My First 'Proper' Focus Stacked Image

[Seapy]

Recently I revisited one of my favourite botanic gardens, Ness Gardens, on the Wirral.

Apart from the prime reason I went to get a selection of good images of Peris Formosa Forrestii, I also took some exposures suitable for focus stacking.  It was slightly overcast with almost no shadows, a slight breeze occasionally so ideal conditions.

The subject was a rather nice Carex Dallii bush in a sheltered corner of the gardens.

I used the D3 with micro Nikkor 105mm f/4.0 lens, the five exposures were @ 1/100sec at f11, ISO400.

The front stacked image:



And a close to 100% crop:



The stacked 100% crop:



And finally the stacked image:



I really enjoyed creating this image, I have been fascinated by focus stacking for a long time.  I intend to do many more.  Remarkably while I didn't realise at the time I was surprised to see that the plant is actually quite hairy, my close vision isn't particularly good (without glasses) but it was a really good lucky choice to show off such a hairy plant.

[Ron Scubadiver]

Incredible detail.

[JohnMM]

The subject was a rather nice Carex Dallii bush in a sheltered corner ...

It looks like a Grevillea. There's a popular cultivar called 'Canberra Gem' found in this colour.

[armando_m]

Very nice results

[Seapy]

It looks like a Grevillea. There's a popular cultivar called 'Canberra Gem' found in this colour.

Mmmm, I'm no botanist...  I was going by the label below the bush bearing the flowers...  I guess labels get moved or placed in the wrong area.

Will check out images of Grevillea and compare.    Grevilliea genus will do just as well, it does indeed seem to match well with Grevillea Johnsonii. Both commemorative names, two in one photograph!  Extra good. 

Thank you for the correction.

[Seapy]

Incredible detail.

Thanks Ron, I was quite amazed myself, given the basic setup.

Very nice results

Thank you Armando,  I am encouraged to do more.

[ArthurDent]

Really a very nice image. You are inspiring me to give it a try!

[Seapy]

Really a very nice image. You are inspiring me to give it a try!

I do hope so, it's very rewarding getting such good definition of an entire subject, yet retaining acceptable background bokeh.

The hardest bit for me was in post process, after stacking.  There were quite a few artefacts to clone and patch out.  It may have been due to the relatively wide increments I used to focus, five slices only, I suspect much finer slices and a larger aperture (together with a higher shutter speed) would have been a better strategy.  Maybe f5.6 and 2 or 3mm slices; even, regular intervals using a rail, rather than twist and hope helix focusing?

I think the choice of subject is important too, it was pure chance that I discovered the plant I chose to experiment with was hairy, with such interesting detail, I hadn't seen (noticed?) the hairs until I got home and looked at the images on the big screen, even then I thought they were some sort of artefact at first.

[Fons Baerken]

Nothing wrong with this obsolete cam, came out sharp revealing the details what more do you want.

[cmcollar]

Very nice.  Thank you for sharing.  I've got so much experimenting to do....