House Fly Skin at 20:1

abpho · Post by **abpho** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:02 am

First I would like to say that this avenue of photography has been a blast. Since I started I have taken well over 14,000 images. That is currently what I have sitting on my hard drive. Oh my poor camera and flash.

I have spent the past few days going over some stacks that have not seen the light of day yet. I posted over a dozen new images on my website. Bellow is an image I painstaking put together. During the stacking process the tips of the hair were blurred out. I had to manually combine two separate stacks over the course of around an hour to get this image to this point.

203 images taken at 20:1. Depth of field around 1mm.

I can see things slowing down on the forum as the winter months come upon us (or perhaps because of the Christmas season). I know for myself I will be taking less pictures since my source of subjects has gone into hibernation.

I hope everyone has an awesome year end. I can't wait to see what the new year brings.

CheerS!
M

ChrisRaper · Post by **ChrisRaper** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:40 am

Lovely image!

Great lighting to achieve so much detail without any bad reflections. Does the original take any more enlarging? Would be nice to see a closer zoom, if possible

abpho · Post by **abpho** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:08 pm

Thanks. That is the full frame image. That is the only way I shoot. This is a quarter of the above image. Hope that helps.

ChrisRaper · Post by **ChrisRaper** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:17 pm

Ahhh, yes there is some lovely detail but I see there is a fair bit of ghosting/transparency on those bristles, not as obvious in the full-frame. I suppose it would be a nightmare to touch-up too, with 200+ shots

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 1:53 pm

a nightmare to touch-up too, with 200+ shots

This is what I think I'd try first:
(I'd like those who have done this sort of thing a lot, to comment please

)

Do a load of sub-stacks/partial stacks/slabs, (very likely in future using Ed(elf)'s tool), to give, say
frames
1 - 19, 20 - 39, 40 - 59, 60 - 79... = 10 slabs
and perhaps
1 - 9, 10 - 29, 30 - 49, 50 - 69... = 11 slabs

(You'd get an idea of how many frames to put in a slab with a quick trial)

Then you'd be able to find a slab with the bristle section you need, to retouch from, and you're working with far fewer than 200.

Actually I've found it easier to put the slabs into Photoshop as layers, and keep the parts I want, because of the way the Zerene retouch brush works, which is sometimes not "solid" enough.

I've only worked with 6-8 sub-stacks though, not 20 or 40.

abpho · Post by **abpho** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 3:44 pm

ChrisR wrote:This is what I think I'd try first:...

I had the main stack, and then a second partial one. I manually combined those two.

Actually I've found it easier to put the slabs into Photoshop as layers, and keep the parts I want, because of the way the Zerene retouch brush works, which is sometimes not "solid" enough.

I can't use Zerene. It's too taxing on my computer. Very slow and jerky. I use PS as well.

Perhaps if I made one more stack for the hair closer to the roots. I'll think about it. Maybe I'll just redo the whole thing. Not looking forward to the hours required in post to put it together.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:18 pm

You can set up a batch for sub-stacks - I frequently leave mine overnght.

abpho · Post by **abpho** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:22 pm

ChrisR wrote:You can set up a batch for sub-stacks - I frequently leave mine overnght.

I have not used the batch program yet.

I'm going 5 sub stacks right now. With 10 frames overlapping. About 10 minutes per set. Once I am done I'll repost the cropped image.

scitch · Post by **scitch** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 11:08 pm

I think that house flies are absolutely disgusting . . . but this photo is amazing! Nice work.

Mike