photoartflightStudio Stacked Images
With it getting colder outside I was looking for images in the archives. One cold Winter Day last December, a friend came over to the studio for shooting some macro setup studio shots. When shooting closeup subjects, it is hard to get everything in focus, even at f/22 or f/32. Here are a series of stacked macro images shot with two different camera systems to show the depth of field you can get with Stacking images. For Short Stacks, you can try handholding, but for best results or Large Stacks, use a tripod and lock it down as best as you can. We were looking around the studio for subjects and came upon this deceased Robber Fly in a window. We positioned it on a Pussy Willow branch and printed out a slight gradated print for the background. We used a Speedotron Black Line power pack and dialed down the power for the f/stop we wanted to use. I used a Canon EOS 1D MkIV with a Canon 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM, 1/125 sec @ f/8 ISO 200 for some images. The other system I used was a Panasonic GH2 m43 camera body with an older Canon 200mm f/4 FD Macro lens @ 1/80 sec @ f/8 for the 4 image Short Stack and f/4 for the 51 image Large Stack. For stacked images, you start with the lens focused to your closest point and then shift focus farther back, shooting a series with a very slight focus shift as you go. The best way is to use a focusing rail to move your Camera & Lens at the same time instead of shifting focus on the lens, but these were shot by changing focus on the lens, which also works. Then I aligned the images in Photoshop. After Aligning, I Stacked the images in Photoshop. Depending on the number of layers in the stack, this can take a while to process. The stacked images here are a series of a Short Stack of 4 images, then a stack of 20 images and then a large stack of 51 images. Give it a try, especially on a cold Winter day.
Canon 200mm f/4 FD Macro lens @ 1/80 sec @ f/8 ISO 200 – 51 Image Large Stack 
Canon 200mm f/4 FD Macro lens @ 1/80 sec @ f/8 ISO 200– 4 image Short Stack
Canon 400mm f/4 DO w/ 36mm extension tube @ 1/125 sec @ f/8 ISO 400 -Single Image, No Stack
photoartflight 
These are amazing! Even the short stack of 4 images is crisp. Thanks for the info on how to do this.
Thanks, It is a handy technique when trying for maximum depth of field with closeup subjects. It even works with handheld images, but limit your stacks to 3 or 4. Over that you usually get one layer that goes off.