Post your focus stacking photos here

Robin W

Robin W

Senior Member
Fred Kingston said:
There are basically 3 phases to Focus Stacking... each a separate endeavor.
1. Taking the actual images... determining how many and their focal lengths. There are a plethora of hardware methods. Focus rails, bellows, external triggers, and now even the Z cameras have internal triggers...
2. This phase is subjective where it goes in the workflow process, but some folks "process" the exposures here before stacking... denoise and sharpening...
3. The actual stacking process
Click to expand...
Wow! A lot to learn! Do you know a good inexpensive focus rail? The flower I took was hand held. I took some of a butterfly and he cooperated very well but unfortunately I was a little shaky and the photo did not turn out. I am using my Nikon D810 ( can't afford the mirrorless) and a Tokina Macro 100 F2.8 D.
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
I've been doing most of mine handheld. I'm shooting with a flash, so I can get small apertures and control the quality of the light. I move the camera forward and take a number of shots while slowly advancing the camera toward the subject. It's the same concept as a focusing rail, only without the equipment. This is a different crop of one I posted earlier today. I used 5 individual frames to get everything in focus. This was shot at F13, although I usually am at around F16 or F22. I'm sure the focusing rail makes things a lot simpler in shooting, but also require setting up a tripod and getting everything in place. I'm using a Z5, so I can use automatic focus stacking in camera instead of a focusing rail, but it still requires lugging a tripod around and setting it up. Lots of critters won't stick around while you do all that.

caterp-topaz-sharpen.jpg
 
Robin W

Robin W

Senior Member
Clovishound said:
I've been doing most of mine handheld. I'm shooting with a flash, so I can get small apertures and control the quality of the light. I move the camera forward and take a number of shots while slowly advancing the camera toward the subject. It's the same concept as a focusing rail, only without the equipment. This is a different crop of one I posted earlier today. I used 5 individual frames to get everything in focus. This was shot at F13, although I usually am at around F16 or F22. I'm sure the focusing rail makes things a lot simpler in shooting, but also require setting up a tripod and getting everything in place. I'm using a Z5, so I can use automatic focus stacking in camera instead of a focusing rail, but it still requires lugging a tripod around and setting it up. Lots of critters won't stick around while you do all that.

View attachment 396304
Click to expand...
Reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. Excellent photo!
 
Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
Have you tried hypnosis? Seriously, you just have to find a bug that doesn't like moving around that much. Some species are more mobile than others, bees and wasps fit into that category. I have yet to have a bee stay still enough to even think about focus stacking. Others, seem to stay put more. Grasshoppers, and dragonflies are in that category. I have several focus stacked dragonfly and grasshopper images. Also, you will find some individuals more prone to sitting still.

Early morning lower temps can help as well. All the cold blooded critters move slower when it's chilly.
 
Robin W

Robin W

Senior Member
Clovishound said:
Have you tried hypnosis? Seriously, you just have to find a bug that doesn't like moving around that much. Some species are more mobile than others, bees and wasps fit into that category. I have yet to have a bee stay still enough to even think about focus stacking. Others, seem to stay put more. Grasshoppers, and dragonflies are in that category. I have several focus stacked dragonfly and grasshopper images. Also, you will find some individuals more prone to sitting still.

Early morning lower temps can help as well. All the cold blooded critters move slower when it's chilly.
Click to expand...
Well I have found a sure fire way to get rid of bugs, all I have to do is get my camera with the macro lens and they all disappear. I went to my garden which is normally loaded with bugs nothing but very active bees. Not a grasshopper, stink bug, lady bug or any other slow moving bug in sight. I will give the early morning a try. When you figure out how to hypnotize them let me know, lol! Thanks for the advice.
 
DrJ

DrJ

New member
I was recently tasked to cover a local religious order's gathering to share their work. They displayed it in a long hallway. This is an image i focus-stacked from 4 images focused at 4 points along the hallway. The person in the distance moved during the process, hence is blurred.

IHM Projects - Stacked.JPG
 
DrJ

DrJ

New member
My latest effort. Entered this in the weekly nikonites.com weekly contest with "gold" as the theme. Unfortunately, it didn't get enough likes to make the top 3. I had fun doing it I took 5 shots, each focused at a different depth. Then I focus-stacked them using Affinity Photo. I opened my 55mm lens to f2.8 to reduce the depth of field. The focus stacking brought the whole bowl into focus but the shallow depth of field kept the background kind of soft.

Gold-small.JPG
 
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