Endless Prison Bars

[gnagel]

Another one from the Ohio State Reformatory...thankfully the Z7ii makes focus stacking super quick and easy!

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I captured these repeating cell bar images at various focal lengths. For this wider focal length, the focus stack was just 4 frames. When I went with the 200mm focal length, it took more than 20 frames.

Glenn

 

[Louis Champan]

Incredible image Glenn. I know nothing about focus stacking but I do know that I very much like this image.

 

[SFIND]

Powerful image, Glenn. Makes the prison feel nearly endless.

 

[Allan]

Great use of focus stacking.

 

[gnagel]

Incredible image Glenn. I know nothing about focus stacking but I do know that I very much like this image.

Thanks Louis…the focus stacking made this image possible. The bars in the front of the frame are just 12 inches or so from the lens and the bars in the back of the frame are quite distant. Even at the narrowest aperture there’s no way to get all the bars in focus. So focus stacking allows one to take multiple exposures—at different distances. I started by capturing an image of the nearest bar and then let the camera keep shifting the focus point further and further out until the furthest bars were in focus. I used Photoshop to blend the frames so that only the sections that were in focus from each frame were used to build the image.

Glenn

 

[Mitchell]

Striking! The focus stacking really works great here, Glenn. Well worth your efforts!

 

[gnagel]

Powerful image, Glenn. Makes the prison feel nearly endless.

Thanks…I favor images with a vanishing point.

Glenn

 

[gnagel]

Great use of focus stacking.

Thank you, Allan

Striking! The focus stacking really works great here, Glenn. Well worth your efforts!

Thanks Mitch…it is surprising how little effort focus stacking entails with the Z7 or the D850!

Glenn

 

[NCV]

Great picture and a great technique that I am going to investigate.

 

[Mike Buckley]

Nice use of focus stacking!

This same image could have been made years ago once Photoshop was first released about 1988. If software was available earlier that utilized layers, it could have been done earlier. However, the photographer first would have had to have manually done the focus bracketing and then would have had to combine the layers by manually removing the part of each layer that wasn't in focus.

Then focus-stacking software that eliminated the need to manually combine the layers was released about the early 2000s, though I couldn't determine exactly when. That made the job a LOT easier and faster.

Then external devices connected to cameras made it possible to automatically do the focus bracketing, eliminating the need to manually refocus each shot at a different focal distance.

Then cameras were released that automatically do the focus bracketing with no need for an external device to make it happen.

Last, cameras were released that automatically do the focus bracketing and the focus stacking. Some of them even do this successfully when photographing handheld.

We really have come a long way, baby! As Gary likes to remind us, it's a great time to be a photographer.

 

[Bart]

Another b&w masterpiece, Glenn!

Reminds me of the phrase from Dantes Inferno "abandon all hope ye who enter here"

 

[gnagel]

Great picture and a great technique that I am going to investigate.

Thanks...it can certainly be a useful technique for creating certain photographs.

Another b&w masterpiece, Glenn!

Reminds me of the phrase from Dantes Inferno "abandon all hope ye who enter here"

Thank you, Bart...it must have felt hopeless to many who entered this prison. It was a maximum security prison, so most of the inmates had long sentences. Now, there is a newer maximum security prison right next to this one--a building which makes it even harder for anyone contemplating an escape.

Glenn

 

[RonS]

Excellent Glenn. I also love the Z stacking process.

 

[drr1531]

Another one really nicely done, Glenn.

 

[Binnur]

Great image Glenn.