There are a number of stacking applications out there, but what sets Zerene Stacker apart is its ability to align photos.  This is critical for insect photography as most photos are hand held.  This means that the chances that they will perfectly align are practically nil.

Zerene Stacker is extremely easy to use, though it does contain an impressive list of options.  It also contains a very powerful retouching feature that allows one to explain from which image to take different parts of the final image.  This is extremely useful in a number of cases, though with care I have found that it is often not necessary.  Typically I use the retouching feature when I specifically do not want a particular part of the final image to be in focus.  Often this is for artistic reasons.  I want the insect to be in focus but not this part of a leaf, etc.

There’s a common expression that a picture is worth a thousand words, so without further ado I’ll show you what it can do.

The following are three unedited photos of a stink bug I took recently.

As you can see, each of these images has a different part in focus.  The image at the top has only the antenna in focus.  The image in the middle has the face and the front of the body in focus, while the one on the bottom has the top of the shell.

Also note that they are not completely aligned.  In particular the bottom image is quite a bit off.  Nevertheless, I brought all three of these images into Zerene Stacker and then stacked them using PMax.  The following is the result, which also includes some post processing to make the shot a bit more interesting.

As you can see, most of the stink bug is now in focus.  The entire post processing for this photo, including the following, took only a few minutes.

1. 1) Stack the photos using Zerene Stacker.
2. 2) Exposure and slight contrast change in Lightroom.
3. 3) Tonal contrast (to insect only) using Nik Color Efex in Photoshop CS5.
4. 4) Removed dust spots.

This shot would not have been possible to take otherwise – there is simply too much depth of field (the original shots were all taken at f11).

One other small point to note is you can see at the very bottom of the shot that there is a part that looks slightly different.  This effect is an unfortunate side effect that occurs when Zerene Stacker aligns the photos.  To combat this issue you need to try to take the shots as aligned as possible.  Also, make sure that no important visual elements are on the edges.  Usually, I just crop this part out but if I feel it is important I will just use content aware fill in CS5 – which does a good job with these.

Of course, it can still be tricky to get several workable shots that can then be combined with Zerene Stacker.  One must pay particular attention to the parts of the insect in the shot.  As one moves in closer or farther to focus on a nearer or further part of the insect, very often part of the insect will leave the frame.  The trick is to still keep the same parts of the insect in the frame while changing the area of focus.

This technique is even more important at higher magnifications.  Due to diffraction at high magnifications, if you need a very high quality shot you will need to stop down quite a bit.  On a 5D2, the MP-E 65 does show diffraction at 5x at f11.  This can be noticed on an 8×10 shot, though not enough to overly detract from the shot.  If one needs to crop the shot though or create larger prints, then the lens will need to be stopped down to f5.6.  At this aperture, the DOF is miniscule and focus stacking is a necessity.

For these reasons, I believe Zerene Stacker is an essential tool for any serious insect photographer.

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I also bought a Gitzo monopod together with the RRS tilt head.  I will review these at a later time, but from experience I knew that if I wanted a sharp picture, I needed some kind of stabilization.

I’m not much for taking shots of teddy bears and diagrams in the house to test a lens.  I prefer to take it in the field and give it a try.

The following are the shots I got.  At the end I will give my impressions of the lens.

  The one above was actually taken by my son Eitan, who at age five is already starting to surpass me.  He made it very clear when we got to the zoo that he wanted to see elk.  When we got there I just helped steady the monopod and camera, and he made this composition.

This is one of those “what if?” shots.  If I would have just used a shorter shutterspeed so two of the birds wouldn’t be blurred from head movement, and I had composed it slightly differently to get all of the middle bird’s tail in the shot, it would have been a great shot.

My biggest lesson with my first shoot with this lens is to pay better attention to shutter speed.  With the monopod, I was able to shoot at 1/40 and still have a sharp shot.  Even with IS, this simply would not have been possible.  However, I need to keep in my mind whether the animal is moving, and use a shutterspeed that is more appropriate with the speed of the subject.

