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Duncan | profile | all galleries >> Macro pictures >> Focus stacking tests tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Focus stacking tests

This is an attempt to use "focus stacking" to get an extreme close-up of a flower with the whole image in sharp focus.

I took 9 images of a viola blossom, with the very back of the blossom in focus for the first, and the very tip of the blossom in focus for the last. It looks like I missed slightly on both ends, but I tried.

I then loaded all the images in as layers in Photoshop CS 6 and used the "align layers" and "merge layers" commands, which are quite smart.

At first glance the resulting image looks quite good. However, this is a very down-sampled image. If you zoom in at 100%, you see some real flaws in the merge. Now I need to figure out how to get better at this.
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Butterfly wing scales crop.jpg
Butterfly wing scales crop.jpg
Cicada stack edited.jpg
Cicada stack edited.jpg
Cicada profile focus stack
Cicada profile focus stack
Flower Focus stack 1 no stacking.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 no stacking.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 combined.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 combined.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 merged flaws #2.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 merged flaws #2.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 merged flaws #1.jpg
Flower Focus stack 1 merged flaws #1.jpg
Viola Focus Stack 3 combined.jpg
Viola Focus Stack 3 combined.jpg
Daffodil stack helecon output 100 crop.jpg
Daffodil stack helecon output 100 crop.jpg
Daffodil focus stack 1 final small.jpg
Daffodil focus stack 1 final small.jpg
Daffodil center crop.JPG
Daffodil center crop.JPG
Muscari stack output.jpg
Muscari stack output.jpg
Stinkbug head-on.jpg
Stinkbug head-on.jpg
Stinkbug top-down.jpg
Stinkbug top-down.jpg
Stinkbug belly.jpg
Stinkbug belly.jpg
Daffodil center Zerene PMax sharpened
Daffodil center Zerene PMax sharpened
Daffodil pisils 100% crop
Daffodil pisils 100% crop
Daffodil center lip 100% crop
Daffodil center "lip" 100% crop
2013-04-27-13.03.22 ZS PMax.jpg
2013-04-27-13.03.22 ZS PMax.jpg
Sweet Alyssum focus stack
Sweet Alyssum focus stack
Sweet Alyssum retouched
Sweet Alyssum retouched
Sweet Alyssum crop w transparent bits
Sweet Alyssum crop w transparent bits
Sweet Alyssum crop retouched
Sweet Alyssum crop retouched
Beetle 5_18 ZS PMax crop.jpg
Beetle 5_18 ZS PMax crop.jpg
Beetle 5_18 focus stack #1.jpg
Beetle 5_18 focus stack #1.jpg
Beetle head-on crop
Beetle head-on crop
Beetle head-on reduced
Beetle head-on reduced
Beetle top view reduced
Beetle top view reduced
Beetle underside reduced
Beetle underside reduced
Fly 5_26 ZS PMax.jpg
Fly 5_26 ZS PMax.jpg
Fly w tubes via rails 2 crop.jpg
Fly w tubes via rails 2 crop.jpg
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