Kyle Foreman

Sarah P. Duke Gardens

March 27th, 2025

I go to Duke Gardens almost every year to photograph the cherry trees when they are in full bloom. The blooms only last a short time. A couple weeks at most. I often try to showcase the cherry trees in relation to the rest of the gardens, rather than just photograph the trees by themselves. In this photo I noticed this Japanese Maple perfectly frames a cherry tree on the other side of the tulip gardens.

I had to focus stack 3 frames even at f/16 to get everything sharp as the camera was very close to the bottom of the tree.

Landscape

Garden

tree

12 Comments

Paul Kister March 27, 2025 - 1:35 pm

Kyle, super prospective, great DOF, and colors, a maze to my eyes.

Kyle Foreman March 27, 2025 - 3:15 pm

Paul Kister

Thanks Paul. I wasn't sure about this image at first. I thought it might be too busy. But I like it.

Paul Kister March 27, 2025 - 3:53 pm

Kyle Foreman

Kyle, me too, and no not at all to busy you’ve got good space between areas of interest and very nice balance to the big picture. You were challenging yourself and your abilities is all and a good thing to do when you're ready or not. Sometime everything works other time not so much, other times our insecurities over bare even our successes just meaning we weren’t totally ready. Time, patience and persistence = experience, knowledge and confidence.

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” - Albert Einstein

Frank Ginn March 27, 2025 - 2:01 pm

Thanks for sharing the info on focus stack....I want to start trying to do this with my cameras. I've watched some Youtube on how, but it is nice to see a resultant image to know what I can expect or should expect to get.

Kyle Foreman March 27, 2025 - 3:14 pm

Frank Ginn

Photoshop has gotten pretty good at doing it automatically. I've also tried out helicon focus which is pretty good as well and you have more control. But I just used the "auto blend layers" in PS and got pretty good results.

Paul Kister March 27, 2025 - 3:55 pm

Kyle Foreman

Kyle, about your stacking what lens?

Kyle Foreman March 27, 2025 - 5:19 pm

Paul Kister

This was shot on my Sigma 24-70 art lens. Love that lens!

Paul Kister March 27, 2025 - 6:31 pm

Kyle Foreman

Yes, but is that love being reciprocated ? My point is I wonder if the stacks would work better with images make with a prime and or manually focused. Granted I have like to nil experience with stacking especially focus stacking. Just offering some friendly suggestions.

Kyle Foreman March 27, 2025 - 7:34 pm

Paul Kister

The sigma lens is actually very sharp. I do focus manually a lot of the time especially with my architectural stuff. But for something like this the tree was so close to the camera you have to focus stack to get everything sharp. Even with manual focus it would take multiple shots. Focus stacking is actually very easy. The hardest part is making sure you pick the correct frames to stack haha!

I have another image I’ll probably post tomorrow where my camera was inches off the ground upside down on my tripod. That one took 5 shots of stacking to get everything sharp.

Paul Kister March 27, 2025 - 7:46 pm

Kyle Foreman

Looking forward to see it, as always.

Frank Ginn March 27, 2025 - 11:28 pm

I am thinking of something different then this.
I don't think I own a program that combines images this way in post, Capture One and ON1.
Perhaps ON1 but I haven't explored it's capabilities, I only have used it to further reduce noise and place a border around images with very dark edges.
I am thinking Nikon's Z8 can focus stack in camera, by taking a sufficient number of exposures and then combining into an additional final stacked image. You get all the "slices" and the final on your memory card. But sadly I haven't learned how yet, but it is on my list.

Kyle Foreman March 28, 2025 - 11:02 am

Frank Ginn

Yeah there are several cameras that will do it in camera which is pretty nice. One feature I wish my Sony could do. I don't think Capture one or ON1 can do it but I'm not sure. Never used them.