In terms of my opinions of the lens, in general I like it.  It has its disadvantages.  It is by far my slowest lens at 5.6 – which takes getting used to.  I am too spoiled by other lenses where I shoot often at f4 or f2.8.  Autofocus is also rather slow on this lens compared to other lenses I have.

In terms of sharpness, the lens is decent.  It is not as sharp as my other L lenses, but the images are usable.  As long as I use a monopod and a decent shutterspeed – taking into account the speed of the subject – the pictures should be saleable.  This is not the case for the large Sigma telephotos, so this is a plus.

I’m not crazy about the push pull.  My wife tried the lens and hated it.  I can live with the push pull, but I would prefer a standard zoom.

In general, this is a compromise lens.  It cannot hold up to the larger primes, but it is much cheaper and smaller than they.  The next lens up would likely be the 300mm 2.8 – which is quite a bit pricier and more expensive.  Sigma does have some intermediate lenses, but given my experience with Sigma telephotos and their reputation, I would never buy one. 

Therefore, given the limitations I think this is the best lens out there for the purpose.  It certainly would not be my first choice given a safari to Africa or rain forest trip, but for zoos and for travel photography where wildlife is not the main focus, I think it is a decent alternative.

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This is not a reference book, but is instead more of a collection of stories.  Eisner goes through the major projects he has worked on during his career and how they came about various discoveries.

After finishing this book, I do feel that I know a lot more about invertebrates, though I don’t know any specific details about invertebrates I am likely to see in my area.

The great thing about this book is it has caused me to question behavior that I see more.  Why is this so?  Why isn’t this bug attacking this other bug?  Why is this bug just sitting out here in the open?  Eisner talks about many of these topics.  Although he talks about specific species, many of these same traits are shared.

For instance, I remembered that I often see pill bugs in the same place as spiders and centipedes.  This has made me question whether the pill bugs use any secretions that make them unpalatable to both of them, or whether there are ‘enough pill bugs to go around’.

Although I would never be interested in going into the same detail as Eisner does in his experiments or getting deep into the chemical details, it does make me to want to try my own experiments just to see the results (and photograph them).

This is not an entomology text book, though I do feel it will make it easier for me to read one in the future.  Most of all, it made me appreciate the complexity of the tiny life around us.  Sometimes I really wonder whether we aren’t much more complex than insects – we’re just bigger.

I definitely recommend this book for those who would like a deeper understanding of the complexity and detail of the life around us.

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Therefore, I was extremely excited to find a book by such a talented artist.  Gilles Martin has photographed for the places I could only dream of and he has also dabbled in pretty much every type of macro and micro technique.

Unfortunately, this book was a huge let down.  I could not have been more disappointed.  Granted, the photographs are gorgeous and Gilles certainly has tremendous skills, but the text of the book (and in some ways the photos too) suffer from some huge flaws.

For beginners, Gilles did not write the book himself.  Another person wrote the book and at times it reads more like a fan book than a technical guide.  I really felt often that it should just read “look at this awesome thing Gilles did” and “if you were as awesome as Gilles you could do this to”.  Still, I have read books like this before and still found them useful once you perform a brain block on the ego.

However, the book also suffers from the flaw that it can’t seem to decide whether it targets absolute beginners or seasoned macro photographers.  The first third of the book contains no information that you won’t find in any other absolute beginners macro book.  Even worse, it is much more difficult to understand.  In one section, the author discusses how important apochromatic lenses are and why the photographer must have them.  What do you imagine will happen when the beginner strolls into his local camera store and asks to see an apochromatic lens?

In discussions on effective magnication and depth of field, the descriptions are far too convoluted and I suspect a beginner would have difficulties understanding.  On the other hand, an intermediate or advanced photographer would already know these terms and question – like I did – why the author is making them so complex.

While the pictures are gorgeous, they don’t really back up the text.  For instance, in multiple places the author talks about using a bellows and a short lens to get very high magnifications up to 20x.  However, nowhere in the book are these higher magnifications used.  This makes me wonder how useful this truly is if no pictures in the book use this technique.  This happens multiple times in the book.  If a technique is truly useful, show me some pictures that take advantage of it!

