Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, again!

[Callophrys]

I wasn't going to look for these again this year, but an unexpected covering of cloud, which brought temperatures down to 9oC, coupled with only a slight breeze, meant that I could have another go at focus-stacking. In these conditions, the butterflies don't fly, and it's not difficult to find them roosting on bracken heads, or dead stems. Most of them were quite worn, but I found a couple which were worth photographing.

This first photo is a single image, with the camera on a tripod and fill-flash used, :

Pearl-bordered Fritillary Single by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr

This next one is a stack of 21 images, using Zerene Stacker (trial version):

Pearl-bordered Fritillary stack Zerene 2 by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr

Then the same again, using Canon DPP4's "depth compositing tool":

Pearl-bordered Fritillary stack DPP4 2 by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr

Both images are unedited after stacking to show a comparison between software (except for cloning out the strands of sheep's wool behind the butterfly's wings. There was just enough of a breeze to move this about, so each strand had about 4 images!).

Canon DPP4 builds up the stack from unedited RAW files and outputs the stacked image as a JPEG, whereas Zerene requires the files converted to TIFF or JPEG, and outputs the stacked image to either file type as preferred. Clearly, DPP4 is quicker in this respect, but the outputted file is darker than Zerene's. I expect this could be overcome by editing the RAW files first, but not converting them.

Here's another comparison, this time a stack of 17 images.

DPP4:

Pearl-bordered Fritillary stack DPP4 by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr

Zerene:

Pearl-bordered Fritillary stack Zerene by Dave O'Brien, on Flickr

Again, unedited after stacking.
I'll have another go with DPP4, but this time editing the RAW files before stacking.

Cheers,

Dave