Field Stacks (Round I and II images)

[abpho]

I have organized two macro outings so far and I am loving it. Camera, macro lens, and tripod. I manually adjust the focus between shots. At 1:1 that is pretty easy to accomplish. I plan on doing this more often. Over the course of a few hours I might only find one or two things to photograph. But this is much easier than my studio work. Which currently is not easy to fit into my schedule.

Naturally, a few of these images could have been captured in one shot. But everything comes with a cost.

So, here are my results from my first two outings. None are greater than 1:1. All are full frame unless specified (on a crop body). I hope you enjoy. Thanks for looking.

Weevil 6 stack - 50% crop.


Weevil 4 stack


Dragonfly 22 stack


Dead Man's Finger (Fungus) 7 stack


Mushroom 3 stack


Mushroom 9 stack

[canonian]

Wonderful shots Abpho.
I'm recently trying field macro stack myself and its harder than I thought, but much easier than studio work. Just have to get the hang of it.
Your results are so much better. Do you use flash and what aperture do you use? I try to make 4 or 5 shots with a small aperture.
Within more shots there is always movement.

[abpho]

Wonderful shots Abpho.
I'm recently trying field macro stack myself and its harder than I thought, but much easier than studio work. Just have to get the hang of it.
Your results are so much better. Do you use flash and what aperture do you use? I try to make 4 or 5 shots with a small aperture.
Within more shots there is always movement.

Thanks. I was going to take my MP-E complete with linear stage out. But it was too awkward to manipulate into position. Very short working distance. And the micrometer was getting in the way. If it wasn't for my other macro lens I would never have captured that dragonfly. So, I have decided to stick with the Canon 180L macro lens. I just manually focus on my subject. Starting from front to back. The aperture I use depends on the background. I want it nice and creamy. Some shots are at f/4. The weevil was taken at f/8. The rest I am not sure about at this time. For the dragonfly I used a flash on manual power setting to add some fill flash to the face. The rest were done without a flash. But I do carry the Canon430EX II with me. It works great with the Canon 7D since the camera pop up flash can act as a master.

As for movement I got lucky. The dragonfly and weevil were very still. You just got to get lucky.

[rjlittlefield]

The aperture I use depends on the background. I want it nice and creamy.

The images look great. Without knowing they were stacked, they would look "just like" regular stopped down single shots -- except that of course if you stopped down, you'd lose that nice creamy background.

This is an example of what I've come to call "focus control by stacking" -- set the aperture to give the background you like, then stack as needed to get the whole subject sharp. Michael Erlewine uses this technique a lot with his flower and foliage shots, but I think mostly with larger subjects.

--Rik

[Pau]

All are excellent, #4 es by far my favourite.

[Harold Gough]

I have only seen the black stage of Deadman's Finger before. Superb image. Smart-looking weevil too.

Harold