On the advanced end, I felt the book lacks a lot of details.  The book discusses keeping live specimens, terraniums, portable tanks, insects in flight, and other advanced topics.  In some cases there are diagrams of the setups but not very much practical information on what purpose each piece plays and why it is essential.  There’s one photograph of Gilles’ main study with numerous tanks, diffusers, and lights.  I would have loved to hear more in depth information on how these are used.  In short, from the advanced perspective there are hints but no details.

One of the sections I was most excited about was the discussion of microscopy at the end.  It is extremely difficult to find any photographer oriented resources on microscopy and I hoped that I had finally found one.  I am still looking.  The discussion is very basic and extremely important terms such as brightfield, darkfield, and phase contrast are just glossed over.  Any good introduction to microscopy would go into these in depth.

At other times I really felt that the book provided a way for Gilles to show off all of the equipment he owns (which is a lot).  Why else include a few pages on endoscopes that do very little to help a photographer that actually hopes to use an endoscope.  All they do establish are the facts that endoscopes are cool and Gilles has one.

In the end, I cannot recommend this book to anyone except those who like to look at pretty pictures.  There are much better beginner books out there – such as those by John Shaw – and more advanced macro photographers will not learn much from it.

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I had looked at brackets for several months prior to buying these.  In terms of macro brackets, the two main competitors are Really Right Stuff and Kirk Photo.  After some consideration, I chose the Wimberley macro brackets, but for those interested the following are the reasons I did not buy the other choices.

Really Right Stuff – For awhile, this was my first choice.  Only when I learned about the Wimberley brackets did I change my mind.  In order for the bracket to work with the MT-24EX, I needed to buy another flash mount.  Also, I needed at least one telescoping arm to get the flashes past the lens.  Therefore, the price came out a bit higher than the Wimberley solution.

The main reason I chose the Wimberley was flexibility.  The RRS solution is nice – but the Wimberley brackets can literally bend in almost any direction.  The RRS brackets are limited by the flexibility of the arm – which can be rotated around the bracket and extended.

Kirk Photo – This solution looks a bit more flexible than the RRS, but looks a bit flimsy.  I hesitated whether it would take a 580EX without issue or something heavier.  It is also not as flexible as the Wimberley.

Iguana taken in Mexico’s Riviera Maya.  Canon 180mm macro with two Wimberley lights. 1/125 f/7.1. 

The Wimberley solution allows you to buy parts of your flash bracket piece by piece.  I actually purchased a vertical bracket to allow one of the flash brackets to be placed directly over the lens but it really isn’t necessary – the brackets are long enough as is.

The flash brackets are an important tool – but are not always useful.  In general, I rarely use the brackets when using my MP-E 65, but almost always have them on when using my 180L.  When taking insect shots, I like the lighting effect but they get in the way more than they help.  Since my camera often sits close to the ground, having two big brackets just below it can become troublesome.  It is also difficult getting it into tight places.

On the 180L, I don’t like the lighting when placing the heads at the end of the lens using the 72C adapter.  Instead, I find that by using the Wimberley brackets I can get the lights much closer to the subject – which generally improves the lighting.  I know that in general by moving a light further away it should soften it, but that is not the case here.  I think due to the size of the subject, by moving the flash closer to the subject the light becomes larger – and therefore softer.

The brackets attach to the plate on the lens – though you can connect it to your camera plate as well through an optional adapter that I did not buy.  Note that if you want to use two of these (necessary when using the MT-24EX) you need a plate that has a double dovetail design.  Unfortunately I had Kirk lens plates at the time – which are not double dovetail plates.  Both Wimberley and Really Right Stuff make double dovetail plates – so make sure you use those if you intend to use these brackets with the lens.

The flash heads mount on the screw at the end of the bracket.  You can also mount a 580EX or similar flash on the end by attaching the small stand that comes with the flash and screwing it on the bracket.  I have used the bracket with a 580EX flash and it held the weight without issue.

