woodweasel Loc: bellingham Wa

very interesting set👍👍

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Very nice first attempt. I like the middle one the best. Nice job.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

thanks

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thank you, #2 puts you in the majority, but #1 has a following that like it because it is different from the normal puffball photo and "more artistic". A few people at photo club today were of that opinion.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

I did like #1 also, just liked #2 more. you did good.

Bill_de Loc: US

You did a really nice job. I guess we will be seeing more of this technique used in your photos.

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robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

noted

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks, at least until I get tired of it. Then it will become just another tool for use when needed. Just like my new gadgets end up in the toolbox after the "new, gee whiz" wears off.

TWCPhotos Loc: Erie, Pa. USA

I am really new at this focus stacking, Can you show each shot of the middle picture and how each shot was refocused. Please help!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

To start, here is an article on Focus Stacking: https://digital-photography-school.com/a-beginners-guide-to-focus-stacking/

Due to a computer problem since I did that in 2017 I have lost(hopefully just lost track of) the 10 shots used for that image.
What I did was manually focus on the closest edge of the dandelion and then on the furthest part. Each time marking the increment mark on the focus ring of the lens. At the distance and with the macro lens I was using, it came out to 9 of the marks between the two. So I went back to the first mark, backed off one more mark for some foreground and took one shot, then moving the focus ring one mark and taking the next shot, etc. until I was at the mark for the far edge of the dandelion. I let the background be out of focus. The background and the flat surface the dandelion was on was a microfiber cleaning cloth taped to the front of a small box so that half the cloth was vertical behind the dandelion and half was on the table-top.
Lighting was the same for all, and so was the aperture and shutter speed. I then picked one of the shots in the middle of the string and tweaked it in the editing program for color, shadows, highlights etc. I then selected all the shots from the series and synced them. I then had the stacking software blend them all into one image, cropped that image and exported that with my signature for posting.

Now that I am reminded of that series of focus stacking experiments, I will go into my files for 2017 and check all the folders before the one with the final products to find frames that got photo stacked. At least I hope I can find them, I had a hard drive that started to die and got the software to do an emergency copy/clone of all my photo files to a new hard drive. I have always had a sneaking feeling that some file folders were lost. At the time I had 20K + image files in Lightroom, I am now at 31K+. And I cull and delete without mercy from time to time. If I didn't I would have at least 100K image files by now.

TWCPhotos Loc: Erie, Pa. USA

Wow, Thanks for taking the time to explain to me, this technique! Thank you

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You are welcome.

Quick and dirty method:
Focus on near or far side (your choice) of subject/background or foreground and then just change the focus a tiny bit while taking more shots until you reach the other edge of what you want in focus. not precise, not exactly duplicatable but it gets the job done. Of course the number of images will vary each time in most cases.

Then use editing software to tweak an image, sync all and blend. I sometimes experiment with blending first and then tweaking the result. Sometimes that comes out better, sometimes the same, sometimes not as good. But it is usually faster for a spur of the moment thing.

It also works for landscape etc. but of course since depth of field on the lens is much greater as distance increases, a landscape can be only 5 or so shots. I have done three shots for something like mountains far away or a large river. At those distances the depth of field often gets huge.

Just try it and play, have fun. Additional hint, to keep the string of images easy to find I often shoot a shot with hand over the lens, ground at my feet, up at the sky etc. at the start and end of a stacking string. It makes it easier to find and keep them together in processing. I met one guy who made a note of the subject etc. on a notebook and used images of the note for the start and end images of each string. On occasions where he was shooting lots of things he often did shots of notes just to remind himself of the what and where of his shots.