hankinslawrenceimages

Danceline Tulips

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 19, 2019 | Liliaceae Family

While I was photographing tulips at Longwood Gardens, I fell in love with the Danceline Tulips. They reminded me of some of the ranunculus I photographed a few years ago – white petals with bits of purple. Instead of purple – these amazing tulips have varying amounts of red on the petals.

Graveyard Angel, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans Palladium Toned Kallitype – New Photo

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 17, 2019 | Cemeteries, Kallitypes, Louisiana, New Photos

Graveyard Angel, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans Palladium Toned Kallitype © 2019 Patty Hankins

I’ve recently added a new palladium-toned kallitype – Graveyard Angel, Metairie Cemetery, New Orleans Palladium Toned Kallitype – to my website at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/graveyard-angel-metairie/

A wonderful seated angel surrounded by columns at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

This photograph is printed using the late 19th-century photographing printing process known as Kallityping. The emulsion is hand-painted onto the paper, exposed with a negative under bright lights, and toned with palladium. Each print from a negative is slightly different – so these are one of a kind images.

The photographs are printed on 8 X 10″ Bergger 100% Cotton Cot 320 paper. They are matted to 11 X 14″ in a white acid-free mat.

These one-of-a-kind kallitypes are available for $ 49.00

Fun with Focus Stacking

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 14, 2019 | Photo Tips, Software, Uncategorized

One of the questions I get asked fairly regularly is how do I get so much in focus (or so great a depth of field) in some of my flower photos that I take in my studio? People realize that since my camera is so close to my subject that it can be hard (if not impossible) to get everything the sharp focus.

The way I do it is to use a technique called focus stacking. Basically, I take multiple images of the same scene using a different focal point for each image, and then merge the images in software to create one image with a greater depth of field than I can get in a single capture. I used to use a program called Helicon Focus from Helicon Soft for focus stacking. These days I usually use Photoshop, with Helicon Focus as an alternate if I’m not happy with what I get in Photoshop.

Here are a few of my focus-stacked images with information on how many photographs I combined to create my final image

I combined 9 images to create this photograph of a purple poppy anemone.

Purple Poppy Anemone © 2017 Patty Hankins

I combined 10 images to create this photograph of a pink and white tulip.

Pink & White Tulip Petals © 2019 Patty Hankins

I combined 10 images to create this photograph of a purple zinnia.

I combined 11 images to create this photograph of a Peaches and Dreams dahlia.

Petals of a Peaches & Dreams Dahlia © 2018 Patty Hankins

I combined 13 images to create this photograph of the Tulip Petal Wave

I combined 19 images to create this photograph of a Teddy Bear Gerbera Daisy

Teddy Bear Gerbera Daisy © 2017 Patty Hankins

And finally, I combined 25 images to create this photograph of Babe spray roses.

If you’d like to learn more about focus-stacking and how I take the different images that I then stack to create the final image, join me on July 27 for my Photographing Local Flowers in the Studio Workshop. We’ll spend some time talking about and working on focus stacking during the workshop. More information about the workshop including registration information is available at https://beautifulflowerpictures.com/store/local-flowers-workshop-july-2019/

If you’d like a sneak peek at how I create my focus-stacked images before the workshop, I’ve put some slides from a talk about focus stacking on my blog at http://www.beautifulflowerpictures.com/blog/focus-stacking-step-by-step-instructions/

Focus Stacking Step-by-Step Instructions

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 13, 2019 | Photo Tips

One of the questions I get asked fairly regularly is how do I get so much in focus (or so great a depth of field) in some of my flower photos that I take in my studio? People realize that since my camera is so close to my subject that it can be hard (if not impossible) to get everything the sharp focus.

The way I do it is to use a technique called focus stacking. Basically, I take multiple images of the same scene using a different focal point for each image, and then merge the images in software to create one image with a greater depth of field than I can get in a single capture. I used to use a program called Helicon Focus from Helicon Soft for focus stacking. These days I usually use Photoshop, with Helicon Focus as an alternate if I’m not happy with what I get in Photoshop.

Here are some slides for a talk I recently gave that give step-by-step instructions on how I do my focus stacking in Photoshop.

Estella Rijnveld Parrot Tulips

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 12, 2019 | Liliaceae Family

Every year Longwood Gardens creates an amazing display of tulips! When I visit Longwood in late April, I know I’ll likely see some varieties I’ve seen before – and some that are new to me.

This year – one of the spectacular tulips I photographed for the first time were the Estalla Rijnveld Parrot Tulips. Bright colors, fabulous shapes, incredible textures – what more could a flower photographer ask for than what I found in these extraordinary tulips.