EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

This is a winged aphid that I found in the little flower recently posted.

(Download)

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

How many images in stack?
Exif info:
Camera Model: NIKON D7000
Lens: 105.0 mm f/2.8
Image Date: 2015-02-21
Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: ƒ/16.0
Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200)
ISO equiv: 200
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Spot
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Manual
Light Source: Flash
Flash Fired: No

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Douglass, when I saw this exif information I was totally confused because I knew I had taken these at f5.6. I then checked through all the photos and realised that I had inadvertently included the last one I took which was at f16 just for my interest. I am told that PS uses the last photo for its exif information and this must be the explanation.

This was a 40 stack at f5.6 with flash light off camera and to one side plus normal ambient house lighting - it was late at night.
Thank you for changing the name for me, I realized I labeled it incorrectly after I had gone to bed.
By the way, it was not dead but just sleeping. It had moved from inside the flower to the outside and moved about a bit later.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Hey Brenda, First I want to say your really have excellent lighting for this capture. White and yellows are the toughest to photograph and not blow out with flash. Over all a great shot. Now just a word of caution. Of coarse only my opinion and hopefully Allen and William and a few of the guys will pipe in on this. Sometimes too much overlap or too many stacks is a bad thing. If you look closely you will see all of the fine detail is missing in the photo. Color and structure is there, but not detail. Even at ISO200 every shot you take, you end up stacking all of the Noise into the photo. The subject is extremely flat, I would think 10 photos at the most at say f/9 or a little less would have produced a much cleaner result. I am at a disadvantage here, as I stack by hand and use just my eyes to adjust forward movement to capture the slices of focus to stack. I'm guessing you referred to a chart to tell you how far to move your lens per stack at f/5.6 per 15% over lay/using a rail?? This is where I hope the Boys pipe in. Or maybe your focusing your lens by hand. In my opinion, I think unless your beyond 2:1, f/7.1 to f/9 works wonderful, resulting in less slices of focus, giving enough detail long before destroying the photo with diffraction. A happy medium as it were.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Thanks Martin, I have taken on board your suggestions and am about to start another stack using your suggestions. I stack by turning the focus ring by hand.

Macronaut Loc: Redondo Beach,Ca.

Brenda, you are progressing at light speed :thumbup:

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Bill, you would lift anyone's spirits. I could do with a double dose of you everyday. But I think you have hit the nail on the head in that I am trying to progress too quickly. Also, Martin has offered me the suggestion to try smaller stacks at a slightly smaller aperture, and that is my present aim.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

You don't mention how you arrive at the distance focused between each stack. I have used a tripod on several occasions and arrived at the distance by viewing in Live View and watching the distanced I moved my Focusing ring from one focus band to the next. Not scientific by any means, but this allows for a Little over lapping and getting the most DoF per photo. If you use a Strip of Graphing paper wrapped around your lens and chalk a mark on your lens barrel, you can easily track how far you focus your lens, between the stacks. Hope I'm making sense?? I know these subjects are much larger than your subject, but check out the hair on this beetle and also the eyes of these two subjects. F/9 works very well In The Field at the magnification your using. Just think how much cleaner this could be if a tripod was used.

Here's an example of detail at F/9 a around 25 photos deep

(Download)

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Hi Martin, the cleanness of your photo here is indeed impressive. My method of moving the focus ring is similar to how you mention, i.e. looking through live view or the eye piece and moving the ring through a couple of its notches. I believe now that I have been moving it too little a distance and practising on too small subjects for my skill level. I always use a tripod unless in the field but it is interesting that the stack I did freehand of a small beach hopper insect some time ago is better than I do with the focus ring. This may be because I did larger leaps with overlap and could see better what I was doing on a bigger subject.

Yesterday I practised on an inanimate object using only between 6-8 raw shots at f/9 as you suggested and this was an improvement - more efforts today. I will try the graph paper tip.
Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.