Okinawa Star Sand and Zerene Stacker

[KurtM]

I downloaded the free trial version of Zerene Stacker, and decided to try it on a sample of "star sand" (please see http://scribol.com/science/paleontology ... g-fossils/ ). Then I discovered Zerene has a function to make cross-eye stereo pair images in c-kreb's Hamuli thread, and so started playing with that too. Here's the result:



And a regular image, this one a 10 image stack shot through the 4x/.12 objective on my AO 120 using LED epi lighting.

[gekko]

Wonderful sand! Very beautiful images indeed. Unfortunately my eyes don't cooperate: I cross them when I don't want to, and I can never cross them properly to view 3D images .

[KurtM]

Just curious: does anyone besides me enjoy stereo pairs...

(They never seem to generate much interest.)

[Crater Eddie]

Very nice! I have always enjoyed stereo pair images. I love to see them here, though nobody much posts them.
CE

[c-krebs]

Kurt,
Nice. I think you will have a lot of fun "stacking". What a great subject.

A couple of thought on stereo from Zerene. You need to play around with the "shift" amounts. Stacks with more images and shallower DOF often yield a more pronounced stereo effect. Fairly often the image pairs will have a good stereo effect, but taken individually they may not look as good as a single straightforward stack (and occasionally you will come upon a stack that doesn't seem to like the "shifting" involved to create the pair, and they don't look all that great). It is often a good idea to sharpen these pairs up to a point that is maybe slightly beyond what you would do with a single image... it seem to help the eyes to "fuse" them into a stereo.

On a different subject, Any idea on why you are getting so much vignetting with the 4x?

[KurtM]

Kurt,
Nice. I think you will have a lot of fun "stacking". What a great subject.

A couple of thought on stereo from Zerene. You need to play around with the "shift" amounts. Stacks with more images and shallower DOF often yield a more pronounced stereo effect. Fairly often the image pairs will have a good stereo effect, but taken individually they may not look as good as a single straightforward stack (and occasionally you will come upon a stack that doesn't seem to like the "shifting" involved to create the pair, and they don't look all that great). It is often a good idea to sharpen these pairs up to a point that is maybe slightly beyond what you would do with a single image... it seem to help the eyes to "fuse" them into a stereo.

On a different subject, Any idea on why you are getting so much vignetting with the 4x?

As a matter of fact, I'm not a technically-minded sort, and have a ton of trouble understanding what I'm doing. I can run circles around anybody, bar none, in a wood shop; now that's my natural milieu. But this stuff, not so much...

I don't understand shift amounts worth a flip, and just leave 'em at 3% in all the boxes. Have no clue what the second set of boxes is for. Usually I figure out these sorta things by experimenting, but processing stereos takes too darn long and ADD kicks in. I do understand greater number of images in a stack plus shallow DOF gives better results. I know I need to read the tutorials better, but I dislike studying, puts me to sleep.

As for vignetting: I have a devil of a time setting up photo systems in microscopes, pretty much takes spoon-feeding step-by-step detailed instructions, or have someone put it together for me. In the case of my AO 120 used in these images, I gutted an AO photo tube for film cameras, and shoot directly from tube lens to sensor. Normally, I crop out the vignetting. I wish I knew how to set it up with a relay lens or whatever.

Also wish I knew how to get my camera properly mated to my Nikon Labophot too. I had my Zeiss built for me in part to get it properly set up for photomicography so all I had to do is attach the camera and fire at will.

Photo: How I took the star sand images.

[75RR]

My eyes don't see stereo images, so the single image works much better for me.
Nice 3D effect in the second image.

[rnabholz]

Very cool subject that I never knew existed before today.

Nice images too.

Thanks,

Rod

[JimT]

I can run circles around anybody, bar none, in a wood shop

I would have taken that challenge a few years ago but as I am an "Old Guy" I don't do too much wood working anymore.

Both images are great and I never knew about Star Sand. I can't see the stereo effect in the first image but really like it in its own right. Looks like you are happy with Zerene.

JimT