Focus stacking

[Don Kondra]

ControlMyNikon and CombineZP (free but only does jpeg's)

10 images with D800/105mm and Kenko extension tubes = 180mm

Two strobes from the sides, background is a yellow dish towel from Lee Valley, prop is a piece of aloe vera plant.

Roughly half of the original image size. I process the raw files, save to jpeg and then stack.



In ControlMyNikon set the start/stop depth and number of images. Click the shutter and it does the rest..

Cheers, Don

 

[desmobob]

Does anyone else feel that way, or am I just showing my age/attitude?

This.

Dang... I was afraid of that!

 

[mikew_RIP]

The focus-stacked shots look great!

As someone who spent some time messing around with macro shooting years ago, the prospects of pretty much unlimited depth of focus is very appealing. But on the other hand, for me, it sort of crosses the line as far as digital manipulation goes.

Does anyone else feel that way, or am I just showing my age/attitude?

I dont see a line to cross, its just advances in technology.

 

[STM]

I used to use the Focus Stacking routine in Photoshop but wound up having to do a lot of touch up with it afterwards. Some subjects, where there were a lot of images with very fine detail it would not do at all. I switched to Zerene Focus Stacker and have had to do very little if any work afterwards. It is a bit on the pricy side, but if you do a lot of focus stacking like I do, it is definitely worth the money. This image of a Carpenter Bee required 50 images to be focus stacked so I could get her entire body and wings in sharp focus. I used a 55mm f/2.8 AIS Micro Nikkor on a PB-6 bellows at f/8 and the depth of field was about as thick as a piece of paper.