Focus Stacking

[curiousphil]

Anyone here tried it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_stacking

 

[Neopimp]

I got a question.  how did they get the fly to stand still

 

[CanadaCorals.com]

I don't see a practical purpose for focus stacking when taking pictures of corals while using a tripod.

You can adjust your depth of field on your camera quite easily to get everything in focus or just a small portion of the coral if you want to blur the background.

 

[unibob]

I don't see a practical purpose for focus stacking when taking pictures of corals while using a tripod.

You can adjust your depth of field on your camera quite easily to get everything in focus or just a small portion of the coral if you want to blur the background.

Depending on how well your camera shoots at lower light conditions, photo stacking can allow you to shoot at a lower ISO and depth of field allowing for a quicker shutter speed to reduce blur....but like you said not really too practical when shooting with a tripod.

I have a hard time getting my tripod over my tank for top downs so find myself hand held a lot of the time.

Not to take this thread off track but do you use a fancy tripod?


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[Bece13]

Focus stacking is mainly used in Macro photography. At that level the depth of field is so small that it's impossible to get the whole object in focus. But you need a static subject and a rail on a tripod to move the camera.
How to make a bug stay still: put it in the freezer for some time. You might get some condensation on the bug when you take it out, but it will not move. Or you might have some success early in the morning when is still cold outside.

 

[jroovers]

To echo what everybody already said above, I really don't see the point of focus stacking in relation to coral photography. For macro photography as Bece13 stated for super small subjects, and very high powered macro lenses (i.e. the Canon MP-E 65), the depth of field is razor thin and you need rails, flash or flashes, and stacking. For most of us with a standard macro lens, and fish/coral for a subject, it is just way easier to use a sturdy tripod, a longer shutter speed, and a higher f-stop number (smaller aperture) to get an image with more of the subject in focus. Just make sure all pumps are off to prevent any motion in your coral subjects to account for the longer shutter time.

 

[Bece13]

To echo what everybody already said above, I really don't see the point of focus stacking in relation to coral photography. For macro photography as Bece13 stated for super small subjects, and very high powered macro lenses (i.e. the Canon MP-E 65), the depth of field is razor thin and you need rails, flash or flashes, and stacking. For most of us with a standard macro lens, and fish/coral for a subject, it is just way easier to use a sturdy tripod, a longer shutter speed, and a higher f-stop number (smaller aperture) to get an image with more of the subject in focus. Just make sure all pumps are off to prevent any motion in your coral subjects due account for the longer shutter time.

+1. Totally agree.

 

[jroovers]

I should add that my understanding of the need for focus stacking has to do with available light. For these higher powered macro lenses with greater than 1:1 magnification, one side effect as I understand is that there is less available light to shoot with due to the mechanics of the lens. Therefore, it is much more difficult to simply point the lens at a subject, open up the shutter at a high ISO, and very small aperture (high f-stop number), and get a sharp image where everything is in focus (much like we do with our coral photography). Due to less useable light, even with flash, as I understand it you have to use very wide apertures (low f-stop numbers) to allow a lot more light into the lens to compensate for the lack of light hitting the sensor. This in turn creates shallow depth of field, and hence the need to focus stack. For our lenses that are 1:1 or 1:2, there is still plenty of light available through our lenses to use a narrow aperture (high f-stop number) and get great results. Doesn't hurt to have a FF body that typically handles high ISOs with little to no noise.

 

[AdInfinitum]

At high magnification you cannot use aperture to gain depth of field because the light will hit the point of refraction. If anyone cares....lol

 

[Bece13]

Yes, you need lots of light and sometimes is hard to bring enough light to those small objects and you need to use the smaller F stop and high ISO up to the point were the noise is not a problem.
Focus stacking is basically another tool (like external flash or filters for other cases) in combination with aperture, speed, and ISO that you can use to get a proper exposure in very special conditions that cannot be achieved otherwise. A FF body like Nikon D800 (sorry I'm a Nikon guy - lol) with it's huge 36.3 megapixel resolution can help you crop a lot (another tool) that can be used.
Just opened my appetite for some macro snow flakes pictures. Hopefully I will do it this winter as I postpone it for quite a while.
By the way, nice pictures Jordan you have on flickr (got the link from another post).

 

[jroovers]

At high magnification you cannot use aperture to gain depth of field because the light will hit the point of refraction. If anyone cares....lol

Lol so its not the mechanics of lenses, its the mechanics of light and how it bends...

 

[jroovers]

Yes, you need lots of light and sometimes is hard to bring enough light to those small objects and you need to use the smaller F stop and high ISO up to the point were the noise is not a problem.
Focus stacking is basically another tool (like external flash or filters for other cases) in combination with aperture, speed, and ISO that you can use to get a proper exposure in very special conditions that cannot be achieved otherwise. A FF body like Nikon D800 (sorry I'm a Nikon guy - lol) with it's huge 36.3 megapixel resolution can help you crop a lot (another tool) that can be used.
Just opened my appetite for some macro snow flakes pictures. Hopefully I will do it this winter as I postpone it for quite a while.
By the way, nice pictures Jordan you have on flickr (got the link from another post).

Thanks if you are on Flickr add me and I'll add you

 

[curiousphil]

For what it's worth I did try this out. Used my tripod and took maybe 10 photos at different focus depths to create this image of my red monti cap. It looks pinkish under royal blue led's. I also ended up cropping the photo for some reason...

Used a tool called Helicon Focus to stitch the images together similar to how some tools stitch together big panoramas. This software also has the ability to remotely control your camera and adjust the focus depth automatically based on how many steps you tell it to. I never bothered exploring any further though, I just tried to learn how to get in-focus pictures by stopping down.

 

[Bece13]

That is cool. I know you can do it in PhotoShop as well but it's kind of slow. People were also talking about some command line type software if remember correctly. It was few years back when I tried it and don't remember what I used.

Jordan: I'm not on flicker or anything else. I kind of suck at post processing. Need to improve but it seems that I never find the time to do it. I have lots of pictures from the last few years that I need to go over and never find the time. I haven't decide yet on what kind of pictures i want to take. Moving more towards landscape and macro, (I'm a lazy butt but I have the equipment ) - will see. Hopefully that will change soon. As I was reading a lot I realized more and more about how much I don't know about photography. Finally I got to the point where I know that the most important thing is the light and composition. But still cannot control it and manipulate it the way I want.
But I always enjoy looking at beautiful pictures and I'll try to post nice pictures as I go along.

 

[clint]

Anyone here tried it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_stacking

I've tried it, it works good. I used photoshop to focus stack.