Of course i can focus somewhere in the middle and stop down to maybe 16 and get most of it sharp wideanglebut it wont be as sharp as with focus stacking. As to focus stacking directly the only software package i use is hugin. I used the same machine i712gb ramssd hard drive for every step. So exactly how does focus stacking work you may ask. Once they are opened as a stack, go to the processes stack focus stacking. Apr 11, 20 focus stacking also lets the point of transition between in and out of focus to be precisely selected. Focus stacking is a powerful technique for extending a photos apparent depth of field. Its available as both standalone and as a plugin filter for ps. In this article, we look at the best focus stacking software, and how the process of focus stacking works. The ultimate focus stacking guide capturelandscapes. How to use focus stacking to get impossibly sharp photos. The system is inexpensive compared to highend commercial focus stacking solutions. Both give superb results in the right hands, although in my opinion, the focus stacking software of choice does tend to be zerene stacker for photographers interested in quality rather than speed.
Although there were not any other processes during that time, the results are still should be considered as approximate. Using canon eos utility to step focus canon eos utility is camera support software that comes bundled with every canon dslr. Apr 11, 2016 focus stacking is an advanced technique, and probably not necessary if you only show your images online or make small prints. Above is a focus stack of a diatom where i combined 10 images in photoshop 400x. This is where focus stacking plays an important role. Each set of images can be used to simply select the single bestfocused option. Its perhaps most useful in closeup and macro photography, since the camera lenss highest fstop is often insufficient to render everything in focus. Final section on how to prepare for a shoot is great specifics are given for plants, insects, animal etc examples. In this manuscript we present a focus stacking system, composed of commercial photographic equipment. However, heres a few simple tips to help you take the best images possible so youll get the. Focus stacking software for macro photography youtube.
The resulting photos, however, can be striking and unique. However, with focus stacking, images are captured with different focus points, and later combined in photoshop, to create an image with. I may take me 610 slices to move from the front of the subject to the rear. The two key steps in the process include 1 taking multiple photos of the same scene, but with each snap of the shutter you are using a different focus point and 2 combining or merging the images into one using photoshop that pulls in all of the areas. Last week i discussed merging multiple shots of the same subject taken at different focus distances to create images with extended depth of field using a technique known as focus stacking. While helicon focus seems to do a better job overall of combining focus slices into a composite image, there are some instances where photoshop was able to. Zerene stacker and helicon focus are two of the big players in focus stacking. The focus stacking software listed in this article carry out the job of focus stacking pretty easily with satisfying results. Regardless of the software or hardware youre using to create a focus stack, there are certain standout factors that will affect. This process cannot be done incamera and probably most of us would not want to wait. How to add images to the list select file add images or press ctrla.
What software is available and widely used for macro focus stacking. Focus stacking software free download focus stacking. Take multiple shots of a scene, each shot focused at a different distance, and then load those shots into specialist focus stacking software. By taking a throughfocal series, the depth of focus can be reconstructed to create a single image entirely in focus. An introduction to focus stacking digital photography school. A focus stack is a photograph that is made up of a combination of two or more images that were focused at different points and then after combining the stacks the final image has a much greater depth of field. Focus stacking also known as focal plane merging and z stacking or focus blending is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field dof than any of the individual source images. But if you make large prints, and care about sharpness, focus stacking is a great way to get everything in focus in situations where that would otherwise be impossible.
What software is available for macro focus stacking. Imagej is a multiplatform image processing software that can perform focus stacking for free. Focus stacking can be used in any situation where individual images have a very shallow depth of field. In this tutorial, well learn how to do focus stacking in photoshop. One thing it can do is to control auto focus lenses so that you can shoot a focus stack very precisely through a graphical user interface on your computer. The plugin page of this software has a very vast list of plugins that can be used to manipulate photos. However, for many uses, the focus stacking capabilities of photoshop are quite powerful and useful. Aug 12, 2017 in looking for software to stack images i found that adobe photoshop cs6 to cc2017, helicon focus and zerene stacker appear to be popular programs for image stacking all of these are commercial products, but the nice thing is that they all offer 30 free trial where you can test the software. Although used primarily for panorama stitching which i used to make the venice stitch it also works well for focus stacking.
This is a free focus stacking software developed by alan hadley. Focus stacking is an intermediate photography technique that combines the use of a camera and a postprocessing software such as adobe photoshop. The closer you get in macro flower photography, the fussier focus gets. Helicon focus isnt cheap but if youre serious about focus stacking it is well worth it.
