....spider. Proceeded ok with stacking, but had a lot of trouble with the hairs at the very top of the head, much smearing behind the hairs. I had two spiders in the jar overnight. When I arrived in the morning, the larger one had totally eaten the smaller so the slightly larger one is the one I sta...

Thanks, guys. I'll try to explain what I'm doing as I'm sure there is a better way. I do prefer GUI's as I'm not that familiar with command line scripting, so I used Bugslabber 1.1. I read about this technique here and I was trying to do #3 under "Focus Stacking with Zerene Stacker", but the author ...

I'd like to try this, but I am unclear as to how to use ZereneVS. I am using one of the other scripting programs that's GUI to do auto slabbing of frames so that I end up with a certain number of Pmax stacks. However, this program doesn't seem to be able to generate the script needed to run the abov...

Chris R, I'm trying that now. So far, no difference with rear antenna, waiting for front one now. Scaling off may have taken care of the cropped off head part too (you don't see it in these because I fixed it post process), but it hasn't made any difference. Edit: Stack completed, no scaling, slight...

Thanks, Rik. I got around it this time with two stacks, starting from scratch. To save time, I used the 700 frame result from the first stack as a base, then completed a new stack from scratch for just the head. I combined them in post-processing, but I'll read what you posted later on today.

Thanks, guys. I chose the background because I had seen at least one similar ant head on the web and liked it. However, this background is fairly easy to change in post-process and I have another version. My lighting issues aren't nearly as much of a factor when the subject fills at least 1/2 to 3/4...

I believe this is a carpenter ant, although it looked a little more red-orange than I remember. 50% reduced but otherwise uncropped version here.

As magnification can change with the focus point (with no telecentric lenses) is possible that the whole head is not pictured in all frames (including the ones with the zone of interest defocussed), this can also happen if the Z moving axis is not well aligned with the optical axis ans one border i...

I recently completed an ant stack. The result looks really good, but there is one problem: a bit of the head is being cropped in the final composite. I am using the Pmax method. There are about 700 frames total in the stack. When I tried sub-stacks of just the head, the same cropping off of the top ...

I found that information on this site. I stumbled upon Mr. Nobel's site first when I was thinking about trying macro. I find it thorough and accurate and it seems easier to search than even the forums here, so I will often find something I'm looking for first there and then in the forums. I think he...

Macrero, thanks for your response. I'm going to be experimenting with this technique once I switch out my lenses for a wider field one. Something I do want to share and I'm not sure yet myself if it works or not: I just read yesterday that placing a drop of ammonia on a stiff leg would loosen it up ...

Very nice and, rather than start a new thread, I wanted to ask about the specific technique to get the dead insect into position and keeping it there. Someone, maybe you but not sure, had a past thread with details but I can't seem to find it. I want to experiment more with this method as I don't li...

First larger catch of the winter with the warmer days lately. I don't know what fly this is, but not a house fly. It and another were feeding off an apple I strategically placed. Same set up as here , except two changes: 1) the platform was enlarged to accommodate the flash, so the flash would move ...

I didn't want to do anything else until these lighting/ diffusion issues were dealt with and solved (they still aren't as I wriite) That was my main point about a vertical setup; so much easier to control/adjust lighting/diffusion with a vertical setup. I have my specimen on a large surface on whic...

A good question that "begs the question" as to why would you want to use a horizontal setup? Vertical saves desk space, is very simple to setup. I have used both horizontal and vertical but for the past year or more I have exclusively used vertical. Because it is the most convenient for me at this ...