This week I decided to try some stack focusing. This photo was 15 photos blended together in photoshop CS5. I took every photo at a different focal length so everything was in focus, step by step.
The issue I ran into was the exposure. To get the marble properly exposed, I had to use a faster shutter speed, but that made the handle, and wood too dark. To solve this I basically took the same photos, at different shutter speeds and combined them, similar to an HDR photo.
The end result is multiple things in focus, with no bokeh, or anything out of focus. I purposely kept the little dust "hair" in focus. That was my first focal length, followed by the marble, then the handle, then the wood.
I used my canon 50D with a sigma 70-300 on the macro setting. I believe this was shot at f5.6. Using a tripod, and manual focus, I was able to step though the focal lengths and achieve the photo.
Thanks again for reading
Jon