Smiley Darters and Dragon Eye at 5x

[Alliec]

After getting the MPE-65 one of my main objectives was to get a dragonflys eye at 5x life size. I used to find them very easy to approah with the Tamron 90mm that i have, but the MPE was a different story. After many weeks of trying i finally managed it with a common darter.
The first three are all focus stacked from either 2 or 3 shots and combined in combinezm

x5

 

[theMusicMan]

Stunning set of pics, absolutely stunning. That last one is spectacular, love it

 

[oldgit]

They are very good.

 

[Gandhi]

Very nice.

Whats this focus stacking all about then?

 

[madmitch]

Very nice.

Whats this focus stacking all about then?

Tell us more.

I know how close you have to get with the Mpe so these are great catches

 

[dod]

last one's got an inbuilt optical illusion, black/dark bit seems to grow in size when you stare at it . Nice shots

 

[Ladybird]

Stunning set of pics, absolutely stunning. That last one is spectacular, love it

Really really stunning shots, just keep staring back at them!

 

[boozybill]

Brilliant, he could have shaved knowing he,s having his photo taken....

 

[scraggs]

Really nice shots, mind me asking what flash you used on these ?

 

[Alliec]

Hi all..thanks for viewing and commenting its much appreciated.

Here is a link to a tutorial on focus stacking. It runs through a step by step guide on how to use the software and explains it way better than i could.

www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=61316

Scraggs, I used a 430EX speedlite with a homemade diffuser on an off shoe cord. I tend to hold the flash at the front of the lens as it gives me more flexibility than a flash bracket.

 

[RobertP]

Like #3!

I've used focus stacking in the past. Seems to work well sometimes and get it wrong others. certainly looks good here.