SuncrestReef
That Apex guy
I just started playing around with focus stacking, and I'm pretty happy with the results. These photos were shot on my Nikon D610 with a Nikon 200mm Micro f/4D IF-ED, tethered to my MacBook running Helicon Remote to control the focus over 10 individual exposures, and then processed in Helicon Focus to render the final image.
The only problem with focus stacking is dealing with movement between shots. It works really well on SPS, but anything with longer polyps that sway in the current can be tricky. For this plate coral, I turned off all flow before taking the photos, but the coral still moved a bit in between the 8 shots I took. When stitched together, it takes on an illusion of motion, as seen at the tips of a few tentacles:
For reference, here's an example of the depth of field in a single photo:
And here's the fully rendered image composed of 10 photos:
It's a pretty cool technology.
The only problem with focus stacking is dealing with movement between shots. It works really well on SPS, but anything with longer polyps that sway in the current can be tricky. For this plate coral, I turned off all flow before taking the photos, but the coral still moved a bit in between the 8 shots I took. When stitched together, it takes on an illusion of motion, as seen at the tips of a few tentacles:
For reference, here's an example of the depth of field in a single photo:
And here's the fully rendered image composed of 10 photos:
It's a pretty cool technology.