The arm is relatively simple – with three ball joints joined by two ‘pipes’.  On each of the pipes is a knob that allows you to change the tension.  One minor annoyance though is that in order to place the flash on the bracket, I need to loosen the top knob, which also loosens the bar itself – so the whole thing wobbles all over the place while I attempt to put the flash head on.  Sometimes I do not tighten it all the way after I have the bracket in the exact position I want – at which point I have to loosen the whole thing, tighten the flash, then reposition the bracket.

The camera also looks a bit scary with these brackets on.  I drew more than a few strange looks when walking around with this apparatus at our all-inclusive in Mexico.

Another huge advantage with these brackets is it allows me to change the angle of the flash to the subject.  In some cases, this is hugely important.  For instance, without these brackets, the flashes would shine back at me when shooting through the glass of a fish tank.  Instead, they enable me to angle the flash just right so as to illuminate the subject without getting hit by the flash.

Canon 180mm macro with MT-24EX mounted on two Wimberley brackets. ISO 800 1/200 f/11

I take advantage of this ability as well with drops and my MP-E 65.  This is the only time that I use my MP-E 65 with the Wimberley flash brackets – but in this case by moving the lights at an angle that is closer to the sides of the drop, I don’t blow out the drop as much.  Here is a shot without the brackets.

Falling drop taken with MP-E 65 at 1.5x magnification.  Lighted using MT-24EX.  1/200 f/11

Compare that to this shot with the brackets.

Falling drop taken with MP-E 65 at 1.5x magnification.  Lighted using MT-24EX and two Wimberley macro brackets.  1/200 at f/11.

Therefore, I am very happy with my Wimberley flash brackets and they are always in my bag when shooting macro.  Along with my macro lenses and MT-24EX flash, I consider them essential tools of the trade.

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This book is one of the small handful that I intend to keep within a moment’s reach on my book shelf.  It is loaded with helpful information and – even more important – serves as a ledge from which to access other material.

Some time ago I reviewed the book Take Your Photography to the Next Level.  In general I liked the advice in the book but did not like the photographs.  When I reviewed that book, someone recommended this one and there really is no comparison between them.

Michael Freeman is an amazing photographer.  He truly is a master at taking journalist and location photos – but this is not one of those ‘why my photos are better than yours’ books.  The shots he uses throughout the book are great for illustrating the information on the same pages.  They really do a great job at pointing out what the author is attempting to say and also help illustrate what he was thinking with each shot.

Particularly helpful were several sections where he showed how he went through a particular shoot.  He gives his thought process for each shot along with his feelings about what went well and what didn’t.  This is great for learning how to take my own photographers that work well.

In particular Michael spends a great deal of time discussing lines, curves, and shapes within the photos and how they work.  The accompanying photos stress these points very well and I feel ready to try taking composition better into account in the future.  I will need, however, to continually flim through the book in order to be reminded of different ideas.

While I read the book cover to cover, it is organized in ‘mini-sections’ that take between two to four pages each.  Each of these mini-sections covers a particular topic – such as ‘Figure and Ground’, ‘Optics’, ‘Black and White’, and ‘Visual Weight’ for instance.  This makes it very convenient to go back to the book when necessary.

There is quite a bit of text in this book due to the large size and small print.  It is not something you will be able to read in a few hours – unlike most other photography books.  In a sense it is a bit like Light: Science and Magic in that you need to pay attention when reading it and sometimes read the same section a few times.  It isn’t quite as long or technical as that book, but they are both ‘thinking books’.

One other thing I love about this book is how topics of much greater depth are introduced – then resources provided for further investigation if you desire.  Bauhaus and Gestalt require more than a few pages for proper understanding, but he does a great job of giving you the most important information and provides a great wealth of future reading books in the bibliography.  I will lend this book to a friend shortly, but plan on photocopying the bibliography first so I can make a trip to the library.

As with Light: Science and Magic – which I recommend to anyone serious about lighting, I recommend this book to anyone serious about composition.  Even better, it isn’t nearly as expensive as many photography books despite the wonderful printing.

