Day Lily in Morning Dew, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

In the early morning, in a shady nook in my garden, I found this day lily in the morning dew.

At the close macro range of this photo, it’s hard to get all the flower in focus even with the lens fully stopped down. So I combined six different captures in Photoshop. Each capture had a different point of focus.

I’ve dubbed this technique HFR. You can read more about the technique, and see other examples, in High Focal Range (HFR), Red Flowering Dogwood Blossom, and Gaillardia x grandiflora. Overall, if done right, you can use this technique to get a subtle three dimensional effect, but not so 3-D that it is disturbing in the way those 3-D spectacles in the movies were.

[Nikon D300, 200mm f/4 macro lens (300mm in 35mm terms), 36mm extension tube, six captures combined in Photoshop, each capture using a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds at f/40 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]