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Ron Conlon
09-06-2014, 11:45 AM
I am working on Nancy's request for a post consolidating some tips on stacking, but at several points I have felt my ignorance and inexperience, and have felt the need to pick up the camera to try to answer my own questions. So, one of my areas of inexperience was in shooting handheld stacks, so I took advantage of a cool, rainy morning to take some stacks of a somewhat torporous wasp. I had previously shot some handheld stacks with an on-camera diffused flash and the area of inexperience I wanted to explore is whether I could shoot a stack by rocking rather than cranking the focus, both while shooting a burst. My conclusion, rocking works better, giving me more usable stacks and fewer missed focal planes--and it is good for getting in touch with your physical abilities/inabilities. The next area of inexperience was how well the different stacking programs would work with stacks where the subject moves up to one-third of the frame in the stack--hands-down winner is Zerene over Helicon. Successful stacks left plenty of room around the subject so that it never went out of frame during my jerky rock forward.

This was 11 frames (more were taken) with a diffused camera hot-shoe mounted flash, D5100 200mm f10 1/200s ISO 640, raw files adjusted to camera neutral and a curve applied in ACR, saved as TIFFs, DMAP stacked in Zerene, some retouching to reclaim the edges of the frame and put peripheral bits of the sedum out of focus (may have been a halo or two removed, I can't remember), imported into PS for local contrast adjustment on the wasp, lowering noise on the background, cropping and resizing and sharpening for web.

Kaushik Balakumar
09-06-2014, 05:43 PM
Beautiful image Ron. The stack has worked out well. I have never tried stacking handheld images but this one's come out well.
Would only wish for more space in front of the wasp.

Diane Miller
09-07-2014, 05:10 PM
This is amazing! I wouldn't have thought it would work to rock forward while shooting a burst, but I think I need to try it. Sometimes I find an opportunity without time to set up a tripod.

The dark green here is a bit top heavy for me. What would you think about cropping a little from the top and/or lightening it? I don't mind that the wasp is heading out of the frame -- that's what they do, and it gives it a look of spontaneity.

I was shooting a quick handheld macro the other day, of a little tree frog, and having fits with an awkward diffuser unbalancing everything and pulling the flash down. So I've ordered an Expoimaging Rogue Flash Bender Large Positionable Reflector, in hopes of a more manageable rig for quick shooting.

Ron Conlon
09-08-2014, 09:48 AM
Thanks, all.
Diana, I tried what seemed improbable because the greater than 1x macrophotographers shoot stacks handheld. Rather than try to find the secrets by Googling, I experimented.
WRT diffusers, from online discussions about their gear, the extreme macro folks favor home-built diffusers. The point of similarity of the different designs is that they bring the light very close to the subject. I built my own diffuser out of a flat panel from a discarded plastic bottle (lab alcohol, it had large flat sides) and sheets of Epson glossy paper and masking tape. It mounts on my SB-28 and brings a large light source to the end of my 200mm lens. It's not pretty, but it is light and does the job. In any case, it gives me a large light source, close to the subject, which pretty much sums up what I learned from reading "Light Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting".

Diane Miller
09-08-2014, 10:04 AM
Yes, a large light source close to the subject is the secret to soft light. It's all relative -- you can light a car that way, but you want the diffused light source to be a lot bigger than the car. (Similar to a cloudy sky.)

You see photographers running around with flash diffusers that are no bigger than the flash head, shooting portraits from 10-15 ft -- all they are getting out of it is a larger catchlight, and a weaker flash. No diffusion at all. The homemade rigs are very effective and the price is definitely right.

Ron Conlon
09-08-2014, 10:14 AM
I've wondered if the true purpose of the portrait flash diffuser isn't to impress the client, but I suppose I should always assume ignorance over artifice.

Jonathan Ashton
09-10-2014, 10:24 AM
Very well done indeed, lovely DOF and good details. The little dewdrops are a nice touch too.

Steve Maxson
09-13-2014, 02:49 PM
Hi Ron. Interesting discussion about the rocking/burst method of in-the-field stacking. I need to try that sometime! You achieved very nice sharpness with a pleasing OOF background. The tiny water droplets on your Bald-faced Hornet are a nice touch also. For my taste, I'd like to see the hornet further to the left in the frame. If you wish, you could do that by cropping from the left followed by a little off the top. :S3: