Lucky Escape

I was filling the kettle up and just as I closed the lid a caught a glimpse of this tiny praying mantis leaping into the kettle. I immediately fished him out and put him on a pot plant to let him dry out before taking him outside. He seemed none the worse for his dunking. Of course I took the opportunity to take some pictures.  

When taking macro photos of such tiny insects (he's about 1cm long) it's difficult to get the depth of field so I use photo stacking. This involves taking multiple images at different focal depths and then using image stack software to compile a single image with increased depth of field.  I use Zerene Photostacker to do the stacking which I found to be the best package out of the ones I trialed - certainly much better and more accurate than Photoshop.

Of course a key issue when taking multiple images like this is that the subject needs to stay still. I took several image sets but in most of them the baby mantis moved. I only had one set of 32 images where it stayed still apart from waving its feelers about.  The stacking software often finds it difficult to resolve things like insect legs when they cross in different focal planes which means you often end up with a bit of editing to do to tidy the final image up. I normally use a combination of the Zerene Photostacker editing tools and Photoshop to tidy up the final image.

Below is the final image plus one of the original set of 32 photos showing the short depth of field and the output file from Zerene Photostacker before any final editing was done.

Final image 

One of the original set of 32 images showing the depth of field obtained with a single image.

The output file from zerene photostacker. Note the multiple images of the feelers caused by movements between photos and how the cross over of the legs has not been resolved correctly.