[Rockhounds] New Idria cinnabar

[Axel Emmermann]

I sometimes curse these programs, sigh...
I try to explain to people that by carefully choosing your plane of focus,
thus deliberately leaving portions of an image unsharp, you can place the
viewer IN the picture. People get a sense of direction and scale when
sharpness in a photo is localized on the main subject and fades into a
blurry background.
Some guys boast that they produce the sharpest photos on the planet... I
know a few ;-)
Some of them take 40 partially sharp photos at different focal distances and
then launch Helicon. The result is a hypersharp completely unrealistic
completely flat counterfeit of reality.
The eye doesn't see everything sharp in the line of sight. You cannot
improve on reality and in reality most of what you don't directly look at is
unsharp. Some beginners skip the learning process of taking sharp images and
go directly to Helicon. 

I agree with you that some specimens at some magnifications cannot be
photographed at once but there are some photos out there that shouldn't be
;-)))
I would reserve Helicon and consorts for educational purposes only. 
Alas... I'm a lonely voice, shouting in the desert ;-)))

Axel



> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com 
> [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com] Namens DonH
> Verzonden: donderdag 31 januari 2008 5:49
> Aan: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem 
> collectors
> Onderwerp: Re: [Rockhounds] New Idria cinnabar
> 
> Pmodreski at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > (and now, perhaps Don or someone will give a short simple 
> explanation 
> > of what photo stacking means.
> 
> 
> In essence it is a "false 3D", in the sense that you can take 
> numerous photgraphs at various depths of focus under a scope, 
> and then combine the images so that the focused slices are 
> "stacked" into one final image where everything appears to be 
> in focus.  This is important because a microscope has a poor 
> depth of field, especially under higher magnifications, and 
> you can often only focus on one area at a time while other 
> areas are out of focus.
> 
> Micromounters often have a big problem with this, since 
> crystals are usually large or standing up, and you cannot 
> bring the whole thing into focus at once.
> 
> 
> 
> --
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