cases. However if the forward object has hairs, spikes, or any find
fringe this becomes near to impossible or just not worth the effort.
Better to take a single-shot photo and leave it at that.
If your dream of focus stacking is to stack images with no
retouching, good luck! Sooner or later you will find yourself entering
the world of retouching stacks and it can be a tricky business. That
goodness that Zerene Stacker has such powerful and easy-to-use
retouching features. Otherwise, I doubt that I would bother.
The 24mm PC-E is a great lens and the woodland scene
(landscape) I posted was done with that lens and a pano head. As
for primary and secondary subject, that is different than I see it. I
see it as primary subject and ‘context’, rather than anything else as
the subject, secondary, etc. Think of it as a pictorial vignette. You
know how a little vignette can make a subject pop. Well this
technique can do that as well, just differently. That is my guess.
All this is very speculative for me as well. Expectations keep
dreams alive and sometimes our dreams are even met with reality.
I like exploring these techniques and I sincerely feel that combining
focus stacking and a pano head is the key to what I have been
looking for all along, hopefully not in some garish way and I have
no real use for 360-degree panoramas other than they are
interesting. I just want mini panoramas, dioramas, macro-
landscapes, or “small worlds” as I call them. I just want them to
reflect what I see in the mind. Keeps me taking photos! The D700 is
a great camera and I keep regretting that I sold mine until I realize
the D3s is just as good. Still, the D700 was a landmark lens in my
work and a real beauty. I had a small view camera which I sold, a
Linhof. If there was one view camera that took Nikon lenses (which
would miss the point of medium-format) and I could afford a digital
back, I might go there. Yet I believe the lenses I have and a decent
pano head is all I really need, at least right now. Who knows where
this will lead?