Spider with Kill (Live Stack)

Macro Magic

here is the explanation of the process and 3 photos used

Macro Magic

(freeware) Explanation of stacking 3 photos of a spider with its kill.

Equipment used:
Canon 1000D + Sigma 70-300 (@168mm) + Raynox DCR 250
Light: YN467 with ring light diffuser.

f/9 : 1/200 : ISO 800

Method:
1. Exported 3 RAWs from FastStone Viewer (freeware)
2. In Combine ZP (freeware!) did the "alignment" (The auto-stacking was not giving good results, so did only alignment)
3. Saved 3 aligned images as tif
4. Opened the background image first in GIMP (freeware)
5. Opened the 2nd Image as Layer and recovered the parts with details MANUALLY
6. Opened the Last image as Layer and recovered the parts (right eye)
7. Levels, recover Highlight / Shadow in GIMP
8. Exported Tiff
9. Reduced the noise in Noiseware community Edition (Freeware)
10. Opened the noisefree image as layer on top of original and recovered only the b/g (i did not want the face to loose details due to noiseware)
11. Final Sharpening and export
12. Resize and logo in FastStone Resizer
13. Created the collage and overlay text in Picasa 3 (freeware)