Very first attempt at focus stacking

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Photographer_Bill

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Looking for some critique here. I used Steve P's Z9/Z8 guide to help configure settings in my Z8 and when I walked out one morning I noticed this little guy sitting in our Purple Siam Tulip (Curcuma) after a fresh rain and I thought to myself "I just setup focus stacking in my Z8, I should try it out" and so I did. I took Steve's advice and focused in front of the frog, but in hindsight I probably should have focused a little more in front. There was also a breeze and even though the Z8 took all 30 images in very quick succession I can still see some "blur" in the petals that I assume has come from movement between frames and Photoshop didn't quite know how to render those areas. Here are the focus stack settings I used:
  • Number Of Shots: 30
  • Focus Width: 4
  • Interval Until Next Shot: 0
  • First Frame Exposure Lock: On
  • Focus Position Auto Reset: Off
Images were processed using Lightroom Classic and exported to Photoshop as layers then used PS Auto-Align Layers and then Auto-Blend Layers, final tweaks made in Lightroom. All images were taken in landscape mode but the portrait crops were done in PP. The first and second shots are the same flower/frog but from different perspectives, what's interesting is with the third shot I liked it for the flower and only after processing in LR/PS did I even notice the little eyes hiding out... IPTC data should show all my settings below images.

20230618_Curcuma_Purple_Siam_Tulip_Stacking_03_0001.jpg

20230618_Curcuma_Purple_Siam_Tulip_Stacking_04_0001.jpg

20230618_Curcuma_Purple_Siam_Tulip_Stacking_05_0001.jpg
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