Focus stacking

[JoPoV]

Hi,

I just tested focus stacking for macro. Never did before.

Here is my test. (I should have take some more shots behind the bug to have a better balanced DOF, but this is just a test).
But this is a dead bug. I found it near my fireplace and put it on some bush leaf with a green sheet of paper behind it.

My question is how do you do to keep a bug or other small animals not moving when shooting focus stacks ? Those insects are generally always moving.
Are there some tips ?

Thanx.

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[Andrew Lamberson]

You can only take very short stacks of anything that can move. For bugs, the visit a holding facility for a few minutes before they take a hydroponic bath so they look clean. And before anyone gives me grief, check the front grill on your car in warm weather!

 

[bleirer]

Depending on how you are stacking you have some control over which parts of which frames get included, for example the masks in Photoshop. Sometimes you can pick the few frames where it is still and paint out the moving parts in the mask. Good luck though.

 

[Woody Meristem]

I often refrigerate insects for anywhere from an hour to overnight, that slows them down for a while -- many quite small insects recover before I can pick up a camera and focus on them, larger insects take anywhere from a half minute to five minutes to really become active. In my experience refrigerating spiders will kill them; that was only done with about a half dozen spiders and they all died, so now I just have to be patient and wait until they're still long enough. For anyone who has a problem with what I do, you'd best not walk anywhere other than on pavement, if you do you're crushing thousands, probably millions of living creatures -- see this blog post -- https://forestandfield.blogspot.com/2022/03/just-peek.html

 

[jeffnles1]

I don't refrigerate them but I do like to get dragonflies and butterflies early in the morning before they warm up in the sun. Also it is possible to catch bees sleeping in flowers early in the morning. Usually late summer / early autumn when nights get cooler. Nature's refrigerator.

 

[RichF]

Bugs are a challenge. Unless they are dead or very cold they are likely to move. I stick with flowers and still life for the most part

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

I have some good short stacks 5-10 frames of bees and bumble bees. But they are only 2 or 3 secs worth. LOTS of throwaway attempts! 10% would be a good day. Also take your shots early in the am when it is cool and the bugs are lethargic. Look on the underside of leaves where the bugs are a little protected.

 

[Steve]

Are you using Nikon's Focus Shift Shooting feature? It's pretty quick and can knock out 20 shots before I can manually knock out two. That's one way to go

I also like to shoot bugs (on the rare occasion I do) in the early morning when they aren't moving quite so fast

 

[JoPoV]

Thank you all for your fast responses.

I first have to test how to setup my D850 and find good settings for needed dof, depending on distance, aperture and the size of the subject.
On the image above (my first test) I put the setting on 2 and allowed 50 images at f/8 (limit I try to not bypass when possible with D850) with 105mm f/2.8 macro. I have to increase this setting a lot in a case like this one.
I'm going to test this with small calibrated objects to better understand what this 1 to 10 setting gives as a result.
Steve Perry talk about it in one of his book. I have to read that again too. I think to remenber he used a setting of 4 or 5 as a starting point.

I appreciate your expertise and will try to make good use of it.

 

[JoPoV]

Are you using Nikon's Focus Shift Shooting feature? It's pretty quick and can knock out 20 shots before I can manually knock out two. That's one way to go

I also like to shoot bugs (on the rare occasion I do) in the early morning when they aren't moving quite so fast

Yes, I do.
I have the book where you talk about it, but have to read your advices again (I read it a long time ago).
And I remember a very nice and clean ladybug you shooted. I didn't understand how you could take so many shoot without it moving.
I don't understand what use of f/51 on the 105mm f2.8 macro due to diffraction problems. Are there some use of a such aperture ?

 

[nautiboy]

I just thought of something, I don't even know if Z9 does or doesn't have high speed focus shift??? I know the D850 I had did a pretty dang good job of it.

I had been wondering the same thing after I realized that the 20fps helped with HDR bracket/stack/merges. But I just tried it and it definitely wasn't 20FPS. It felt like maybe 3 or 4FPS, but looking at the time stamps, it took just over 2 seconds to knock out 10 frames so maybe closer to 4 or 5FPS. I set the delay between shots to 0 and was in high speed 20fps mode and shutter was 1/800. Not sure if there's anything else I needed to do or set to get a higher rate, or if the focus shift just moves that "slow".

 

[aolander]

Yes, I do.
I have the book where you talk about it, but have to read your advices again (I read it a long time ago).
And I remember a very nice and clean ladybug you shooted. I didn't understand how you could take so many shoot without it moving.
I don't understand what use of f/51 on the 105mm f2.8 macro due to diffraction problems. Are there some use of a such aperture ?

Insects often stay motionless especially when it's cool outside. F/ 51 would be an "effective aperture" due to close-focusing, and no, it wouldn't be useful.

 

[Andrew Lamberson]

I have some good short stacks 5-10 frames of bees and bumble bees. But they were 1 or 2 secs worth. LOTS of throwaway attempts! 10% would be a good day. Also take your shots early in the am when it is cool and the bugs are lethargic. Look on the underside of leaves where the bugs are a little protected.

 

[Abinoone]

I often refrigerate insects for anywhere from an hour to overnight, that slows them down for a while -- many quite small insects recover before I can pick up a camera and focus on them, larger insects take anywhere from a half minute to five minutes to really become active. In my experience refrigerating spiders will kill them; that was only done with about a half dozen spiders and they all died, so now I just have to be patient and wait until they're still long enough. For anyone who has a problem with what I do, you'd best not walk anywhere other than on pavement, if you do you're crushing thousands, probably millions of living creatures -- see this blog post -- https://forestandfield.blogspot.com/2022/03/just-peek.html

Does this technique work for humans? Time to call PETA!