Quick guide to focus stacking with lightroom and photoshop. So something like a portraiture, wildlife, still life,we can focus on something, make it nice and sharp,and a have a beautiful blurry background. Focus stacking also lets the point of transition between in and out of focus to be precisely selected. We have developed a plugin for our shutter stream product photography software that will automate focus stacking image capture tether. Best focus stacking software helicon focus vs photoshop. We tested our final stacked picture with a picture. Apr 01, 2012 focus stacking is taking multiple photos at the same exposure but at different focal lengths and is best applied for macro photography. Claudia and i spent the afternoon up there on wednesday, and had a. One thing it can do is to control autofocus lenses so that you can shoot a focus stack very precisely through a graphical user interface on your computer. Then, i focus on a part just a little farther away.
Focus stacking, or focus blending, means taking a series of images, each with a different part of your scene or subject in focus, and blending them together into a single image where your entire scene or subject is in focus in other words, photoshop doesnt just blend the images together. A focus stack is a combination of images shot at varying focal points that you blend in software. Zerene is my preferred software cheaper and better. Zerene stacker vs helicon focus comparison arda kutlu. Originally written for use with microscopes but seems to work fine at lower magnifications too. Since this isnt a photography tutorial, i wont go through the process of shooting the images in any great detail. I put all the slices in a folder, start the stacking program, select all the slices i want to stack and run the. All of my focus stacks are jpegs which goes to show that if you have decent lighting and get things ready beforehand, the file format is not as big.
Intelligent software for photographers helicon soft helicon soft. Focus stacking tutorial from start to finish extreme macro. Adobe photoshop starting with the cs4 release, adobe added focus stacking directly into photoshop. What i wanted to know specifically, is how practical the process of focus stacking is for handheld shots. Focus stacking actually begins with the images themselves, and its important that the photos are taken with focus stacking in mind. Extreme macro software focus stacking and post processing. By pressing the ctrlkey and clicking on single images you can select or unselect them. When shooting macro photography for focus stacking i use a tripod and rails to adjust the area of the shot that is in focus. After getting copies of two different focus stacking programs zerene stacker and helicon focus i put both of them to the test to see how they compared with each other on the same image. Focus stacking is a technique that can be beneficial when a photographer wants to extend the apparent depthoffield of an image, and also wants to avoid the loss of image sharpness that can result from the effects of diffraction when using an increased fstop. Focus stacking in landscape photography george douvos. For the test, i did no processing work to any of the files either before processing or after creating the composite. Canon eos utility is camera support software that comes bundled with every canon dslr. The auto exposure modes tend to meter the scene a bit inconsistently causing a significant variation in brightness of the photographs over the range of images in the stack.
I like picolay and tufuse the most as free focus stacking tools. Free or affordable focus stacking software macro and. Focus stacking walkthrough 1 the focus stacking workflow 2 how to prepare a focus stack 3 how to shoot a focus stack 4 software tools for focus stacks 5 postprocessing tools for focus stacking. The one difference for focus stacking is that you will want to use full manual mode for both the flash, shutter and aperture. Helicon focus and focus stacking helicon soft website. Because focus is inherently shallower as you get closer to your subject, slight variations of distance between camera and subject throw you out of focus very quickly, and even fullystopped down you may not have enough depthoffield for your entire photo to be in. This was one of the first software packages commercially available to perform focus stacking. In addition to better image quality, another benefit to using moderate apertures is that the depth of field is simply narrow and with several images, the exact point of transition can be chosen. Or, more typically, further processing via focus stacking is required. Focus stacking comparing photoshop, helicon and zerene by.
How to get sharp macro shots with focus stacking cnet. Picolay lets you easily carry out photo stacking even if you have multiple images to stack, and they are out of. These cameras are capable of focusing on single objects and utilizing the depth of field. No big swaths of poppies, but smaller patches, and some of those patches are mixed with other flowers, which always makes things more interesting. Focus stacking corel photopaint x5 coreldraw graphics.
These images are then blended together using post production software such as photoshop, helicon focus, zerene stacker, and others. First of all, helicon focus has a big advantage over zerene stacker in terms of pipeline. Automontage is a stacking software program by syncroscopy. Zerene stacker can handle any modern camera we know of.
Since fussy is not a technical term, let me explain. The writing style is easy for comprehension and the book has many links for further information. Tethered photography for canon and nikon dslr cameras. Manual focus gives us complete control of our depth of field. Photoshop or focusstacking software like helicon focus. Some of our users regularly process 200 megapixels per frame, from highend hasselblad cameras. I liked how this book walks you through the focus stacking software and technique.
