Penny Close up

Macro using Canon powershot SX50HS fitted with Raynar 250 close up filter. Extended to about 200mm to keep the entire penny in the frame. This combo is capable of zooming in very close if needed.

I was able to keep the bright background in tact by shooting 3 bracketed exposures and combining them with Aurora HDR Pro.

Experiment with your art. Be creative. Don't be afraid to explore. All too often we worry about what other people are thinking about our photography and maybe it isn't good enough. Well I say photography is an art form and you should focus on pleasing yourself with your art. If other people think your work is great too then that is a bonus, but have fun and enjoy your artistry. Who knows where it will lead.

Yellow Crocus of Spring.

An attempt to focus stack 98 images skillfully. For lack of a better subject I just wanted to stagger these match heads about 1/2 inch apart. Using my standard macro set up I meticulously moved the dial on my macro rail one millimeter per shot so I would be able to gain maximum depth and render all the heads sharp. They have machines that will do this for you automatically but I prefer doing it by hand to add a bit of skill set to my photography. All in all it was a positive try. I didn't notice at the time of shooting that I didn't have the one match head in the middle in better position to see more of it, but what you can see that head is still in focus.

Macro of 1/16th inch drill bit tip. I used 52 images focused stacked in Zerene Stacker to ensure total depth of field of this tiny piece of metal. Shot with Canon Powershot SX50HS with Raynar 250 filter all mounted on macro rail. Two Nikon SB600 speedlights to light my image.

Free Pluggins from Google

Nik soft ware is now offering all their plugins for free. All seven, Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro, Dfine. These programs bundled probably cost around $350 and now Google is offering them up free. It dosen't get any better than that. Check it out here: Google Nik Collection