1st Stack....please comment

[danbar]

This is my first stack and I would like some comments as to give me some direction on how to make it better. It consists of 84 images (a little too much I know), D300, Nikon 105mm AF-S Micro-Nikkor, F16 with three SB-200 on a Macro ring with diffusers on each flash mounted on a copy stand with StackShot; I am using the Nikon CLS with no photo editing. I used ZS and the image output is Dmap. The watch is old and has been at the bottom of junk drawer, so it is kinda' beat up. My intent is to make a panorama consisting of multiple stacks and stitching them together in PS CS5.
Thanks in advance !!!

Dan




_________________
Danny B

[ChrisRaper]

Looks very nice - what magnification is it? 84 images at f16 sounds a lot to me ... have you tried opening up the aperture but keeping the number of images the same? Try calculating the DOF and then calculate your step size from that

[danbar]

Thanks..I ensured that the lens was set for 1:1, but I am still learning and I assume (embarrassingly) the magnification is 1. I will continue to read the tutorials for DOF calculations. I will keep trying...

Dan
_________________
Danny B

[rjlittlefield]

This looks good to me.

DMap is definitely the right approach, though you might want to also run a PMax, pop into retouching, and use the S-to-flash trick to see if there are any regions of lost detail that might benefit from being touched up from source.

I agree, 84 images seems like way too much.

Since you're going to be stitching, I assume you want highest possible resolution. To get that, you need to run a two-step experiment. First, shoot a short set of images at constant focus but varying aperture, so you can find the sharpest aperture. Then hold that aperture constant and play with the focus step until you find the largest step that still gives you sharp detail everywhere.

The best way I know to determine step size is by experiment. Shoot a short test stack using a very fine step, say 5X finer than you think you really need. Then stack with every frame, every other frame, every 3rd frame, and so on, until you start seeing defects. This is especially easy in the latest version of Zerene Stacker, which provides a "Stack every N'th frame" setting at Options > Preferences > Preprocessing. Put a checkmark there, run the stack several times with a value of 1, 2, 3, etc., and compare the results.

Calculation can usually get you in the ballpark, but it's easy to be off by a factor of 2 or so. This is especially true with Nikon systems, where "f/8" on the camera may not mean the same thing as "f/8" in the DOF formulas. Lots of Nikon systems set & report in terms of effective aperture, while the standard DOF formulas work with nominal aperture. Those are different by a factor of magnification+1. Assuming that your camera+lens is one of those systems, then the necessary (modified) formula is

Nikon: DOF = 2 * CoC * fnumber / (magnification^2)

On your camera, 0.020 mm is a good value for CoC. So if you see that it's sharpest at f/11, and you're running at 1:1 (magnification=1), then calculate

DOF = 2*0.020*11/(1*1) = 0.44 mm

Scale down from there to run your tests.

--Rik

[danbar]

OK Rik, I' m on it!...I'm sure I will have additional questions as I proceed through the process...

Thanks again,
Dan
_________________
Danny B