A Stacked Cactus Blossom

broby6

Here is an attempt at focus stacking. I wanted to try out my new Giotto tripod in a awkward position, so I picked on this little potted cactus. Any comments or suggestions welcome.

Note the interesting stacking artifacts in the background at the top of the image. I should have allowed more room so I could crop those.

Bob Roby

Robinivich

Nice shot! And you made a good decision with framing, it needs the dead space where the artifacts are, I suppose this is a subject you can come back to?

Glenn NK

Yes, very nice shot and well done.

I just clone those marks out - or use the airbrush.

How many images in the stack, and what's the EXIF?

Kevin

that dof works well there, job well done.

Skippy

broby6 wrote:

Here is an attempt at focus stacking. I wanted to try out my new Giotto tripod in a awkward position, so I picked on this little potted cactus. Any comments or suggestions welcome.

Note the interesting stacking artifacts in the background at the top of the image. I should have allowed more room so I could crop those.

Bob Roby

Hi Bob, this is an excellent attempt, you already know where you went wrong, you've produced a lot of detail in image.

Next attempt you will get exactly what your after
Well Done!! ..... Skippy
.

broby6

Thanks for the comments guys
Glenn, the pertinant EXIF info is listed below.
I had the CL-49 closeup lens on for this shot. There were 11 frames in the stack. That might be overkill. The flower will last a couple more days so I may redo it with my Sony A100. Unforfunately I don't have a true macro lens (yet), but the Tamron 18-250 might do OK.

Camera: DiMAGE A200
Focal length: 16.7 mm (equiv. 64 mm)
Aperture: F4
Exposure time: 1/8"
ISO speed rating: 100/21°
Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Pattern
White Balance: Auto

Lord Vetinari

Excellent stack
You always get stacking borders from CZM or cz5 - the output picture is actually larger than the originals. Just crop it off.

Brian V.

Reeflections

Nice job.

You have inspired me to learn this technique. I have heard about it and understand the principle but of course it isn't something one could do underwater so I haven't tried it yet.

Any simple instructions posted somewhere?

Glenn NK

Reeflections wrote:

Nice job.

You have inspired me to learn this technique. I have heard about it and understand the principle but of course it isn't something one could do underwater so I haven't tried it yet.

Any simple instructions posted somewhere?

The "stickies" at the top of the Holy Macro forum are a great help.

When you get stuck, holler for Brian or perhaps I can help a bit, but I'm still learning (a lot).

I have one comment - I have done some diving and know that stability in the water is much harder than stability on land.

Brian does some of his stack shots without a tripod, and for the life of me I don't know how he does it. I always use a tripod as alignment of the multiple images is rather critical. You sure don't want to be drifting towards and away from your subject.

I find that the focus distance between consecutive images is so small that I barely turn the focus ring at all. This amounts to a few millimetres or less and preventing underwater movement this small will be extremely difficult. Just my take on it.