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Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

bbc.com

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Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#11

Post by pbronez »

pcdevils wrote: post #3
jl6 wrote: post #2

My, that was a yummy slime mold! > "You take multiple pictures, sometimes over 100 and it takes tiny little slivers of focus, and then you put all those into software, and that creates your final image." Is this a workaround to let us see “what it would look like”, or are there optical reasons why this produces an image that is inherently artificial, and could never really be perceived that way?

It's focus stacking so basically just compensating for the way macro lenses and large apertures work. There's nothing artificial about it, the software is just layering the sharpest parts into the photo. It's a common technique, heavily used for things like astro photography and landscape photography as well. https://www.canon.co.uk/get-inspired/tips-and-techniques/foc...

Can you leverage focus stacking on a mobile camera? I poked around a bit for relevant apps but didn’t see anything credible.

Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#12

Post by azath92 »

pbronez wrote: post #11
pcdevils wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's focus stacking so basically just compensating for the way macro lenses and large apertures work. There's nothing artificial about it, the software is just layering the sharpest parts into the photo. It's a common technique, heavily used for things like astro photography and landscape photography as well. https://www.canon.co.uk/get-inspired/tips-and-techniques/foc...

Can you leverage focus stacking on a mobile camera? I poked around a bit for relevant apps but didn’t see anything credible.

My understanding is that modern mobile phone cameras do heaps of "stacking" across multiple axes focus, exposure, time etc to compose a photo that saves onto your phone. I believe its one of the reasons for the multiple cameras on most flagship phones, and then each of them might take many "photos" or runs of data from their sensors per "photo" you take. id love to see a good writeup of the process, but my gut says exactly what they do under the hood would be pretty "trade secret"ie.

Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#13

Post by hermitcrab »

pbronez wrote: post #11
pcdevils wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's focus stacking so basically just compensating for the way macro lenses and large apertures work. There's nothing artificial about it, the software is just layering the sharpest parts into the photo. It's a common technique, heavily used for things like astro photography and landscape photography as well. https://www.canon.co.uk/get-inspired/tips-and-techniques/foc...

Can you leverage focus stacking on a mobile camera? I poked around a bit for relevant apps but didn’t see anything credible.

Can any mobile cameras focus close enough to be useful for macro? Maybe you can buy a third party add-on lens?

Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#14

Post by Zababa »

hermitcrab wrote: post #13
pbronez wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you leverage focus stacking on a mobile camera? I poked around a bit for relevant apps but didn’t see anything credible.

Can any mobile cameras focus close enough to be useful for macro? Maybe you can buy a third party add-on lens?

Depends on what level of macro you want, but with modern phones you can get pretty close, usually with the wide angle lens.

On iPhones: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/take-macro-photos-and...

On Pixel: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/articles/pixel-macro-...

I'd recommend playing around with it, it's a lot of fun!

Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#15

Post by hermitcrab »

Zababa wrote: post #14
hermitcrab wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can any mobile cameras focus close enough to be useful for macro? Maybe you can buy a third party add-on lens?

Depends on what level of macro you want, but with modern phones you can get pretty close, usually with the wide angle lens. On iPhones: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/take-macro-photos-and... On Pixel: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/articles/pixel-macro-... I'd recommend playing around with it, it's a lot of fun!

Had a quick play with my iPhone 15. It doesn't give the sort of magnification you would need for insect close-ups. I will stick with my Nikon DSLR + 100mm macro lens!

Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#18

Post by Zababa »

hermitcrab wrote: post #15
Zababa wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what level of macro you want, but with modern phones you can get pretty close, usually with the wide angle lens. On iPhones: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/take-macro-photos-and... On Pixel: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/articles/pixel-macro-... I'd recommend playing around with it, it's a lot of fun!

Had a quick play with my iPhone 15. It doesn't give the sort of magnification you would need for insect close-ups. I will stick with my Nikon DSLR + 100mm macro lens!

Yeah it's far from being as good as a DLSR or mirrorless with a dedicated macro lens. Still, most people reading HN have one in their pocket and it can be a good test to see if you like the idea of macro. It does work with larger insects, on a pixel 10 pro my mantis fill most of the frame.

Re: Photographing the hidden world of slime mould

#19

Post by adregan »

When I was a young urbanite, I might not have believed you if you told me that one day I would gain great pleasure in discovering large blooms of Dog vomit slime mold in the garden, but here we are.

Slime molds are really amazing; large patches spring up overnight and they are so vibrant in color.

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