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04-15-2012, 06:47 PM   #1
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Focus Stacking
Lens: Macro 50mm zoom 1:1 Camera: Pentax K-r Photo Location: Amherst, NH ISO: 100 Shutter Speed: 1/500s Aperture: F8 

This was my first attempt at Focus stacking. Due to the wafer thin focal length I stacked 5 images in order to get all of the water droplets in focus. My goal was primarily technique and getting this down. Going forward this will be a requirement for my future photos. If anyone has any experience or pointers I would love to hear, thanks

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04-15-2012, 06:50 PM   #2
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Very nice.
04-15-2012, 06:52 PM   #3
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You mentioned focus stacking in a previous post but without explaining it, and so having forgotten the term I'm glad you described it here. I've never tried the technique myself, so I don't have any pointers. I think you've done a great job capturing the water droplets, but some of the background regions are neither in focus nor sufficiently out of focus for my taste. Had they been either it would have been fine, but right now, I find them too distracting.
04-15-2012, 10:06 PM   #4
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The water droplets look good. I would agree with the OOF area being so large is a tad distracting. Perhaps a crop would help. Just my 2 cents.
I am hardly an expert in this process just beginning it myself.
But I am interested in knowing what program you used for this image.

04-16-2012, 02:01 AM   #5
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I used Photoshop CS6 to do the focus stacking, no alteration to color, etc I will try a crop and see if that is more pleasant . . .
04-16-2012, 02:06 AM   #6
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Cropped out some of the blur

I cropped out a bit of the undesireable areas
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04-16-2012, 06:10 AM   #7
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Works a lot better although you might shave a bit off the right to get rid of the OOF regions of the green stem(?) and to restore the aspect ratio.

04-17-2012, 09:28 AM - 1 Like   #8
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I am not that experienced with stacking (I tried out 2 or 3 times) but I think this is a good one. My experience was that the OOF parts were really strange, ugly and flat (I am thinking now it could have been a software problem, I used zerene stacker) . I think your picture shows a good OOF, quite soft. Of course the liking and disliking OOF is highly subjective... I really like the soft flowers in the background because the colors come back inside the drops, I usually don´t get distracted that much by backgrounds (it might be just be proof of my chaotic brain ).

Did you use anything to shift the DOF of different shots gradually? It seems some spots in between sharp drops are missed and OOF..
04-17-2012, 04:34 PM   #9
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Margriet,
Now that you mentioned it I can see two spots that i missed!! I was NOT using anything other than the leaf to focus on, I also took the 5 shots handheld. This was my first try, however, a tripod and focusing board would help, thanks for this, I had not noticed what u brought up : )
04-18-2012, 03:46 AM - 1 Like   #10
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What we often do in focus stacking is take the last shot (ie furthest away from lens) at a higher aperture than the rest. This makes the transition to the out of focus area less of a severe transition.

This is a good effort, defnitely right on par with my first effort =). If you look at the stem there is some clear focus banding which is one thing to watch out for with stacking. Focus banding is when you see a bit out of focus amidst in focus planes, there's a clear band at the rear but also one at the front. Spotting these is something that comes with experience. Also, photoshop isn't the most efficient tool for this sort of work, helicon focus or zerene stacker are better choices.

Alignment is always an issue with stacking, when I do x20 microscope objective stacks even the dustbunnies on your sensor show up as lines because of this. For outside work like this on this magnification you may want to purchase a macro rail to use on your tripod. If you ever get into more high magnification then you'll need more specialised equipment like a newport stage but for this you don't need it.

Last edited by Nass; 04-18-2012 at 04:03 AM.
04-18-2012, 08:32 PM   #11
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Nass,
Thank u, most useful info, I will prob be doing mostly nature and water droplet macro for now,I will be trying this technique quite a bit more using the proper tools, I am sure I can do a whole lot better : )
07-31-2012, 08:42 AM - 1 Like   #12
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look great:X
07-31-2012, 06:50 PM   #13
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I've seen this done with photomicrographs, but not macros. Really good work. One nit - your cropped version causes the slightly less sharp zones between layers to be more apparent.
Thanks for sharing.
07-31-2012, 07:42 PM   #14
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This is a good picture as a first attempt!
I am interested with this technique.

How did you set up the 5 images from the left to the right (or vice versa) ...did you move the camera left to right or front to back? Used selective focus points?
I would not attempt this handheld but you seem to have good steady hands, which help a lot!

JP
07-31-2012, 08:03 PM   #15
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I shot this one front to back, I have done more work since this shot and have found it necessary to take a lot of shots 20-50 and use a tripod
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