My first attempt at macro focus stacking

[denum]

I had been trying to find something good to use as a subject for a focus stack and thought that this IBM type-ball would do well, being it is round. To set the scene I screwed into a piece of plywood a 3" drywall/wall board screw for the type ball to sit on...giving it some height and separation from the plywood. Then I thought it would be a good idea to cover the plywood with a black tee shirt. The first shot is a 7 image stack, and the second closer up shot is a 9 image stack. I did no other editing to these pictures other than a crop due to some blurriness on one edge after the blending of the images. I adjusted the focal plane using the manual focus ring on my lens, and repositioning the focus magnifier box position to various places on the image starting from the front of the image then toward the back of the image.


Before stack

After stack

Before stack

After stack

One of my first jobs was as a typewriter repairman at the University of California at Berkeley, CA in the early '80s. I was trained on the repair of IBM Selectric typewriters that used these type-balls. Everytime I see one of these type-balls it reminds me of a funny, but humiliating, story. To get around the expansive university campus we drove around 3 wheeled Cushman meter-maid scooters. Throughout the beautiful campus there are large open tree studded grassy areas with narrow asphalt pathways for students to walk. These pathways are also used for maintenance vehicles including our beloved Cushman scooters. As with many of these types of pathways there were 6" diameter removable metal posts (bollards as I recall) placed at the beginning and end of each of these pathways.

One day while driving my scooter on one of these pathways I became fixated on the backside of a beautiful girl walking just ahead of me and to the right, out in the grassy area. It was in the morning and the sun, which was in front of her, was shining through her white, sheer-like, dress as if it were translucent. This scene was no less than mesmerizing to me, a 22yr old lad. In fact it absolutely kidnapped my brain temporarily and consequently I forgot all about those bollards and BAAAMMMM, I ran straight into one of them. My scooter ended up on it's side and I had to crawl out of the other side.

With my ego bruised, and after shaking off the adrenaline, I limped my scooter back to the shop (like walking a bike with a flat tire) and confronted my boss with the bad news. My boss had previously been in the Navy for 35 years so he was no stranger to the notion of young men getting into trouble over young women, and after initially being a bit pissed that I wrecked my scooter, he busted out in a fit of laughter upon hearing the reason why.

 

[jeffashman]

Wonderfully done! I can hear those photos...