Gear Talk > Processing & Publication

Focus stacking gone awry

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Ian Watson:
Good evening everyone,

I found this example of hymenoptera on the patio. It was deader than the parrot in a certain Monty Python sketch. So I decided to try stacking focus. One lesson learned is that one has to be more careful with distance. A Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/4 with PN-11 extension tube should have worked closer if I had done so. This image was cropped to compensate.

My main question, though, is what is causing the artefacts you can see? I checked and nothing moved between all 21 frames. Is this a demonstration of the limits of Photoshop for this sort of thing?

Birna Rørslett:
You need a better stacking software. Zerene or Helicon Focus are better options. Your dead parrot oops fly  should be an easy target.

Do note that stacking mercilessly exposes minor flaws with the individual frames.

Ian Watson:
Thanks for the advice, Birna. I shall investigate.

Ian Watson:
Here is the result of running my frames through Zerene Stacker. It was my first time using the software and is a simple PMax output. The artefacts that Photoshop introduced have gone but detail in the body seems less clear. I must tinker further.

pluton:
Cool shot.  I'm not an expert on Zerene having only used the free trial, but could there have been camera or subject movement between exposures?

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