Shy Fly

[skydive1200]

Photo stack of a deerfly (?) that was trying to get the breakfast buffet on my leg when it got swatted. I attribute the left leg position to the action of being swatted and it reminded me of a sweet young lady being shy about getting her photo taken. El Nikkor 80mm reversed on a Nikon PB-4 bellows using a Nikon D300 body. Lit with a single speedlight. Image was assembled from a 30 shot stack with Zerene Stacker.

[apt403]

Nice shot! The EL Nikkors are looking like a pretty solid value proposition. DMAX?

What do you think of the PB-4 bellows, as far as rigidity is concerned? I'm trying to decide between the three varieties at the moment.

[skydive1200]

Thanks for the kind word. If I remember correctly this was a Dmap stack which left a halo that I haven't read about how to resolve.

The PB-4 bellows is a rock solid piece of hardware. Everything is metal save for the bellows itself. Locking screws for the mounts (camera and lens) are very secure. I hear that some of the Nikon bodies won't work with the PB-4 so you would have to research those limitations.

[rjlittlefield]

Yes, that's a deer fly. It's a member of the horse fly family, Tabanidae. Many of them have brightly colored and patterened eyes. The colors fade shortly after death, so you've done a good job capturing them here.

If I remember correctly this was a Dmap stack which left a halo that I haven't read about how to resolve.

There's a control that appears half-way through DMap, giving you a slider to adjust the contrast threshold. Push the slider right, to higher numbers, until all the featureless and out-of-focus regions go "black in preview". For general discussion, see the "How To Use DMap" tutoria,l linked from the main Tutorials index page, at https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/d ... rialsindex .

--Rik

[skydive1200]

Ha Ha! Thanks Rik, yeah that makes a difference.