Critique Crystals • 71 slices stack and Backup shot!

[Kodiak Qc]

•
On the surface of a +/- 5 kilo rock my son brought back from a school sortie
to a quarry, a 1,5" ammonite fossil. He was excited and wanted to shoot it for
his weekly studio session. Upon close examination, the fossil was much too
damaged to consider. On another surface of the rock, however, some shiny
super tiny crystals…​

 

[posiview]

Hi, lovely detail and it could be a very large cave. I keep wondering what's further in the 'cave'.

Nice set up as well.

Cheers.

 

[Tintin124]

Was the reflector actually putting any light onto the subject? Doesn't look like it from pull back.

You have done very well with the crystals as the angular nature of them make it very difficult to light I would suspect that you could have used a larger softbox to light it to reduce the specular highlights (increase micro contrast) but the outcome from the stack is very pleasing.

Thanks for showing the setup.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

Was the reflector actually putting any light onto the subject? Doesn't look like it from pull back.

http://profoto.com/int/products/lig...ools-for-special-applications/item/spot-small

I would suspect that you could have used a larger softbox to light it to reduce the specular highlights

I have chosen the spot because I wanted to control the specular highlights.

Thanks for dropping by Bryn!
http://profoto.com/int/products/lig...ools-for-special-applications/item/spot-small

 

[GHP]

Excellent example of an "extreme" stack.
The only stacks I have ever done are around 10 shots maximum!
What was the total distance traveled from front to back? For 71 stages the movement must have been very small between shots.

 

[Kodiak Qc]

What was the total distance traveled from front to back?
For 71 stages the movement must have been very small between shots.

•
There is your answer!

The right question is not so much the movement but the shooting aperture;
as the aperture, more than the closest and furthest points, is commanding
the number of slices as you noted.

When working in focus stacking, the real goal is the ultimate quality in the
final stacked picture and that can only go through the correct chosen ƒ stop.

Thanks for the comments Gary.