anemone

[Ron Conlon]

A Japanese or hybrid anemone with a focus on the mutlitude of anthers these sport. The bees love them and soon have them in dissary, so I plucked this one soon after it opened.
I went for a little more contrast than usual with curves and local contrast increase through unsharp mask on the lightness channel in lab in PS. Also boosted the colors by steeping the curve in the a channel. Some few pollen grains on the petals deleted.
This is a stack of 15 images, stacked with Helicon focus, acquired with Helicon Remote. I like the Helicon Remote because I get a liveview on my laptop--a much larger view than on the camera LCD. Although the software can acquire the entire stack for you if you define start and end points, I do it manually because my setup doesn't have autofocus so the software can't move the focus for me.
Taken in a lightbox with remote flash, tripod, D5100 200mm 1/200 f/6.3 ISO100.

[John Robinson]

Different take on a nice flower. I do my stacking manually picking the sequence, to include in the series. I also always take a couple before and after the "sharp" ones at the front and back of the subject at the beginning and end just to be sure !! It can get to be a very complicated business but I use the simplest way possible ! Some of mine are over ten years old and some look better than the ones I,m doing now !!
Cheers
John

[Ron Conlon]

Other than the better view of what I am looking at, I don't use the software to automate it. The advantage is that I don't end up with a bunch of photos at the near or far end which have nothing but blur in them, because I can better see the focal plane on the computer. You do want to keep an eye on it anyway--I sometimes get an out-of-sync shutter halfway through the frame with my setup.

[Jonathan Ashton]

It's a fine shot lovely details colours and exposure, I have begun a little stacking..... but I am not terribly pleased so far, you are a tough act to follow!

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks all for your kind comments and insights here and other posts.
Jon, I struggled with stacking initially, but sticking with the focus ring has worked for me throughout, the various software seems to stack fine with it. Moving away from Photoshop was essential. I think it (PS) has an evil spirit in the stacking/aligning engine where it allows you to complete your first few stacks, which tempts you to do more, then it fails to ever stack again, leading to endless frustration. I have tried two paid stacking softwares and find them both make my life much much easier. Out in the field (not in the studio), a lot of stacks end up in the trash, but that seems to be par for the course for outdoor stacks.

[Nancy Bell]

Lovely effect!! I plan to experiment with stacking this winter and hope to find all your posts with your tips. Maybe, pretty please, you could write something that could be posted at the top of this forum as a special technique?

[Ron Conlon]

Thanks, that's a great idea. I will start on putting the tips and and techniques together into as coherent a form as I can.

[John Robinson]

Nancy
I did actually write an article on just what you ask for another forum. Rather than duplicate Rons I can send it privately to you.
I will see if I can find it. It was based on using the free versions of CZM by Hadley. There are two versions but they both work fine for me. Its quite easy I find. -and if I can do it anybody can !!
Cheers
JohnR

[Ron Conlon]

John, mine doesn't exist yet, so why don't you post yours instead. I was thinking more of a conversation or discussion in any case. That way we can all learn from it.

[Diane Miller]

What a nice image! I might be tempted to give it a boost of Structure, in Nik's Viveza, with other programs having the same facility, I'm sure. It appears to be just a sharpening with a slightly larger radius -- sort of like the 20-20-0 thing in Unsharp Mask. Or maybe try some High Pass sharpening.

And great ideas -- do it -- both of you!

I didn't know about Helicon Remote. I'm condemned to do everything the hard way, but it just occurred to me that I could use Tethered Capture in Lightroom to at least get a better view of what I'm doing. Had no idea a bloody computer could control the camera's focus. What will they think of next?

[John Robinson]

Diane
The free programme I talked about -CZM uses a high pass filter.Thats why I use it on single images just for sharpening.
John
Edit- I have got the article, but it revolves around using CZM. - although most of the other programmes work in a similar way.
Its in Word Doc format
Where do I post it.
JohnR