# Focus stacking macro.



## ronlane (Dec 1, 2020)

A friend was given this knife and thought it would be fun for us to photograph in a product setting. I agreed with him and we both focus stacked this one. I think it turned out pretty well. It was made out of a farrier's rasp.


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## smoke665 (Dec 1, 2020)

Cool knife, and great job. Ron have you ever tried cross polarized lighting? I think you might find it interesting on shiny objects.


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## ronlane (Dec 1, 2020)

smoke665 said:


> Cool knife, and great job. Ron have you ever tried cross polarized lighting? I think you might find it interesting on shiny objects.



No, I've never heard of it but I will do some research on it. We used 2 lights and three "reflectors" on this.


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## smoke665 (Dec 1, 2020)

ronlane said:


> smoke665 said:
> 
> 
> > Cool knife, and great job. Ron have you ever tried cross polarized lighting? I think you might find it interesting on shiny objects.
> ...



Cross polarized lighting involves putting a linear polarizing film https://www.amazon.com/Polarization...eywords=polarizing+film&qid=1606881155&sr=8-4 on your flash and a circular polarizing filter on your camera. As you rotate the CP you cancel out reflections, giving you super fine details. It's used a lot in macro and dental photography.


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## Space Face (Dec 2, 2020)

That seems to have worked out very well indeed.   It has also retained a decent amount of dof front and rear adding depth to the overall frame.

I knew what a farriers rasp was without having to 'Google' it.

Out of interest,  how many frames in the stack?


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## smoke665 (Dec 2, 2020)

@ronlane I was tired last night and couldn't find this link. Taming those Annoying Highlights: Cross-Polarization Flash Macro Photography This a dual flash setup for a macro shot, very similar to what you'll see in dental photography. You can really see the difference in specular highlights. While this is a dual setup, it can be done with a single light also. In fact it's a little easier because you don't have the problem of keeping the the lights parallel.


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## ronlane (Dec 2, 2020)

Space Face said:


> That seems to have worked out very well indeed.   It has also retained a decent amount of dof front and rear adding depth to the overall frame.
> 
> I knew what a farriers rasp was without having to 'Google' it.
> 
> Out of interest,  how many frames in the stack?



Thank you. You get points for knowing that without googling it, lol.  It was 15 shots for the stack.



smoke665 said:


> @ronlane I was tired last night and couldn't find this link. Taming those Annoying Highlights: Cross-Polarization Flash Macro Photography This a dual flash setup for a macro shot, very similar to what you'll see in dental photography. You can really see the difference in specular highlights. While this is a dual setup, it can be done with a single light also. In fact it's a little easier because you don't have the problem of keeping the the lights parallel.



Thank you. I looked on YouTube last night as well and watched a couple of video's on it. This is something that I am going to have to try out.


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## Space Face (Dec 2, 2020)

ronlane said:


> Space Face said:
> 
> 
> > That seems to have worked out very well indeed.   It has also retained a decent amount of dof front and rear adding depth to the overall frame.
> ...



Cheers for the reply.   15 that's impressive.


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## K9Kirk (Dec 3, 2020)

Space Face said:


> That seems to have worked out very well indeed.   It has also retained a decent amount of dof front and rear adding depth to the overall frame.
> 
> I knew what a farriers rasp was without having to 'Google' it.
> 
> Out of interest,  how many frames in the stack?



And extra points because he didn't have to kill it to get the stacks.


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## K9Kirk (Dec 3, 2020)

Real nice image and cool looking knife. Any idea on what kind of steel use for the blade? Does it sharpen well?


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## Space Face (Dec 3, 2020)

K9Kirk said:


> Space Face said:
> 
> 
> > That seems to have worked out very well indeed.   It has also retained a decent amount of dof front and rear adding depth to the overall frame.
> ...



Absolutely. That's always a bonus.


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## ronlane (Dec 3, 2020)

K9Kirk said:


> Real nice image and cool looking knife. Any idea on what kind of steel use for the blade? Does it sharpen well?



Not sure what type of steel they use for the farrier rasps. yes, it was VERY sharp.


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## ronlane (Dec 11, 2020)

Thank you Robin.


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## photoflyer (Dec 11, 2020)

ronlane said:


> I agreed with him and we both focus stacked this one.



Focus stacking is magic.  I'd like to know how this was done on film.  I think we often take for granted an image like yours where the depth of field is so deep.


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