About Focus Stacking

[Dave Humphries]

I have been following this thread and this (focus stacking) is definitely something I will give a try this year in my P52 thread, but probably not yet a while.

OK you guys, you convinced me to attempt stacking, suffer the results



CS4, 7 image stack, no other processing

Hi Randy,

It looks equally 'sharp' front and back, but seems to lack detail in the whites - was the capture possibly over exposed?

You say "no other processing" - I wondered 'why not?'

I'd recommend check/use of the Levels dialog on the final result because looking at the luminance histogram, this has a very compressed tonal range - there's a lot of flat space both at black and white ends of histogram, alternatively, since that space exists, try some Local Contrast Enhancement (followed by Levels if still needed) to give it more 'punch'.

Hope that helps,

[rtbaum]

Dave- In all honesty, this was really a lesson in stacking. I pretty much ignored other manipulations, I will revisit adjustments in levels. LCE still is a lesson to be learned.

As mentioned, I stacked in CS4; I am uncertain what you use for PP, but the path followed is:

select desired images in Bridge
go to Tools, Photoshop, Load Files into Photoshop Layers.....this process takes a little time, but when completed:
Select all layers, open Edit, click on Auto-Align..... pour favorite beverage, process takes a while
Open Edit, click on Auto-Blend.......Drink favorite beverage, not too much though!!
Open layers, merge layers, flatten image............. If you didn't over indulge, you should see finished image

[Brocken]

I have used the Helicon Focus 64-bit image stacker together with Helicon Remote tethered camera software for several years, and found it fast and stable - though I don't have experience of other professional systems to compare it to. Enhancement of the synthesised image can be processed further by means of Helicon Filter P-P software, or used as an input into Helicon 3-D.