Sporangia

Igor, I'm assuming that your two lens combo includes a reversing ring attachment, which means very high magnification (roughly 3X based on the focal length ratio).  Does Helicon remote automatically accommodate for the very limited dof or was that much of the reason behind "...several series to get something decent..."?  The details in the sporangia are great and you've got a good looking group of them nicely sharp.  I am bothered by how strongly oof the foreground leaf edges are, but that dramatic change in focus is a problem inherent in high magnification stacking and how you handle it is a personal choice.  The dark blue background makes an interesting color contrast.  Overall, I'd say you did very well under very challenging circumstances.

Mark, thanks very much for your comments. Yes, I forgot to mention that the 50 mm lens is reversely mounted (adapter ring, step down ring) on the 70-200 mm lens. Helicon remote wants to know the nearest focus distance and the farthest focus distance and from a test shot it seems to estimate depth of field (I don't know how that works, if at all...) and so the number of images. But sometimes this number is incredibly small and then I switch to manually setting this number. The hardest part is to manoeuvre the (tiny) part of the fern in front of the lens to achieve a certain composition. This one is closest to what I had in mind. However, here the problem is that I did not have enough focus range (I do not use a macro rail) to get the leaf tips in focus together with the first row of sporangia. In a few days I will post another one with less magnification where this problem is more or less avoided, but it is still plagued somewhat by the limited focus range. Unfortunately I will have to wait until next spring to improve this...

I'm way behind on this kind of macro shooting and stacking. I have used Zerene Stacker so long that the practical application on the flower stacks I have made hardly ever runs over 20 images, and more usually 10  or so images. I admire this kind of work, however, and it will be interesting how far you take it.