Massassagua Rattlesnake stack

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:32 pm

Stack of 12 shots
180mm macro with 2x teleconverter
captive subject
crop of about 80% of original area

Adrian · Post by **Adrian** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:49 pm

wow, awsome shot...

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:52 pm

Those are quite the colors and patterns, Mike -- an excellent use of stacking.

I presume the couple of fuzzy areas above the head are places where frames got spaced a bit too far? Or did the stacking go awry somehow?

--Rik

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 6:54 am

What a beautiful scale pattern and eyes on this snake Mike. Excellent work.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 7:25 am

Lots of interesting patterns and nice warm colors in this one Mike.

I would not have even noticed the "fuzzies" had Rik not pointed them out.

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sun Jul 29, 2007 5:01 pm

rjlittlefield wrote:
I presume the couple of fuzzy areas above the head are places where frames got spaced a bit too far? Or did the stacking go awry somehow?

I see three areas I consider a bit fuzzy here--one on the scales above his eye and just to the left of his rearward head ridge, and a second one on the right side of the picture at about the same level in the pic. I'd think that this was a clear sign of a gap in focusing, and when I look at the original shot covering that area, the rightmost fuzzy area is about as good as it could be. But I believe Combine ZM actually made the area above his head a bit worse:

The third fuzzy area is a small area at the extreme right edge, about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the picture. Looking at the best-focused pic in the stack, it appears that Combine ZM did about as well as it could with that area.

This shot was at 1.5x or so, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that even 12 shots at f/18 wasn't enough, especially since my spacing was SWAG rather than measured.