More on Stacking

[carainbow]

I was intrigued and impressed by Bruce Williams spider stack and whilst recognizing that the laboured breathing and handshake that come with advancing years would prohibit such in camera aligning, I thought I would give it a try.
I do not possess PS and tried stacking 5 shots of the spider who resides in my bathroom next to his larder of harlequin ladybirds. My first align and stack using Zerene produced a spider with better than 20 legs. Discovering the less than intuitive alignment configuration in the software which allows the percentage offset on the x and y axis to be adjusted, I guessed at a value of 30%, which resulted in a photo of the spider with the appropriate number of legs.Whilst the aligning is for me less than natural I have nothing but praise for the retouching tool.
Moving onto the lichen and maintaining the 30% offset produced the kind of ghost edges that used to be the norm on 1960's televisions, a correction to 10% offset with this more solid image type gave a better result.
My final try, using a Minolta 50 mm macro just held in position in front of my Canon 500d was of the harlequin larva and attendant wildlife residing on a fence post under some sycamores. The working distance was so restricted with this set up that the ring flash was in contact with the edge of the 7cm fence post before I had anything approaching a focus. The idea, which was to try to photo a mini ecosystem, lacks the clarity I was seeking, but shows enough promise for me to be now awaiting a delivery of a 100mm macro Tokina. Don't tell the wife.
Having played around with macro for approaching 40 years, this new technique is exciting and I thank WAB and Bruce in particular for bringing it to my attention.[ [ url=http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/archive/showphoto.php?photo=117578][/url]

carbicester

[Bruce Williams]

I'm really pleased that you found my stacking thread interesting and helpful. I've taken a close look at your images and I have to say well done for persevering with Zerene and the whole stacking process.

I was interested to note your views on ZS's retouching tool as I've recently bitten the bullet and purchased ZS (sadly it's no longer available free to use) and my decision to buy was made very much on the basis of its excellent retouching tool. I also think it's probably the easiest to use of the main stacking programs - particularly for hand-held stacks where you are dealing with a relatively small number of frames.

I don't always use Photoshop to pre-align my images - just when registration is particularly poor. Although I was aware (from another forum) that ZS can be reconfigured I still have ZS set to default config. Your post has encouraged me to experiment with the allignment parameters and maybe save myself some time.

Your stack of P. phalangioides is very clean with excellent detail on the legs. Maybe it could have benefited from a couple more frames to bring some more detail to the abdomen.

The lichen stack is also pretty good, although you need to crop out the stacking artefacts along the bottom of the image. Sometimes reversing the order of the stack (before stacking) can help to reduce this problem.

The Harlequin stack is my favourite as it contains a lot of interest with the aphids in attendance. I have done very little of this sort of compositional work, however seeing how interesting the end result can be I plan to give it a go when the opportunity presents. On the technical side, unfortunately there are gaps in the focus stepping - evidenced by "bands" of out-of-focus image. This is a really common problem on larger subjects and simply means that you need to take more shots with less movement (or refocusing) between frames.

btw, the 'Harlequin Larva' thumbnail doesn't link to the large image. Maybe one of the moderators could correct it for you.

I look forward to seeing more of your stacks particularly once you get your new macro lens.

Bruce

[carainbow]

Many thanks Bruce for the helpful critique, all the images would most certainly have benefitted with more photos and smaller steps, and I will certainly try with the new lens. The spider and the lichen were taken with a 70-300mm half macro zoom, a really impressive piece of glass and an equally impressive weight. I tried on both the aforementioned for a greater number of photos which in the end defied aligning. Practice I hope will improve the result. Will let you know.
I am continually amazed at the additional dimension that digital photography adds to all I try.

Colin Rainbow
carbicester