My first attempts at focus stacking

smithwith3fs

Hi Everyone - Happy New Year.

Looking at the Macro Focus stacking sticky I thought I would have a go myself.

Done with D200 and Tamron 90mm F2.8 using tripod and daylight. Processed in NX2 and CombineZM from RAW.

Anything you would have done different??

My first post so please be gentle

BTW if you know what types of fungi and moss they are I would welcome your answers - thanks.

Stumblebum

Welcome and congrats! Success! I hope to be able to do it someday this year! Cheers!

smithwith3fs

Many thanks SB, if you have the time it is very rewarding! Cheers.

Lord Vetinari

Very good stacks especially for first go.
You do have stacking borders on the shots which need cropping off (looks like an image reflection at the edges). You can sometimes avoid these by reversing the stack (ie using the shot nearest the subject as the start).
Brian v.

smithwith3fs

Thanks Brian, yes I see what you mean about the edges, not spotted that before I will have another go at stacking later to see if a reverse will cure it.

smithwith3fs

Had chance now to re- edit the moss shot. I used Combine ZP this time which seems to deal better with the grey area at the top of the picture (less noise). Also cropped it to remove 'stacked borders' as already suggested. It's good to know all the little things to look out for - thanks Brian.

I will be having more attempts in the coming days to see if I can improve my technique.

[URL="

Stumblebum

Lord Vetinari wrote: »

Very good stacks especially for first go.
You do have stacking borders on the shots which need cropping off (looks like an image reflection at the edges). You can sometimes avoid these by reversing the stack (ie using the shot nearest the subject as the start).
Brian v.

Hey Brian, where should I be looking at to see the 'reflections' in the original? It would help to learn! Cheers!

e6filmuser

They are bracket fungi, possibly two different species. I think the second one is a young Hoof or Tinder Bracket, Fomes fomentosus. They could both be the Turkeytail, Trametes versicolor, which is very variable in appearance.

I doubt that a moss can be identified without its spore capsules.

Harold

smithwith3fs

Harold you are most kind thank you very much.

Lord Vetinari

smithwith3fs wrote: »

Had chance now to re- edit the moss shot. I used Combine ZP this time which seems to deal better with the grey area at the top of the picture (less noise). Also cropped it to remove 'stacked borders' as already suggested. It's good to know all the little things to look out for - thanks Brian.

I will be having more attempts in the coming days to see if I can improve my technique.

[URL="http://"[url=https://flic.kr/p/qCVKZ5"][/URL]

Wonderful stack !
Brian v.

Lord Vetinari

Stumblebum wrote: »

Hey Brian, where should I be looking at to see the 'reflections' in the original? It would help to learn! Cheers!

SB - they always occur near the edge and can be on 1 to 4 of the edges depending on frame movement. The combine series stackers use a reflection of the image as above. Zerene stacker uses a stripe effect.
They are caused by that part of the image being missing in one or more of the stack slices. If you maintain an absolutely steady FOV then the image will be slightly wider in all directions in the slice furthest from the subject than in the one nearest. Hence if you reverse the stack to start with the slice nearest the subject it minimises the effect. If you get lateral movement drift whilst shooting the slices then you will get some sides with larger stacking border effects.
Brian V.

smithwith3fs

Lord Vetinari wrote: »

Wonderful stack !
Brian v.

Very many thanks Brian.

I will be starting to go through your quite extensive Macro tutorials soon, I will post how I get on!