Focus stacking software free download focus stacking top 4 download offers free software downloads for windows, mac, ios and android computers and mobile devices. Jan 02, 2018 focus stacking can be used in a number of different types of images, but the trick is most common for macro photography because getting up close creates a shallower depth of field i. Then press ctrla again to select all files, or click on the first image, keep the shiftkey pressed, and click on the last image of a stack. All of the images captured by focus bracketing are stored on the memory card. And what that gives us is a very shallow depth of field. Focus stacking in landscape and architectural photography. Then you can use helicon focus to blend all the sharp areas together and produce a completely sharp image. The sad thing here is that there are not that many differences between ps and pp really, but the differences that do exist are very big ones.
Many of our users routinely go over 100 images per stack. Zerene stacker is focus stacking software designed specifically for challenging macro subjects and discerning photographers. To use this technique, you take several images of the same scene, focusing your lens on a different part of the object for each shot. We tested this system and compared the results with several different software packages combinezp, automontage, helicon focus and zerene stacker. Some studies that compared focus stack programs measured the time to process the.
Helicon focus provides two methods of focus stacking, and also has controls that can adjust the performance of the stacking algorithms and both method a and method b are typically displayed. Dof software camparison first light photo workshops. Which focus stacking software macro talk in photography. The photoshop composite image is well assembled with no artifacts or anomalies. With focus stacking software you can make your usual camera render results that could not be achieved even with a classic tiltshift lens. All you need to do is open the photos you want to pile up. Focus stacking can be used in a number of different types of images, but the trick is most common for macro photography because getting up close creates a shallower depth of field i.
In your guys opinions, what is the best focus stacking software. You should copy a single stack to each folder, only. However, with focus stacking, images are captured with different focus points, and later combined in photoshop, to create an image with more dof than would be possible with a single exposure. Using focus bracketing on olympus omd cameras shooting m43. In looking for software to stack images i found that adobe photoshop cs6 to cc2017, helicon focus and zerene stacker appear to be popular programs for image stacking all of these are commercial products, but the nice thing is that they all offer 30 free trial where you can test the software. Focus stacking is a technique used to increase how much detail appears in focus in an image.
I keep doing this routine until i get to focus on the farthest part of the subject. On occasion you can get away without it, sometimes you may even want a slightly more shallow depth of field. It can even overcome the otherwise unavoidable sharpness loss from diffraction. Focus stacking is taking multiple photos at the same exposure but at different focal lengths and is best applied for macro photography. A longer focal length lens and a very shallow depth of field result in a pinpoint focal plane and often leave crucial elements of the image slightly soft. Focus stacking was used to achieve sharp focus in the spider and the web and allow a softer background rendition.
Focus stacking also known as focal plane merging and zstacking or focus blending is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field dof than any of the individual source images. May 07, 2015 manual focus gives us complete control of our depth of field. Whether thats a flower, a small object or anything in between, compose your shot to your. Photoshop or focus stacking software like helicon focus.
Then you can use helicon focus to blend all the sharp areas together and. Its spring, which means its wildflower season, and focusstacking season. It offers different ways to stack a set of images fixed, blended, weighted, exponentially weighted and compound weighted. Capture images for focus stacking there is a technique when it comes to focus stacking. Focus stacking is the process of merging multiple photos with different focal points. Similarly strong section on focus stacking and the software options. The software has a wide range of tools like any other editing software. The author wisely assumes that most people are on limited budgets when starting out so gives very realistic advice. Well, focus stacking simply means taking multiple photos of the same subject, each with a different focused spot. Stacking is done in software using the digital images. I recommend this book for any one starting out with focus stacking or closeup photography.
But what i like to do, mostly as architectural,landscape work where everythings sharp throughout,im a real real proponent of. This week ill look at several software programs to help you do it. This is followed by the use postprocessing software like adobe photoshop cs4 to align the focused portion of each image into one finalandfocused image. Intelligent software for photographers helicon soft. Focus stacking is commonly used in various forms of photography but is most known within the genres of landscape and macro photography. Lord v, thomas shahan, and other prolific insect shooters have been using this software in recent years to increase dof in their shots without sacrificing image quality. It is an open source focus stacking software that runs on java. Software like helicon focus and zerene stacker can focus stack images, and do offer more control and tweaks for the image blending process that may provide better results.
However, helicon focus does not tolerate misalignment of the image captures well. Our advice is to choose your earliest stacking point, take a picture, rotate the focus ring a little bit, take another picture and repeat this process. In other areas photoshop, lightroom, aperture, etc are kind of industry standard options. Focus stacking with only photoshop elements focus stacking means the use of multiple exposures focussed at slightly different planes of focus with the infocus parts from the stack of images then combined into a single image with what appears to be a much greater depth of field than would be otherwise possible. Dec 16, 2014 automontage is a stacking software program by syncroscopy. Stitching techniques and focus stacking are related and should be there for the advanced photographer.