You just taught me something new! I had never heard of focus stacking before Thank you.
The first image looks great. The second image is nothing less than fabulous.
I have spent many years doing underwater photography and videography. That was all done with wet film all over the world. I have shot thousands of macro shots. Of course it was impossible to come close to your second shot due to depth of field limitations, not to mention subject-diver relative motion, particularly in the presence of even the slightest of currents.
I once shot a dozen rolls of 36 exposures each trying to capture small tunicates and miniature feather dusters in close-up macro. This took 6 one hour dives with a pair of cameras in frigid waters off Scotland's coast. Not a one came out great because of severe depth of focus limitations.
Had I been able to do what you have done on your FIRST attempt at this new capability, those tunicates and worms would have made the covers of the top underwater photography and diving magazines.
