Ant's eye through Nikon 20x BD plan

[Kareem]

Hi all

Please give me feedback to improve the pic

data:
Nikon D7100
Nikon 20x BD plan @ 12:1

0.005 mm between shots
50 images stacked

Zerenestacker (PMAX)

two flashes (right and left) diffusing using office paper





thank you all

[Olympusman]

Dang!

[rjlittlefield]

Please give me feedback to improve the pic

This looks pretty good. Some things I notice:

1. There are several contours of blur on the eye. This is probably due to uneven steps.

2. The color balance seems off. I would expect this subject to be much more brown than the red it is now. Best is always to set custom white balance from a neutral card.

3. The histogram is pushed far left, with not many high values (bright pixels). Visually it might look better with some curves adjustment to balance the histogram more to the middle.

4. I think this image would benefit from some additional sharpening. I assume that your objective is NA 0.40, so at 12:1 you're working at effective f/16 (=12/(2*0.40)). That is certainly not deep into diffraction territory with an APS sensor, but it is far enough down to show some softening even at web size. At 24 megapixels and f/16 your sensor will slightly out-resolve the optical image, so the image will always be soft while pixel-peeping. But a lot of otherwise unseen detail can be made apparent by heavy sharpening.

0.005 micron between shots

I assume you meant 0.005 mm = 5 microns. In general that's a bit much for NA 0.40 . The standard calculation gives 3.4 microns (for 1/4 lambda at 550 nm). Even if your steps are completely uniform you'll be losing significant sharpness between focus planes, and by running at such a large step you're very vulnerable to loss of focus due to any unevenness in the step size.

I hope this helps!

--Rik

[Kareem]

rjlittlefield

Thank you so much for detailed info , I read it twice

I'll try again with your suggestions ,

I have question please , which better (sharpness and IQ):
to use Nikon 10x BD plan @ 10:1 and do little crop or to use 20x BD plan @ 12:1 ?

Thanks again !!

[Kareem]

I'm back with new try ,

Nikon 10x BD Plan @ 7:1
140 pics stacked (Dmap retouched from PMAX)

14 micron between steps

my work flow is :

I shot RAW files then add 70% sharpness and some tweaks(WB etc)
then convert to JPEG then make stacking with Zerena.

after stacking I retouch it with Topaz detaile and then Topaz Adjust
then some tweaks with Lightroom and export web pic size



please tell what to change to improve the pic

Thank you !!!

[Jacek]

Very nice