial and error. For every object I've found to work well, I've tried dozens that failed miserably. Just keep at it!
wow. this is great but, and im only halfway through but, my brain hurts, mr. gumby!
Pls let me know what was the Aperture you put for Macro
Thank you.
What tool do you use to apply your water drops to the blade of grass?
In this instance it was just a simple spray bottle filled with tap water. I have used a hypodermic needle in other cases to carefully position them. Either way works!
Good info!
Question.. what step did you do at 14:24 can you explain.. thanks in advance
It's an accumulation of a few steps here: import your images, align them, *duplicate all of your layers*, then align one set of them and flatten them together. This allows you to have an unblended (non-focus-stacked) set of images that perfectly align to the results of Photoshop's "auto-blend" tool, so that you can paint in fixes with layer masks. Hope this helps clarify things!
@@DonKomarechka thanks so much
What is the model of the battery pack to boost the flash in high continuous?
There are a number of options available - previously I was using the Canon CP-E4 but recently discovered the Bolt P12 which offers 12 batteries of boost rather than the 8 found in thew CP-E4. They make them for Canon, Nikon, and Sony flashes: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Bolt_P12/Ntt/Bolt%2BP12/N/0/kw/search/BI/8924/KBID/10335/DFF/d10-v1-t12
13:06 "I'm just going to jump back to the un-focus-stacked version." Cool, but how?
fun! ty
You seem to be using identical microphones. Is that accidental, and what microphone is it?
The microphone is a Heil PR40. Lot's of podcasters use it. I'd say it's more coincidental than accidental.
Thanks
Great show. Learned a lot. May i comment. Nothing about photography. The mic is supposed to face the speaker sideways not pointing towards the mouth. Its a condenser mic not a dynamic.
perserve reality. best
You meant OCD
Taking the image..... easy peasy.
Editing...... Impossibly complex. 😨
Ew Photoshop
All that edit stuff is impossible to do unless you have a computer science degree. Us baby boomers are lost in the digital world. 😢