If you happen to know a National Geographic photographer and can follow him/her around the world and ask how each photograph is composed, then great for you.  For all of the rest of us, this book is almost as good.

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This is a very entertaining book.  If you like insects, and you enjoy watching shows typical of Animal Planet and The Discovery Channel, this book is for you.

It is intended to supplement the television show presented by the BBC of the same name.  The book reads very much like one of those shows, which IMHO is good in some ways and bad in some ways.

On the good side, the book is very entertaining.  The writing style is gripping and keeps you very interested.  Typical with these types of shows, the books moves from one type of insect to another – while explaining some of the fascinating aspects of each.

In particular, I enjoyed reading the history of many different types of invertebrates – when they first appeared and why.  This is a great book for appreciating the intricacies of nature and I think it’s almost impossible to read any book about insects and not learn something due to the huge amount there is to learn.

On the negative side, I often found myself asking more questions that the book did not cover.  I prefer books that cover a subject in depth and this one did not.  It is meant to entertain and give a good overview to the insect world.  It does not give a wide amount of information for any one species.

The audience for this book is clearly individuals who are not very familiar with the insect world and just want to be entertained.  For entomologist or those who have read a good number of books about insects already (such as myself) it is a bit less interesting.

Therefore, if you don’t know much about the insect world around you, I highly recommend this book.  It does not contain technical details, is very entertaining, and will give you a good appreciation of the insect world.  If you are not new to insects, I recommend instead that you just watch the television series – though the book is worth a read if you find it in your local library.

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Since reading Understanding Exposure by the same author, I had been anxious to give Understanding Shutter Speed a read.  For those who have not read Understanding Exposure first – I recommend that you read it before reading this book or at least have a solid understanding of exposure.

The book is an ‘advanced beginner’ book in that it already assumes that you know about shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and how they are related.  Much of the material in this book will not be new to experienced photographers but I did find a number of good pieces of information in this book.

By far the most useful information is where he goes through individual shutter speeds and explains when each should be used.  For instance

1/250 – if the motion is coming towards you

1/500 – if the motion is moving perpendicular to you

1/1000 – very fast sports motion

1/2000 – birds in flight

1/30 – a good panning speed

And the list goes on.  There is quite a bit of material that is rather rote if you are already aware of exposure.  For instance, he continually discusses how he goes by the shutter speed and then changes the aperture to get the correct exposure.  For most photographers this is rather obvious.

Bryan also has small nuggets of helpful information on how to photograph certain effects.  For instance his tips on photographing lightning and using rear curtain sync and a sparkler to create interesting effects were very helpful.

There was a bit of information I expected to see and was disappointed to not see though.  In particular, panning tips would be appreciated.  I have just started to play with panning and was looking for any suggestions possible.  He does talk a bit about the shutter speed, but does not cover the techniques for holding and moving the camera.

There is also one point where I disagree with him.  Bryan talks about the RAW format and how it can be used as an anti-ND filter.  While it is true that one can change the exposure of a shot in the RAW file and I agree that one should always shoot in RAW, I disagree with taking a shot that is deliberately underexposed by up to two stops in order to fix it later in RAW.  The problem is that the shadows contain much less dynamic range than the highlights.  I have done this before with RAW files and the result is much more noise than if I would have just increased the ISO in the first place.

The other large complaint I have about the book is it is a bit too much of photos and too little of writing.  While the photos are helpful, you can read through the book quite quickly because there isn’t that much text.  Even the text that is there often repeats many of the same points, with the end result that the major points of the entire book would probably take just a few pages.

Still, I recommend reading this book for both beginner and intermediate photographers.  I received this book as a gift, but after reading it I don’t think I will reference it that often that I would have wanted to buy it myself.  Therefore, I recommend you take a look at it in your local library.

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In general, I found this to be an outstanding book for learning composition and how to inspire yourself to take better pictures.  A lot of the advice here are things that make sense and should be intuitive, but still ring a bell when reading.

