Focus stacking

[DickyOZ]

The latest firmware update to the O-MD E-M1 has given us some very handy bracketing functions. One of them is focus stacking in camera. It will take 8 shots and stack them into a .JPEG image. I think is is going to take me a while to learn how to make best use of it. A static subject is quite straight forward but move outdoors and nothing is easy. The slightest breeze causes enough movement to spoil the image. All insects no matter how slow moving are not as sharp as I would like.
The following examples were taken hand held leaning against a wall.
Without stacking my 60mm Macro lens will give an image with only narrow DOF:

Focus stacked has the DOF I want but just isn't quite sharp because the subject has moved.


I almost got the DOF I wanted on this rose (Really wanted the second bud too) but even that moved in the faint breeze.


The camera can take a very large number of images at a user defined focus step but you need third party software to stack them. I use FastStone as my image editor. I know there are good freeware tools for stacking so I will try to find something that suits. But is is the technique of gathering the images that I need most advice on. If anybody on the forum is skiled in focus stacking and would care to give advice it would be much appreciated.
Dicky.

[DanK]

Richard,

There has been a lot of discussion about focus stacking on this site. I'd suggest entering "focus stacking" (with the quotation marks) in the advanced search box. Not everything that pops up will be relevant, but you will find a lot of good information.

What you are describing is not a problem that can be solved with software or hardware. It's just very difficult and sometimes not practical at all to stack images of things that are moving.

I do a great deal of stacking, but I rarely stack bugs, for precisely the reasons you note. Even if the bug doesn't move, you have to keep the shots well enough aligned that the software can correct the alignment. If the bug moves--for example, moving a leg--you have to stack that part manually, or try retouching from an individual image in the stack. The people I know who do stack bugs use very rapid bursts of shots, generally with flash.

The alternative is to use diffused flash. That will allow you to use a much smaller aperture and to get a lot of the bug in focus. In addition, it helps to get the bug more or less parallel to the sensor to minimize the needed depth of field. Using a crop-sensor Canon camera that reports nominal rather than effective apertures (read the tutorial on macro on this site, if you haven't, to learn about this difference), I can get good bug shots at f/13 that provide enough DOF to be interesting even with an extension tube. E.g., this was at f/13 with a 100mm macro and a 36mm tube, so roughly 1.5:1:



I stack mostly macros of things that don't move, e.g., flowers taken indoors. For that, I use stacking software (Zerene) that allows me some control over the process. However, it doesn't allow me manual control over alignment. I think the free Combine software may allow that, within bounds.

Dan

[chauncey]

In addition to what Dan said, I am not a fan of any camera's ingrained jpeg conversions.

[jcuknz]

As to if the "ingrained jpeg conversions" work or not largely depends on at what setting you use them. You do not HAVE to use them as 'out of the factory' with a good camera so it is little different to working by any other system.

[DickyOZ]

As to if the "ingrained jpeg conversions" work or not largely depends on at what setting you use them. You do not HAVE to use them as 'out of the factory' with a good camera so it is little different to working by any other system.

There are quite a few options with in-camera bracketing released in firmware 4.0 for my camera. It will take me a while to learn to use them. This is a focus stack with a medium focus shift per step.

The light breeze has moved the white secretion where the Cicada emerged in between frames.