Still trying to work on Macro techniques… Way harder than I thought it would be.
A clematis cutting that is propagating on a window sill.
Natural light, Background is my front yard through the window.
10 image stack, a lot of artifacts, I am not sure any stack would work without them on something like this.
D610, 105mm @ f3.5
Any comments appreciated.
Dan, this does make for a fine abstract. I like your comp. and the framing with some subtle colors in the background. A subject like this, with tons of tiny overlapped details, is a worst case scenario for stacking as every place where there’s an overlap between a focused slice and an oof slice leaves a blurred area around the focused subject. With a subject like this, you’ll get a lot fewer artifacts if you use a small f-stop (I often shoot stacks at f/16). However, small f-stops will add structure to your background. One way to get around this is to shoot the subject at a small f-stop, then shoot a final slice (focused on the furthest sharp point) at a large aperture (say f/3.5) and use that shot to “paint in” the background.
A fine image of this seed head, Dan. The artifacts dn’t jump out at one until after examining the larger image, then they become hard to miss, but most could be fixed without undue difficulty, though it could be tedious. It’s always very difficult to decide when to stop.
When I look at this image, I think I’d be tempted to try removing the stem and just let the seed head float.
Mark’s suggestion is a good one. I can certainly see the crossover artifacts, but it would take a super OCD photographer to worry about correcting this. Besides, at any reasonable size, this is worth hanging as a smallish print. For the most part, the artifacts add to the charm. I see one small orphaned edge on the LL side worth correcting. Other than that, I would be happy with this.
Dan: yup, there are some artifacts when viewed at its largest, but so what. It’s a very fine image and I’m sure it would make an equally fine print unless printed very large. The subject is very interesting as an abstract. It pops very nicely against the background. Richard
Interesting to see that more people spotted the intricate beauty of clematis seeds. I very much like the swirling tentacles with their silver hairs. I do not think there are many artefacts visible, but at aperture 3.5 the images must be taken very close to each other to get enough ‘overlapping dof’. I think there is a bit of banding in your image. My suggestion would be to use aperture somewhere between nine or eleven, where most lenses are at their best wrt sharpness. Even then I think you would need more than 10 images to get enough dof. Of course aperture nine or eleven will spoil your very nice and soft background, but then Mark S’s suggestion comes in. It is a challenging but rewarding subject.
Dan: I haven’t taken up stacking yet so I’m not as attuned to the artifacts as those more expert than me, especially Phil who’s a master. I do love the subject and BG and think your progress with macro is going very well. 
>=))>
