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First off...thank you for your service!

Since this isn't the induction center, I hope I won't have to recruit you too hard to try focus stacking! :)

Posting a single photo and 10 stacked photos. The composition is junk... it was just something I had available to compare for you.

Photo 1 single photo: D850 Nikkor 24-70 zoom @24mm, f/2.8 1/200 sec, ISO 1600, room light.

Photo 2 10 photos: Same camera and lens. @24mm, F/9, 1.6 sec, ISO-64, room light

PP with Helicon Lite, NX2, PSE, ON and Perfectly Clear (both photos)

Give it a try. Good Luck!

Jim

Here is the direct comparison you asked for. I hope that a two inch long rock is OK as a subject. The first image was shot at f/32. The second is a stack of 16 images shot at f/8. I cropped 2048 X 1365 samples from each at 100%. I didn't do any post processing on these other than that.

Mike

Rock - one frame at f/32 on Flickr

Rock - stacked 16 frames at f/8 - on Flickr

I am posting an example that I use in my workshops to show the benefits of focus stacking. The subject is a small lithop colony in flower. One was taken at f/32 while the focus stack was taken at 7.1. I did not record the magnification but I believe it is in the neighborhood of one-half lifesize. Two separate benefits should be perceived. First, more of the image is in focus in the focus stacked image. Second, the ability to use a larger aperture setting limits the effect of diffraction, which allows the focus stacked image to be sharper than the stopped down example at the point of focus in the stopped down example. Compare the flower center at the front right in both photos, as shown in the flower center crop from both of the images .