Handheld Focus Stacking with the Nikon 105mm/2.8 S Macro and Affinity Photo 2.

I made a stacked macro photo of a spider.

After years of being frustrated with manual techniques and open source focus stacking software, I finally bit the bullet and purchased some software to do the photo stacking for me.

But before I start using this lens and this software for any serious macro work, I want to push it too far to see what doesn't work.
I have a number of questions about this macro setup and how it would all work. Is handheld photo stacking possible? Do the small movements of a live creature ruin the shots, or is it more forgiving than I expect? Is indoor lighting enough for an acceptable shot? Will ISO noise throw things off?

I noticed a spider crawling on my camera bag, so I grabbed my Nikon Z6 and my Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S, and I took a stack of 300 shots, then loaded those photos into Affinity Photo 2 through it's "focus stack" import option, and these are the results.

Other than cropping, no edits were made in post, what you see is purely the results of the software's auto stacking. There are a number of areas that would require touching up if I wanted to make a serious photo for print, but I am still pretty impressed by these results.

http://kyleclements.com ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3On1YZpxhU