Dandelion flower's final stage ( StackShot of 50 images)

ckatosmith · Post by **ckatosmith** » Mon May 13, 2013 11:44 pm

This was an image in my head all winter, and is my first using StackShot. Micro Nikkor 70-180mm at 180mm, f/5.6, 1/125s. Has anyone found an iPhone App they like for DOF calculator for Nikon lenses? It wasn't clear to me if any out there are good for small distances (mm) and also in metric. I don't have a grasp of the formulas to figure such things out (admire those who do), so could use some help for efficiency in estimating step distances versus just doing trial and error.

Roy Patience · Post by **Roy Patience** » Mon May 13, 2013 11:52 pm

My relatively inexperienced "eye" can't find any fault in this image. What a good job.

If you find a good DOF app let us all know.

Roy

ckatosmith · Post by **ckatosmith** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:11 am

Thanks, Roy, for your comments. I feel I lucked out with this shot as far as guessing and trying 50 shots, but, for example, I tried 100 shots using the Auto Step mode for a bonsai azalea tree (the depth of the tree ~ the macro rail length, same lens at 180mm), but I was not happy with the 'lack of detail'. Also, I just finished running a 812 stack of a carpenter ant from front face to mid thorax (85mm with reversed 50mm lens) and chose 5um steps... maybe that was overkill. This is so much fun, but I'd like to have a better grasp to maximize my time.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue May 14, 2013 12:29 am

This is a lovely image! Any chance of seeing a closer crop so we could appreciate the detail?

See http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 779#128779 for some suggested settings.

--Rik

ckatosmith · Post by **ckatosmith** » Tue May 14, 2013 6:16 am

Thank you, Rik!

I fear the quality of the 100% crop is quite low, since my camera is the Nikon D800E and I had to accept 'Low' quality to keep the file size under 300kb (is it still 300kb? The post that says how to upload pix still says '800 pixels', though the actual upload box says 1024 pixels, so maybe the allowed file size has increased too??).

Also, I'm fairly new to stacking (only did quick and dirty stacks in the past by choosing the focus points of cameras and stacking those, now I'm really excited by having a focus rail...), and I'm sure there must be some errors I could have retouched, but honestly, I couldn't tell if there was ghosting or not, because every time I looked back at the real dandelion seed ball I can imagine the same 'ghosting', since it is all white material and the parachute fibers seem very much intertwined??, yes I can visually focus on different planes, but taken as a whole, it looks like the photo, hard to explain.

My eyes are as yet untrained to recognizing focus stacking defects well... I am keen to learn how to retouch (I watched the Zerene video on Retouching). Sorry to wander, but a quick question on Retouching: I'm used to Photoshop retouching. Confused because in PS, for example, one chooses a color and adds pixels, or deletes pixels altogether (so trying to wrap my head around Zerene's ways)

Does one simply (Windows) left click and simultaneously paint with the brush and the brush is copy/pasting whatever stack layer is highlighted/chosen in the left panel?

Also going to try slabbing, but although I hope to conquer intimidation of trying Chris S's Slabber Jockey (am so hopeful after noting it has a GUI for folks like me), I'm going to slab manually (have noted your instructions in another post) first, because XML is such a foreign world to me, even if there is a GUI (thanks to Chris S.). I will struggle with trying to implement that later. Also, thank you for the suggestions link for step distances.