The “Flowerpod” has been a lifesaver when I feel like photography
and the conditions are not working with me. The Flowerpod is 10
inches long and weighs about one pound. I carry two of them in my
little 10x10-inch over-the-shoulder bag. The Flowerpod consists of
a very-well tooled collapsible tripod that expands to 44 inches not
counting the flexible arm that attaches by a strong magnet to the
top of it. That arm adds another ten inches and it is easy to add
more joints to make a much longer arm.
In the photo you can see I have one Flowerpod holding a home-
made collapsible diffuser to take the sting out of the light and a
second with an longer flexible arm that is holding the stem of the
bud from the weak-but- still-present wind. This combination gives
me what I need to carefully stack a photo, as shown here.
I know it is a lot of hassle but this combination works very well and
makes it possible to take photos I otherwise would not be able to
get. The Flowerpod is the invention of nature photographer Les
Saucier. Here is some more information on the device:
http://www.appalachianjourney.com/flowerpod/page45/
page45.html
Retouching Stacked Photos
Way back when I was first getting into focus stacking, I refused to
retouch, ever. If it needed retouching I just ignored that photo and
concentrated on those that were OK. Believe it or not, at that time I
felt that focus stacking was already such an almighty inconvenience
that I was damned if I would add insult to injury by having to fiddle
with the finished stacked photo. I was a close-up photographer and
this focus stacking was just something I was experimenting with
and pretty much a nuisance at that. It was a bit of a learning curve.
Of course the results of focus stacking did grab my attention and
ever-so gradually I became addicted and was drawn into the long
(and sometimes painful) process of stacking photos. Still,
retouching stacked photos was not something that I warmed to
easily, much less enjoyed. I did not have the patience and at that
time I still felt that if a photo needed retouching then I had done
something wrong. This just shows you how little I understood about
the mechanics of focus stacking, like: there is no way to avoid
retouching most stacked photos. Period.