Cold Feet!

Today dawned like yesterday, clear, frosty and freezing. I got out early again to take photos but unlike yesterday when I was basically happy-snapping, I took a tripod out with me and took series of photos to enable me to use photo stacking in Photoshop.

By turning the focus ring on the lens ever so slightly between shots, you can get a set of photos showing a subject at slightly different focal lengths. In post-processing, the software blends each of the photos together so that the ultimate product shows only the sharpest details. See my extra of frosty moss.

The process was straightforward but did take processing power. You need RAM!

For those who might also be using CC, here was my workflow. Select the photos you want to use in grid view in Lightroom and export as high res jpgs. You might be able to use the dngs as an alternative. You can choose Edit In Photoshop which will open the dngs, BUT, then you have to somehow change the mode of each of the layers to 8 bit. I doubled back to Lightroom after the export, selected the exported jpgs and chose Photo > Edit In > Open as Layers in Photoshop.

Changing the mode enables you to then choose (within Photoshop) Edit > Auto-Align Layers. Once this is done, choose Edit > Auto-Blend Layers and choose stacking.

Your computer should then do the rest. It should go without saying that mounting the camera on a tripod to take the photos in the first instance will make this task infinitely easier.

Basil and I went out at lunch time. Len dropped us off in Loughborough, and I tottered round to The Berber Shop. Aziz was having one of his 'I so want to go back to Morocco' days. I could tell you a possible cause but it probably wouldn't be prudent.

It was my turn to buy the coffee. Customers came in and out. While Aziz disappeared upstairs to pray, I went round the front of the counter to keep Basil company. He much prefers to be out in the shop where he can watch the street and interact with people coming in. He had cold feet, which isn't really surprising, seeing as he'd been walking bare footed on frozen ground. 

A lady came in who remarked that he might appreciate putting his feet in a pair of the slippers on display. I think he did like being warmed up a bit.