Early Attempt at Focus Stacking

I usually hand-hold. Yes, the size varies a little, but the focus stacking programs know that, and will scale the images appropriately to make them line up.

TrevorD wrote in post #11301767
...are you guys using a focus rail, or adjusting focus to create the stack?..

How do you keep the bugs under control? Do you just hope they hang around, or are they incapacitated somehow?

Howdy Trevor,

I didn't use a focus rail. My T2i was locked-down in a tripod and I crept the lens' focus ring forward 12 times across the insect's body rather than moving the point of focus by moving the camera. I actually never even thought about what the different effect would be between the two methods.

The insects that I shot outdoors, I just hoped they would stay put. The ones that I found in my house (house centipede) , I moved them to a table and waited for them to settle-down and then removed to a ~1 foot diameter clear dome from above them. After shooting, the house centipede had to figure-out living in my backyard and not back in my house .

Dave Weldon wrote in post #11306299
Howdy Trevor,

I didn't use a focus rail. My T2i was locked-down in a tripod and I crept the lens' focus ring forward 12 times across the insect's body rather than moving the point of focus by moving the camera. I actually never even thought about what the different effect would be between the two methods.

That's how I did the stacking of the model train locomotive. This is just conjecture on my part, but I think the software might have problems aligning the stack if you change the camera position because the entire point of view would be changing, not just the point of focus.

JWright wrote in post #11312641
That's how I did the stacking of the model train locomotive. This is just conjecture on my part, but I think the software might have problems aligning the stack if you change the camera position because the entire point of view would be changing, not just the point of focus.

Yes, you can definitely get some weirdness if you move the camera a lot, but on little stuff, the gain in (apparent) DOF far outweighs distortion from changing positions.