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Medium Format Tips and Tricks

WWLEE

New member
Thanks, guys. Also, do you recommend Helicon Focus for focus blending or is there a preference for using Photoshop? Given the issue I described above, I gather that this cannot be done in Photoshop in situations where the image has changed (or maybe I just slightly resize the images to make them match again?).
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Personally I use Helicon Focus as it handles the focus shift affects well and does a great job on aligning images. It's great value for money considering what it does.
 

Pics2

New member
There is one more way to do focus stacking - use large format camera which enables you to rear focus ( the distance between lens and subject remains the same during the focusing), so the pictures will be perfectly aligned. The images will not changed even slightly, as you reported. If you are not into large format photography, there are even special macro bellows that allow you rear focusing. There is one
http://www.novoflex.com/en/products/macro-accessories/bellows-systems/
But if Helicon Focus does the job well, why bother.
 

Shashin

Well-known member
While rear focusing has advantages, image size will still change because the lens to image plane distance changes. The "best" way is to move the entire camera and lens together.
 

dick

New member
While rear focusing has advantages, image size will still change because the lens to image plane distance changes. The "best" way is to move the entire camera and lens together.
It is the magnification that changes, unless you move the subject to whole camera distance... with macro this is, of course, best achieved by moving the subject.

If you use tilt to minimize the number of stacked shots you need - what do you move then? You would still need some re-alignment, but, if you moved the subject perpendicular to the plane of sharpest focus you would get no magnification changes, and no perspective changes?... can someone find the time and energy to prove this mathematically? if the software would easily and automatically re-align the shots, this might be the ideal method.
 

dick

New member
Medium Format Tips and Tricks/live view overlay

On Hasselblads, if you have the Adobe "full kit" you can draw or trace an overlay in Adobe illustrator, and overlay it on live video and re-draw as required.

This is useful when ADs want the product positioned precisely, or when adjusting perspective when photographing parts of an existing building to "photograph" a non-existing building.

¿does anyone do this?

¿does it work as well with Phase, Leaf, Sinar...?
 
Something I discovered by chance, I lost the rear cap of my Schneider 35xl digitar lens. A canon rear lens cap fits in real snug!!! ;-) better than the original!!
 

jlm

Workshop Member
here is one:
since you can't re-order images in capture one, shoot your panoramas clockwise
 

nenes

New member
Another one with tethered shooting in capture one:
If you use inteligent albums and rating instead of different folders in the same sesion the consistenci of C1 improves as the program do not have to change cache between folders.
In theese way C1 is dificult that stay thinking and is very easy to find your right pictures by rating them with stars or colors .
You can find inteligent albums on phaseone page
 

Steve Hendrix

Well-known member
Thought I would replenish this thread with a fresh Capture One tip:

The problem some of our clients encounter is that Capture One automatically applies lens corrections to certain lenses without an obvious way to change this automatic behavior.

Capture Integration, - and our very own Josh Booth - has devised a workaround until Phase One gets around to making a change to this in a future version of C1:


For complete details and instructions:
https://captureintegration.com/capture-one-quick-tip-turning-off-automatic-distortion-correction/


Steve Hendrix
Capture Integration
 

Ben730

Active member
I use with the Schneider 24XL and 35XL to avoid flare the Rodenstock Centerfilter E67 with a B+W step up ring instead of the Schneider CFs. It's 0.5 F-stops darker but much better than the Schneiders in back light situations. LCC in C1 works great.
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Not strictly a MF only tip as it'd applies to anyone using graduated filters and either live view or direct view cameras.

Place either a postIT note or piece of gaffer tape on to your graduated filter so that the tape or note covers the bottom dark line of the graduation that you want to line up with the horizon or bright part of your image (the clear part up to the line remains clear). You can now slide the filter up/down just to cover the bright area and it will be obvious in the viewfinder or live view/ground glass. Once aligned, remove the tape/note and voila a perfect blend aligned just where you want it.

If you've ever used soft grads, or hard grads with wide angle lenses you'll understand how hard it can be to align them at the right place in the viewfinder, ground glass or using live view on a digital back or DSLR for that matter.

An oft forgotten tip from shooting large format where it's next to impossible to see the grad line!
 
Ebony camera has this list of view camera lenses (analog) sorted by manufacturer. It has registration distances and max IC for all of them, which has been handy for me. The only downside is that they don't provide the length of the rear element, so I've had to find that independently. http://www.ebonycamera.com/articles/lenses.html

For the Schneider digital lens, this gives the same information plus flange surface to rear of lens measurements (very handy). http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/u...terfilters___angle_of_view__image_circles.pdf

For Rodenstock digital, you have to check each lens in which you're interested, but they do offer registration distance, max IC, and length of rear element and you can compare different lenses (2 at a time). http://www.rodenstock-photo.com/en/products/professional-lenses-digital
 
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