LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Stopped down to f/8.
50 stacks covering 40 mm.
Used flash instead of natural light
Neutral background.

Curious what the serious stackers would say....

This is likely the limit of my "manual process".

(Download)

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

Pretty, with beautiful resolution.

A-PeeR Loc: Houston, Texas

This is very well done Allen. I gave it a good look-see and can't find anything to nitpick. Lovely composition and the exposure is just right.

Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

I really like this! Nicely done :thumbup:

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Works for me Allen, down to the finest detail.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

I'm impressed too.

pgr Loc: Alabama

This is an impressive photo! I like the way you did this one.

tinusbum Loc: east texas

beautiful!!!! 50 shots,wow!

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Yeah, I know. I got a little obsessive after the first try. The most I've ever done before was like 22.
For some reason, I couldn't load them all, so I tried a different process: I loaded ten at a time, processed and saved as a "TIFF"-- and then stacked these five TIFFS.
I actually didn't know if this would work. I tried to collect some of the Damsel Flies to stack but it was 97 yesterday and humid. My glasses kept fogging from the heat/humidity. I'd love to know how you guys who get consistently warm/humid weather shoot in those conditions. I'm just a wimp. :oops:

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Thanks. I did take your advice and used flash. For some reason, I had to go all "purist". ;-) I do like the consistent lighting I get with the diffused flash. Maybe Zerene is more forgiving on lighting levels, but Helicon will not combine images when there is too much discrepancy in the lighting from one image to another.

I went with the black background in response to your Wolf Spider stacks. You get a nice background-- I (sometimes)get crap. This is why I asked about how far from the Wolf your background was-- so I can pay more attention to how the background might look. My best outdoor stacks have had separation between the subject and the background.

I may do a trial of Zerene-- but I don't care for redundancy in programs. I basically went with Helicon, because back when I first got into stacking, Zerene wasn't available for MACS and I wanted to stack using RAW files.

I haven't given up on hand-held stacking-- but I haven't been successful either (yet).