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EOS 5DmkII, Sigma 180mm macro
f/16, ISO 100

This was in the forest on the side of Mount Donna Buang earlier this year. These three Mycena fruiting bodies were tiny. The smallest (middle) one was only a mm or two high, and I only noticed it after I'd set up the initial shot.

Three 25-second frames (with just the focus adjusted between each) were blended in Photoshop CS4. Load as layers, auto-align, then auto-blend (which essentially uses the most "in-focus" areas from each image), then straighten/crop, and voila! Without the stacking the depth of field was very limited. Even here we still have limited DOF, but it's much greater than without the stacking.

....... nice work Dave

and thanks for the tip on stacking in PS....you now have me going off to play with the shell images in Photoshop

Great shot Dave, and a very handy tip on focus stacking. I have never tried it, but
seeing what you have achieved here, I am looking forward to giving it a go.

Dave, Could you post some of the original images so we can get an idea of the original DOF?

That's a nice technique Dave! It makes possible the impossible! You certainly nailed it.

This image puzzles me. It has an almost 3-D effect, and that, for some reason, I find bothersome.

I'm just trying to understand why this is so: it looks great, but ......

Thank you for the tip. It is very handy to know.

Thanks for the detail Dave. Always handy to know how others do their work.

It was only a bracket of 3 shots, and I only needed enough DOF to cover the branch.
Here are crops from the RAW frames at each extreme:



There is actually significant difference in the sharpness of the centre of the frame (the closest area to the camera) in these shots. One other difference I noticed between the frames was a tiny leech moving along the branch...

Thanks DaveB... I am still trying to understand this technique... very unusual subject to try this on!