Stacking

[Edd]

Okay one wildlife forum that I semi regular visit has a photography section and on there some guys are doing something called "Stacking"

Basically using macro lenses they take a series of images (of the same subject) but adjust the focusing point of each image.

The shots are then combined to give one image which shows the subject in focus, thus starting to overcome DOF issues when doing macro or close up photography.

They seem to be having quite good results from what I can see.

Anyone ever seen/heard of this before ???

I think they are using a free download to do this, I'll see if I can dig it out and post it here.

Regards

Ed

[Edd]

Okay I think I have it now, the program is called Zerene Stacker.

Here should be a link to the website: http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/

Here should be a link to the download: http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/downloads/

I'm going to give this a try, I'll let you know how I get on.

Ed

[Bonish Photo]

Thanks for the link Edd, I've read up a bit on this and tried it once after finding a tutorial on how to accomplish it in Photochop.

Of course the tutorial made it sound simple, but I could never figure it out, so I've yet to try it again. I think when they make a simple plug-in to accomplish a difficult task, the money is well spent. Only problem is I have no money, so I just sit around and shoot the same ol' stuff.

If you've never seen any of this type of work, check out Brian Valentine's work - He is probably the only person I would even start to compare to Dalantech's work. I know Dalantech does Not stack any of his images which is why I would only start to compare the two but never think they were equal.

Looking through either of their galleries is a very humbling thing to do.

[Edd]

Thanks for the link Pat.

Those images are jaw droppingly fantastic.

The water drop images are simply stunning.

When you images like that it serves as an inspiration and something to aim for.

Cheers

Ed

[Edd]

I've managed to grab a few minutes to try this out and I'm quite happy with my first attempt.

Nothing fancy its only a clip for holding cables but it illustrates the point.

This is the first image, I took four in total each time moving the point of focus from the white plastic back towards the head of the nail.



As you can see the nail head is OOF.

By using this software to stack the four images I got this:



My source images are not perfect but at least I/we can see the technique works.

All images were taken on my 40D with 28-135mm with a 31mm extension tube attached.

Ed

[Bonish Photo]

Ed, now you just need to go find a cool flower and bring a spray bottle to get some water droplets on it.

One of the tricks I learned on another forum, use Glycerine instead of water, I guess the droplets last a long time and its what most of the photographers use

[Edd]

Thanks for the tip Pat.

I have already walked around the garden looking for possible suspects, but found nothing as yet

I'm really keen to give this a go and see what I can do.

I'll post my efforts for all to comment on.

Thanks

Ed

[Edd]

Sometimes the world can be so small its amazing.

Since following the link that Pat gave us to Brian Valentines macro work I posted the link on the other forum so others could see this guys work.

Guess who pops up on the other forum, Mr Valentine himself.

Sorry for waffling on I just think its great the people who you can meet via a computer and loads of copper and glass wire !!!!

Ed