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Hover Fly - 22 Stacked Images
Lens: DFA 100mm Macro WR Camera: K-3ii Photo Location: Delmarva ISO: 400 Shutter Speed: 1/125s Aperture: F4 
Posted By: UserAccessDenied, 07-25-2018, 04:22 AM

I've come to realize that photographic opportunities do not hang around for long. Typically by the time I notice something of interest, the shot is already gone...

So, I've been leaving my 'kit' within arms reach of the back door - K-3ii mounted on my mini-tripod with DFA 100mm attached.
Whenever I'm in the garden and see something of interest, I can run inside and grab my kit without losing too much time setting up/swapping lenses/mounting tripods/etc.

This particular scenario I saw a hover fly land on my glass table. I ran inside to grab my kit, came back out and it hadn't moved an inch. Great!
I setup the shot, took a few to dial in the settings, then realized it just wasn't moving at all. Completely still.

I figured I would attempt at a focus stack... Never done one before, but this seemed like an opportune moment in time - stationary subject and decent lighting, though there were passing clouds (I'll touch on that later).

I fired off a test shot to check my settings; then proceeded with about 30 images along the entire focal plane.
I also used a remote shutter to eliminate any chance of nudging the camera out of position.


When I got back inside I noticed that about 8 of the images in the middle of the stack had varying highlights in the glass underneath the fly from the passing clouds!
The fly itself wasn't greatly affected by the exposure, but the glass had blown out highlights from when the clouds moved...
I continued to process the stack (used Photoshop cc 2018).
There were very strange artifacts all along the subject. I attributed it to the clouds, so I decided to just remove all 8 images and stack it again.

This is the result!


If you look at the full res image you can see there are some focal points that look skipped over. This is from the 8 images removed.
Fortunately, the rest of the 22 images blend fairly well, with a few artifacts here or there.


I wouldn't print this; and even if I did wouldn't go over 8x10" likely.
But it was a challenge, and a fun one at that.

With every inauspicious photograph I take there is a lesson to be learned.
Next time I will try to compensate for the variable light; or just patiently wait for the clouds to pass to get all the necessary images. (Though the subject may have left by then, so you take what you can get!)


This is my first attempt at a focal stack and I'm already addicted!
Now if I could only find more subjects so willing to remain still for 5+ minutes at a time!!

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07-25-2018, 04:30 AM   #2
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Very nice image.
07-25-2018, 04:33 AM   #3
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That turned out great! Did you adjust lens focus or camera position to get your 30 shots?
07-25-2018, 04:48 AM   #4
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Superb. Great story too, keeping gear ready and near helps!

07-25-2018, 04:59 AM - 1 Like   #5
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Great stuff.

I need to get back into focus stacking. It's amazing how still some bugs can be. I took this over four years ago....

07-25-2018, 05:10 AM   #6
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Very cool, what a good subject!
07-25-2018, 05:10 AM   #7
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Very cool, what a good subject!

07-25-2018, 05:50 AM   #8
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Beautiful, I love the reflection on the glass. I love hoverflies. They are so cute
07-25-2018, 06:09 AM   #9
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Very well done sir.
07-25-2018, 02:37 PM   #10
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Great background, and a superb image - one to be proud of!!
07-25-2018, 03:41 PM   #11
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Great shot and great explanation.
07-25-2018, 05:29 PM   #12
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Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by boblivious Quote
That turned out great! Did you adjust lens focus or camera position to get your 30 shots?
Lens focus, which I think may introduce other challenges when magnification is 1:1.

I tried to just slide the tripod back and forth at first but that didn't really work haha.
I think a focus rail would be ideal.

I ended up switching to live view and turning on focus peaking, then manually focusing through the entire range with peaking to help highlight where the overlaps would occur in the stack.

There are probably better ways to do this, it was just what came to mind in the moment!
07-25-2018, 11:58 PM   #13
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Quite the challenge. Very neat!
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