robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I have a container of several dried out and preserved flowers, seeds, a couple of leaves and dandelion puff balls I accumulated just for focus stacking experiments.

This morning I put out a large brown leaf (6"), on it I laid a few dried flowers, a couple of puff balls (or remains there of) and a few seeds on a blue operating room wipe/cleaning cloth (wife an RN who did OR Charge Nurse her last several years working, got lots of these things). Set up one LED light on the side, regular room light and a small LED on the hot shoe.
5DIV with older non stabilized Canon 100 mm f/2.8 Macro on a tripod with a Manfrotto geared head for precise composition. I had to back off almost two feet to get the whole thing in the frame. I focused on the cloth just past the back of the display, used 30 frames and had the focus coming towards the camera (you get a choice of "to camera or "to infinity" for the focus shifts). Well with the f-stop at 3.5 the 30 frames I tried was not near enough to get it all in focus, basically I only got about the back 1/3 of my arrangement in focus.
Just as I was about to delete the whole thing I looked again and saw that with cropping it looked like an alien landscape with foreground objects blurred as if peeking through bushes at something. So I cropped it, then played with everything: exposure, contrast, highlights, color balance/temp etc.

This is the result, not really a picture of any thing and certainly not the "in focus" assortment I had arranged but kind of interesting. Now to redo the whole thing this time aiming for what I wanted, the whole arrangement in focus.

(Download)

ken_stern Loc: Yorba Linda, Ca

I LIKE IT !!!!!

Dan Downie Loc: Rochester, NY

I do, too!

Merlin1300 Loc: New England, But Now & Forever SoTX

Amazing Sharp !! And Great comp !!
I'm gonna have to take my 100mm f/2.8L IS out for a ride MUCH more often !!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

thank you

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thank you very much.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You know on second thought (and I just fed the Gold Fish) it could be an exotic aquarium.

Sirius_one Loc: S.F. Bay Area

Very nice!!!!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks a lot

Leicaflex Loc: Cymru

Excellent definition here.
Well done.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Robert, I really like this. The exposure and tonality is great. Visually, it's very interesting. Good work.
--Bob

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Nice!

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good Robert.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thank you very much. I think I need more powerful lights so I can get even tones etc without the gaps. The outdoor tries in sunlight don't have nearly as many blurred or double edge areas.