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Just bought that first macro lens? Post here to get helpful feedback and answers to any questions you might have.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

courtany
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:16 am
Location: Nottingham England

New stacker

Post by courtany »

Image
Last edited by courtany on Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

Chris S.
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Post by Chris S. »

Keith, I see you've started a second thread, in order to upload the image. You might be better off to instead edit your post here in this thread, so that when you get the image uploaded, it is in the same thread as your descriptive information.

Cheers,

--Chris

courtany
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:16 am
Location: Nottingham England

Retry

Post by courtany »

Thanks Chris I'll give it a go.
Cheers Keith

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

OK, so now the image appears but the earlier descriptive text has disappeared. This must be extraordinarily frustrating! :evil:

The key to editing a post is to realize that you're actually replacing the post with an edited copy. In this case it appears that the edited copy consists of just the image, now displaying properly via the [img] tag. :smt023

Also note that you can see what a post will look like, by pressing the Preview button. After you like what you see, you can press Submit to get it posted for public view.

On the bright side, the image looks great! :D

--Rik

courtany
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:16 am
Location: Nottingham England

Lost message

Post by courtany »

Hello Chris
Thanks for your PM. In answer to your question on the lost post you will no doubt have gathered by now I'm not very "techy" when it comes to puter matters. This was very much a first bash at stacking with my new toy. The taking details were, Nikon D700, 200mm Micro Nikkor f4, set at f11 and sat on the Stackshot gadget SB 900 flash set at 1/64 power overhead, Stackshot set to 0.5mm steps over about 45mm to cover the flower front to back (90 frames a bit of overkill there I think, I've read about banding). I processed the stack in ZS using both Dmap and Pmax but could not see much difference between the two. I also did some processing in Elements 8, levels, some sharpening and a small amount of cropping. The only reason I tried to post the picture, which was my first stack was to get an opinion on whether it looked about right to the the people with the expertise on this site. I did notice that the picture I did magage to send does seem very degraded, It's pin sharp on my monitor (probably got the file size knocked down to far) Whoops again. :)
Cheers Keith

rjlittlefield
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Re: Lost message

Post by rjlittlefield »

courtany wrote:I did notice that the picture I did magage to send does seem very degraded, It's pin sharp on my monitor (probably got the file size knocked down to far) Whoops again. :)
Correct -- this file is less than 27 KB long, where the forum allows up to 300 KB.

Nonetheless, it looks pretty good to those of us who don't have the original to compare against.

If you want to post higher quality versions, or even better, crops of some areas where there are overlaps, then perhaps I could identify some differences between the PMax and DMap versions, or confirm that there aren't any. I'm the fellow who wrote Zerene Stacker, so I've had a fair bit of experience at spotting stacking artifacts. :)

--Rik

Chris S.
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Post by Chris S. »

Keith, as Rik said, it looks pretty good.

And as you say, you probably didn't need such a tight increment as 0.5 for this combination of lens, f/stop, and magnification. To approximate what increment you do need, I'd suggest making a test folder on your computer, and copying every n'th image into it, perhaps starting with n=10. Then flash between the images in whatever file browser you like. You want to see the focus zone move, but do want to see some overlap between shots. You certainly don't want any areas that are not covered by one of the shots. If an n of 10 works, try stacking it. It not, try a higher or lower n. You could just stack every n'th shot in Zerene, but training oneself to estimate the needed increment by "flashing" images in a browser is not a bad skill to develop.

I have a D700 and Nikkor 200mm f/4, at magnifications around where you appear to have been working for this shot, I'd expect a lot more depth of field than .5 mm. And for what it's worth, in this sort of situation I tend to prefer making my stacks by turning the focus ring by hand, rather than by moving the camera. Can't say it's better--it's just what I do.

Cheers,

--Chris

courtany
Posts: 19
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:16 am
Location: Nottingham England

Re lost post

Post by courtany »

Hello Chris and Rik
Thanks to both of you for your helpful comments.
Rik, yes I did know that you wrote ZS that's why i downloaded the trial offer, that way I knew I could get help if I needed it and will doubtless use the licensed one when the trial runs out.

Chris.
I will certainly take up you suggestion of starting a folder I need to get a bit more organised during these early days. I am awaiting delivery of a 50mm Componon S 2.8 enlarging lens which I intend to use reversed on a set of Nikon PB 5 bellows so that I can get a little closer in. When I get a result with Componon I may even chance my arm and try posting another picture but don't hold your breath. :lol:
Cheers Keith

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