Ironically, I do not really like the author’s own pictures.  In fact, I was almost ready to bring the book back after reading the first chapter.  The author seems to imply that he is a great master and is quite full of himself.  He then states that one should be greatly impressed with another’s photos before taking his advice, and follows with his portfolio.

I’m sure some people may like these photos, but I found many of them to be ‘forced’.  Most of the shots are abstract, and I do like some abstract photography, but I got the feeling that many shots were there due to the geometry and placement of objects within the scene, but the shots didn’t have the symbolism and subtexts that are evident in the best abstract works.

Amazingly though, that did not make this a less useful book.  Because he comes from an analytical background, the author explains artistic concepts in words that technical people like myself can understand.  The book goes into depth on how to use the edges of the shot, what types of angles work and which ones do not, and to frame a shot and how not to.

Interestingly, the author is strongly against many of the concepts that we learn early on in photography.  For instance, I have read on many websites that it is a good idea to frame a shot using a tree.  The author states that this is the mark of an amateur photo and doesn’t really look good and after thinking about it I concur.

Other useful sections discuss what to do when you find yourself in a ‘photographers cramp’.  He talks about shooting other things than what you came for and has a tremendous number of good ideas on how to restart the creative juices.

At some point, I do think I will buy a copy of this book even though I have already read it.  Many of the bullet points he provides are worth going back to for further inspiration.  Although I am currently without a camera at the moment, I do think I have noticed an improvement in my photos from the few times I have borrowed a camera.

Therefore I think this is one of the stranger reviews I have done recently.  I really hated the book when I started it, but as I progressed I found a great number of really helpful tidbits that will help me take my photography to the next level.  I don’t agree with all points – for instance I did not find his section on photography levels very useful – but this book is well worth it for those looking into how to improve their photography.

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The two primary cameras for young children today are the following.  Please note that by ordering through these links you are helping to support this site.

Note that these are really just two cameras.  Each camera comes in either pink or blue.  Both cameras have been updated recently – but the update is strictly to add more megapixels to the existing cameras.  Everything else about them hasn’t changed.

We gave the Fisher Price camera to our older son when he was three years old.  He used that until losing it in Jerusalem, after which we replaced it with the VTech.

The Fisher Price is a more basic camera, but we felt that it took more high quality pictures.  Here is a shot that Eitan took with it while in Thailand.

The pictures are of a decent quality and generally it exposes quite well.  Here’s a shot he took indoors of his brother.

The camera is really no frills.  It does not have a zoom, the flash cannot be turned off, and obviously the exposure cannot be overridden.  However, for a young child it is extremely easy to use.  It is also practically indestructible as it did go flying on several occasions.

Eitan absolutely loved the camera and was heartbroken when he lost it.  Rather than buying the same camera, I decided to buy the VTech due to the higher megapixel count and the fact that it has video.

The VTech isn’t as good when it comes to pictures.  Although it has more megapixels than the Fisher Price, the optical quality isn’t as good and the exposure is often wrong – particularly when the flash fires.

Here’s an example shot from the VTech.  In general we have noticed far fewer ‘keepers’ from this camera.

You can see that the quality isn’t nearly as good as the Fisher Price, despite the fact that it has a higher number of megapixels.

The VTech does have the advantage that it supports video and has games on it.  For awhile Eitan played these games a lot.  In fact, I think he has used it more for the games than for pictures or video.

For video though, it can be quite funny seeing what happens when a hyperactive kid takes it out for a spin.  He took this video when we weren’t watching. (Note: if for some reason the video does not appear here you can also view it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirispupis/2993531665/)

He played around with the video for a bit, but no longer uses it.

Recently, Eitan has stopped using the camera completely because it doesn’t zoom.  Currently I help him take pictures with my camera, which he loves to do.  I have been eyeing buying him the Olympus SW1030, which is rugged enough for his age but is a bit high for our budget right now.

However, between the Fisher Price and the VTech kids cameras, in my opinion (and Eitan’s) the Fisher Price is the clear winner.  The VTech has more features and a higher resolution, but the Fisher Price is much easier to use and takes better quality shots.

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