The caterpillar was still on the honeysuckle this morning and in a good position so I got the tripod out and tried to do a focus stack (first time for me). I only used two shots for the stack - one with the upper body in focus and one with the lower end in focus. The background isn’t as smooth as the first shot I posted but I think more of the caterpillar is in focus. Any comments appreciated.
Canon 7D2, Sigma 150mm f2.8 macro, Sigma 1.4x TC, tripod, 430 EX II speedlite @ 1/32 power
ISO 400, f32, 1.250s
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This looks really nice to me, Allen. I haven’t tried focus stacking either, so maybe when I get a slow moving creature like this, I might give it a try. The details in the Caterpillar are really nice from one end to the other. The BG looks fine to me, not distracting. I like that the stem he is on slants downward across the image. Very nice.
Allen, this looks very good. How cool to be able to watch these grow. The cat. and its perch show very well and the background looks just fine with a good mix of complementary colors and shapes. In looking at the largest view, it looks like there’s a subtle change from very sharp on the rear most leg spots to just a hair softer on the spots in the full body. If you used Photoshop for your stack, the problems that it has in blending the sharp areas may be the explanation. It’s also a detail that very few would notice even in a very large print.
Wonderful Allen, I love it. The background looks great to me. The details of the insect is perfect. Someone told me about focus stacking a couple of years ago so I tried it. Never tried it with a insect so something to try out.
Nice work. I’ve never tried stacking, but it sounds interesting. BTW, I just got some shots of a Hummingbird Clearwing moth - something I haven’t seen in years. Very serendipitous!!
