The Spider and Focus Stacking, WooHoo!

Nice job, Tony. Stacking isn't something I've played with much, but you've inspired me

LV Moose wrote in post #13147575
Nice job, Tony. Stacking isn't something I've played with much, but you've inspired me

Hey, thanks, like I said, it was a first time for me!

We've been delving more into things in this thread in the Raw, Post-Processing and Printing section:

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1095769

Well, I hope you keep getting inspired, get some shots and post some!

This worked splendidly Tony.

Btw I stack in Photoshop using layers, I find I get better results with more flexibility for most subjects than using SW stackers.

Hey, Lester, thanks for chiming in, and thanks for the confirming that Photoshop is up to the job!

I've been encouraging Mitch to give it another try -- he had tried the Scripts/Stack method, but that doesn't create masks, whereas if you use Bridge Tools/Photoshop/Photom​erge you get a very nice layout with the photos stacked in layers, aligned on your subject if possible (this spider shot with the soft background was perfect for that) and then it places masks, making a "guess" of where to start with blacks and whites, starting with the bottom layer, and it worked real well with me, I just needed to brush in the best areas in each successive layer up!

ni$mo350 wrote in post #13145271
I'll be sure to do the same when I get my 70-200 2.8ii in next week

Well, Chris, when you get that lens, you know we are going to have to get together and do some shooting -- see, I can let you use my macro lens and I can play with your II:!!

Lester, and others, if you see this, I ask a question in the thread I linked to above about how CS5 handles focus stacking (using the script) -- maybe you, and others who see this can check it out? Here's the post:

https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=13152731&po​stcount=33

Thanks!

Tony. I took some more video today, but started out to get some stackable stills. Somehow I went off on a tangent though and got some great footage of a Cyclops. I have also been very busy with paying work for the last few days, but things seem to be leveling off and I should be able to devote some time to getting a set of stack images.

I will try the new CS5 stacking script for sure, cause I am not into doing it by hand if I can get something to do it for me. LOL

I also was reading the help files in Combine ZP this morning and realized I have not used any of the power in it, being lazy and letting the automated macros do it all for me, when a few simple manual adjustments would have really helped. That's probably why I never got any decent results from it. As you see, I am putting off trying the photomerge angle, because I don't understand masks and mask layers at all.

It looks good! I have tried this before and it didn't come out to well.

Cool, guys! Post followups to the Raw, PP and Printing thread, I'm entertaining ideas for my next project!!!