Extreme Macro: Paper Wasp

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Andrew Lamberson

Andrew Lamberson

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I REALLY need some warm and sunny weather to bring some good bugs out for macro shots!!

Otherwise, any poor bug that enters my house is fair game for the "jar of death" and the high magnification lens. This is a 125 image focus stack of a Paper Wasp at 5x magnification. I should have given it a bath in the sonic cleaner first! (yes...a bath to remove dust!)

The "depth of field" at this magnification is very, very thin, 0.25 mm at best. So I use a WeMacro automated rail that moves my camera in incredibly small steps (I can adjust it to move 1/2 of the thickness of a human hair!) and takes an image at each stop. I use Helicon Remote to set up the starting point (closest point) and the ending point (furthest point) and set the number of shots (steps) I want and the size of each step. I then take the 125 shots I set it for and import that into Helicon Focus and run the stacking models.

This is an animated 3D model of the stack that you can save in Helicon Focus after stacking. No editing of the image, straight out of Helicon Focus.

Nikon Z6 II with the Laowa 25mm 2.8. Set to 5x at 2.8 125 image stack 1/25 sec. ISO 1600
 
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Very sharp. Great example of what can be done. I just graduated from manually adjusting a focus rail to learning to use the focus shift function in the Z6ll. Nice to know there is room to go bigger while exploring smaller. Thanks for sharing and explaining.
 
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I use the focus shift of my Z6II with the Z105 macro and the quality is impressive. The rail gives me the option of using a lens like the Laowa 25mm 2.8. 2.5x to 5x and after learning the lens I am really pleased!
 
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Andrew Lamberson said:

I REALLY need some warm and sunny weather to bring some good bugs out for macro shots!!

Otherwise, any poor bug that enters my house is fair game for the "jar of death" and the high magnification lens. This is a 125 image focus stack of a Paper Wasp at 5x magnification. I should have given it a bath in the sonic cleaner first! (yes...a bath to remove dust!)

The "depth of field" at this magnification is very, very thin, 0.25 mm at best. So I use a WeMacro automated rail that moves my camera in incredibly small steps (I can adjust it to move 1/2 of the thickness of a human hair!) and takes an image at each stop. I use Helicon Remote to set up the starting point (closest point) and the ending point (furthest point) and set the number of shots (steps) I want and the size of each step. I then take the 125 shots I set it for and import that into Helicon Focus and run the stacking models.

This is an animated 3D model of the stack that you can save in Helicon Focus after stacking. No editing of the image, straight out of Helicon Focus.

Nikon Z6 II with the Laowa 25mm 2.8. Set to 5x at 2.8 125 image stack 1/25 sec. ISO 1600
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Remarkable, is all I can say. I need to retire before I can venture into another skill set. Thanks for posting(y)(y)(y)(y)
 
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