My first attempt in focus stacking

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Nice work Glenn. How long did it take to load and process these 22 shots? The result is amazing but almost too sharp.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Hi Glenn great first attempt, I do notice some fuzziness on the green stamen where you may have missed a focal point ;). But great job. I may try it one day.
 

gqtuazon

Gear Head
Nice work Glenn. How long did it take to load and process these 22 shots? The result is amazing but almost too sharp.

Not too long since these are jpgs. Easy and manageable compared to a 1 RAW file from my D800.

Hi Glenn great first attempt, I do notice some fuzziness on the green stamen where you may have missed a focal point ;). But great job. I may try it one day.

Thanks Scott. You are probably correct. When shooting with a macro lens, DoF is just paper thin even though I was already at f8.

This is one of the jpg images that I used. Using one image will not show all of the details.


focus stacking by gqtuazon, on Flickr
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Great work Glenn,

Something I think I should add is you almost have to be able to control your environment. The slightest breeze will move things around on you making stacking very difficult.
 
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PapaST

Senior Member
What??? You didn't spray your subject down with water? The nerve... ;)

Very nice work. Thanks for sharing. I'll have to try this sometime.
 

PapaST

Senior Member
Whew... it's fairly tough. I did a quick setup and tried the stack and photoshop ghosted different elements of the flowers so that it did not come out naturally. I'll definitely have to put more thought into the pics before stacking them. I know there is a way you can look at the different layered masks to clean it up but I was hoping to avoid that much PP.

Still though, the overall image is much more crisp than what I could have achieved with just one shot.
 

stmv

Senior Member
yes, part of the issue is that when changing focus, it chanes the image size, creating well,, alignment issues, so,, I start with the auto stack, and then blend in manually sections, really depends on the subject,

I think it would be AWESOME if with these new future cameras, it would move the 51 focus point around, and like bracketing, you could pick the number of focus points, and then with the computer of the camera, it would (since it knows the lens), automatically change the point, and then have a new assist, where you would zoom a bit and it would turn green when the picture proportion is maintained, it moves focus point, and you repeat..
 

gqtuazon

Gear Head
Ah, I thought raw… You'd probably still be waiting. :)

That would definitely challenge my computer.


Great work Glenn,

Something I think I should add is you almost have to be able to control your environment. The slightest breeze will move things around on you making stacking very difficult.

Absolutely. I shot the image next to the window to allow enough sunlight in. I also used "mirror up" or Mup, allow few seconds to dampen any vibration from the mirror slap and then take the shot.
 

gqtuazon

Gear Head
yes, part of the issue is that when changing focus, it chanes the image size, creating well,, alignment issues, so,, I start with the auto stack, and then blend in manually sections, really depends on the subject,

I think it would be AWESOME if with these new future cameras, it would move the 51 focus point around, and like bracketing, you could pick the number of focus points, and then with the computer of the camera, it would (since it knows the lens), automatically change the point, and then have a new assist, where you would zoom a bit and it would turn green when the picture proportion is maintained, it moves focus point, and you repeat..

I only used a single focus point with my image since the flower didn't have many focus points to choose from due to its configuration. I had to manually adjust to focusing ring on my lens and then take the shot until I reached the petals.
 
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