Small fly focus stacked

footman

footman

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Laurence
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49987454407_ce0cbf5e87_b.jpg


He was very still so I thought I'd have a go at focus stacking in the field for the first time. Only took a few shots as it was cold!
Illuminated with a tiny key-ring torch.
 
Great shot, loving the eyes and the 'oily' colour on the wings, well done.
 
Nice one was it handheld or did you tripod and rail? Some slight missed spots but great first attempt.
 
Thanks for the comments.
It was mounted on a Manfrotto CF tripod, Benro GD3WH head and using a Sunwayfoto macro rail. The rail is poorly engineered in that the worm drive rail is not perfectly straight so as the rail stage is moved the image "sways" from side to side in lateral movements. I'm now using a 7" field monitor to get absolute focus so these lateral movements are very noticeable when viewing the object using the A6000's focus magnifier so I have to skip many focus segments.
I've got a Novoflex rail arriving very soon which hopefully will deal with this.
 
Last edited:
footman said:
49987454407_ce0cbf5e87_b.jpg


He was very still so I thought I'd have a go at focus stacking in the field for the first time. Only took a few shots as it was cold!
Illuminated with a tiny key-ring torch.
Click to expand...
How did you do use the torch to do that? Sounds a good idea.
 
davholla said:
How did you do use the torch to do that? Sounds a good idea.
Click to expand...
I normally use two small Godox flashes mounted onto the Smallrig cage for macro flash but I just couldn't get the exact effect I wanted, either too dark or too bright. I use a tiny torch (and I mean tiny) to illuminate small subjects in dark areas to assist focus so I decided to try that for lighting!
Each time I pressed the remote shutter cable I just illuminated the fly with the torch.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0819DMRXB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
49987196818_d6f64ab741_z.jpg
 
footman said:
I normally use two small Godox flashes mounted onto the Smallrig cage for macro flash but I just couldn't get the exact effect I wanted, either too dark or too bright. I use a tiny torch (and I mean tiny) to illuminate small subjects in dark areas to assist focus so I decided to try that for lighting!
Each time I pressed the remote shutter cable I just illuminated the fly with the torch.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0819DMRXB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
49987196818_d6f64ab741_z.jpg
Click to expand...

You can get scuba torches which turn off on flash. Great for focus lights really bright so when at f8 f11 or higher on manual lens you can still see what your doing. (y)
 
Cracking shot Laurence those eyes are amazing
 
I think your step size was too large - so you have bands of sharp focus with areas that aren't in focus between. I use a DoF table (or app) to give me the DoF for the aperture/lens combo I am using and then try to step them at about 2/3 of that value so that the shots overlap a bit. I know its tricky to do in the field! I have used an old Olympus focus rail from my OM2 film days but also, with a Canon camera, you can use Magic Lantern add on firmware which has a utility which drives the lens focus motor to take a focus stack. I have had some success with this with field photos of dragonflies - which tend to stay nice and still if you can find them when it is a bit cool.

As for the fly - not sure quite what this is - it is clearly a male and I think it may be a Fanniid (Lesser House-fly).
 
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