Focus stacking to achieve a super sharp depth of field

Yesterday I showed some still life images of ingredients to be used as props in an elaborate composition on the theme of winter produce. I have been creating these super-sharp images for some time on various aspects of food groupings. Here I chose to cover the winter produce available at the local farmers market this time of year.

The photo below was actually taken in 19 exposures. I first focused on the closest foreground point and minutely stepped the focus for each subsequent shot a miniscule amount to the rear until the entire composition was covered. Later the images were combined, or "stacked", in a program called Helicon Focus to make one super-sharp image. You can download a high resolution image using the link below the photograph.

Click here to download a high res version of this shot.

For this sequence I relied on a Nikon D800 to provide the maximum resolution required for making large prints. The lens was a 60mm macro set to f/5.6, a combo I find works best for this type of project.