This article features a selection of praying mantis at night test images that were captured handheld using in-camera focus stacking and the M.Zuiko 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens.
Sometimes Mother Nature provides a photographic test opportunity which represents a significant challenge. Such was the case yesterday night when a praying mantis decided to perch on the glass panel of my kitchen’s patio door.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
The moment that I noticed the praying mantis I grabbed my E-M1X and mounted the M.Zuiko 60 mm f/2.8 macro lens on it. Given that the available light in my kitchen was somewhat dim, I decided that my best chance to get any useable images would be to use in-camera focus stacking and a fairly wide open aperture. My first image was of the entire praying mantis perched on my patio door… which provides context for the other macro images I captured.
Since I was photographing through two panes of glass it was important that I paid attention to my shooting angle as to avoid as much distortion as possible. The photographic challenge was further enhanced by movements by the praying mantis. While it was quite slow with leg and body movements, I had to also be aware of its head and antenna.
When I began capturing these handheld in-camera focus stacked macro images I was unsure if I would be able to get anything the least bit useable. The praying mantis was perched in a difficult spot on my patio door in terms of potential reflections from items in my kitchen. As the praying mantis slowly moved on the patio door I had to continually adjust my shooting angle.
It’s one thing to luck into a successful image capture, and quite another to create a selection of images to help demonstrate that a particular technique can be successfully replicated. As it grew increasingly dark outside I decided to persevere with the challenge at hand.
As regular readers will know, I typically shoot handheld in-camera focus stacked macro images while sitting on a short stool. This was not possible given the location of the praying mantis on my patio door. So, I had to devise another handheld technique ‘on-the-fly’ as I continued to capture images. Ultimately I found that applying a fair amount of side pressure on my right hand, forearm or elbow helped to steady my E-M1X against the patio door sufficiently to capture my runs of 10 in-camera stacked images. I used my standard Focus Differential of 4.
Since the output of my E-M1X’s in-camera focus stacking is a jpeg I did my best to keep my ISO to a maximum of ISO-3200. I did capture a few images at ISO-5000… an example of which is at the end of this article. My handheld shutter speeds varied from 1/25th to a low of 1/13th of a second. Some of my images show some antenna movement blur which was unavoidable given the relatively slow shutter speeds utilized.
When it came to working on these out-of-camera jpegs in post, I found that using DxO PhotoLab 4 was counterproductive, so I began my image process in post by opening them up with my old copy of PhotoShop CS6. After making some quick adjustments in CS6, I used my out-of-date copies of the Nik Collection and Topaz Denoise AI and/or Sharpen AI to finish my images. All photographs displayed in this article are full frame captures resized for this website.
I wasn’t really expecting that I’d be able to get any useable photographs from this praying mantis at night test. I was pleasantly surprised with my resulting images. As photographers we sometimes shy away from shooting through glass as it can be a tricky proposition. Using a macro lens handheld at slower shutter speeds… as well as shooting multiple images with in-camera focus stacking further complicates the challenge.
I’ve always enjoyed pushing myself and my camera gear to find out what is possible Overall this praying mantis at night test was a very worthwhile and rewarding experience. It helped prove the validity of a technique that I can use in similar situations in the future.
Technical Note
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from out-of-camera jpegs using PhotoShop CS6, the Nik Collection, and Topaz Denoise AI and/or Topaz Sharpen AI. All photographs are display as full frame captures without any cropping. Images were resized for web use. This is the 1,310 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.
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Impressive that you avoided reflections from your kitchen in the shots. I tend to be amazed at how slow a shutter speed you can use without a tripod and still get sharp images. Keep up the good work.
Hi Lewsh,
The articulated rear screen on my E-M1X helped to get the right shooting angle to avoid reflections. The camera’s IBIS performance really helps with handheld shutter speeds.
Tom
Good evening,
In such difficult conditions, wouldn’t focus bracketing have been preferable, which allows complete post-processing by selecting only the parts in focus from the various frames?
Best regards.
Hi Riccardo,
Since I hate doing work in post I wouldn’t choose that option. I suppose other photographers may want to take that route.
If I wanted to combine the images in post using in-camera focus stacking, I still had the 10 RAW files that I could have used to do that operation on my computer.
Tom