“De’s Room” is a created still life portrait of my wife in absentia. Her sacred sewing room includes her dress form and hat, which suggests her physical presence. Other artifacts represent and “reflect” three other generations, which says as much about De as her passion for color and textile.
The image was created by taking multiple images in De’s room with different focus points. The original settings were ISO500, 32mm, f/8, and various shutter speeds. I then stacked the images in Photoshop to ensure sharp focus throughout the image.
However, I learned a few things in this process that I had not experienced in previous focus stacking projects! First, there were too many images, (over 30) which really slowed down the process, triggered a scratch disk error (out of memory) and left lots and lots of weird visual artifacts for cleaning up. The extensive patterning in the sewing mat was where the artifacts were most visible.
I reduced the number of images and tried a few more times. Even with just three images, the final image required more touch-up than expected with the cloning and healing tools in Photoshop. I made final adjustments to contrast, clarity etc.
Anyway, here is “De’s Room,” the final product. It’s a busy image, obviously, and there are definitely things I would change in a reshoot, but I love how well I think it encapsulates a very important part of my wife’s life