Hi all,
I’ve recently learned of photostacking, especially for macro photography, and I’m wondering if anyone here has used it for nature shots. From what I understand, it involves taking several photos of the same subject at different focal lengths and combining them to get a sharper, more detailed image—seems like it could be useful for things like insects, small flowers, or fungi, where you often can’t get everything in focus in one shot.
I haven’t tried it yet myself, though, and I’m not entirely sure how to go about it. Does anyone have experience with this for macro photography in nature? What kind of gear or software do you use?
Appreciate any tips or advice!
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I use stacking a lot now. For all my most recent observations, actually, as the slice in focus is just too small usually.
Single shot:
Stack:
The software I use is called “Focus Stacker” from the Mac AppStore. I like it because it costs 20€ as a one-time payment, it can process relatively shaky stacks, and it has quite a good editing feature.
The downsides are, it has a few bugs when saving images, and it is quite slow, so if you have a lot of photos it can get tedious. Also… Storage and file management are a nightmare. After converting and stacking, one walk through the forest has caused 200gb of photos.
As for taking the stacks, I simply move my camera a tiny bit closer to the subject while taking photos in burst mode. It takes a bit of practice and I still sometimes move too fast which causes out-of-focus slices. Insects can be a challenge too as the subject moving will generally make the stacks unusable.
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Some cameras have focus stacking and bracketing modes like the OM TG-7. The difference between focus stacking and focus bracketing is with focus stacking the camera does the stacking in camera and focus bracketing where you must combine the images with software afterwards. I prefer focus stacking because it is much less work (I have a TG-6). I mainly use the focus bracketing feature on moving insects with the hopes of getting a single in focus image.
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This does require a lens that supports autofocus, though. With manual focus lenses (like the Laowa 65mm) you sadly have no choice… :(
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Yeah, the lens I’m using is the Laowa 65 mm with extension tubes sometimes.
Yes but I’m dreadful at it, so I frequently just post several images where each one has a different feature in focus.
For (free) software, I tried and failed with Picolay and almost gave up on focus stacking, but now I’m using chimpstackr, which seems much better or at least easier to use. It will align the imagines (mostly), but sometimes if you move the camera too much, you will get a soft area inbetween the in focus parts which looks quite odd.
Most of the time the fault is mine for moving too much.
If your camera does burst, try it, because what frequently happens with mine is that an insect will move a leg/antenna between shots, and the software doesn’t cope with it (or I don’t know how to make it cope).
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I started focus stacking (note that it’s merging multiple images with different focus points not to focal lengths) this year for slime moulds which I am photographing between 2 and 10x magnification. I am currently using an old Canon EOS 60D* + Sigma 105mm macro and reversed 50mm or a 10x microscope objective with inbuilt flash and a XY table but looking at getting an external flash in the future. My stacking software is Zerene Stacker (Personal edition).
Some examples:
Badhamia follicola 56 image stack (0.05mm increments).
Physarum leucophaeum 15 image stack (0.025mm increments)
*No inbuilt stacking.
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I use the focus stacking mode with my OM TG-7! As someone very new to photography with no photo editing experience, that mode helps things come out pretty well right off the bat.
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I had tried it once in Affinity Photo, which is such a great editing software btw, for a sharper picture of a flowering brush in hopes to have every layer in focus and it say the least it so fun. Just take tons of pictures at different focus points and its okay to repeat some depending on how clear you want to be. I don’t know if there is a size limit or not but yeah.
On the sidenote, Affinity Photo is the best editing software that I have tried. It was only $35 when I got it on sale but the normal price is $75 and its a one time payment. Its lightroom and photoshop together as well and has stacking software as I said before and whole bunch of other features! Way better than Adobe for sure in my opinion!
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I just recently tried focus stacking (=photostacking). I used a remote shutter app for my Canon (my camera does not have built-in focus stacking) and then used the free HeliconFocus program on my computer, and the results turned out great! It can handle stacks where there’s a little shakiness, and it’s working really well for being free.
Polypores in the genus
Stereum
I shoot on a Canon EOS Rebel T6, and use a sturdy Vanguard Alta Pro tripod. Since my camera is archaic, stone-age technology, it doesn’t have focus bracketing built in. So what I do is connect my camera to my phone using the Canon camera connect app.I can use this app as a remote shutter, and when AF is on, I can also use it to remotely focus. Then I take those images to my computer and stack them all using HeliconFocus. I took awhile to get used this new workflow, but in the end its worth it. HeliconFocus is super easy to use too.
I imagine it will be different for you based on your equipment, but for me, this is the most straight forward and cost effective way.
If you have a newer camera, it may have a focus bracketing feature, where the camera can take pictures in quick succession and change the focus distance between shots. That makes the whole process of focus stacking much more convenient.
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I use the automatic focus stacking on my Olympus TG-6. It definitely helps get clearer images, but unfortunately does not work well on moving subjects. For some reason, tiny arthropods don’t like to stay still for the camera.
I have Photoshop but when I wanted to try stacking, I had heard about Affinity Photo so I tried their demo and ended up buying it JUST for the stacking function. It’ absolutely ran circles around Photoshop (and other sw that I trialed) in terms of ease and speed and results.
By far the most forgiving stacking software, it was able to accommodate the highest degree of variability (size, angle, tone) of frames that I threw at it, when others would just freeze or produce terrible results. And it is very quick.
Únless you are getting into stacking software that controls a computer controlled rail system, I would definitely agree that for most people, Affinity is the best amateur choice.
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Another approach that few people have tried or heard of is using 4k video for stacking.
Because iNat is primarily for identification and not as much about making large prints or winning photo contests, you can get excellent results by using this method with any camera that has 4k video (including smartphones!).
And because video is fast to setup and captures 30 frames a second, it’s a great ‘in-the-field’ option.
Three main steps:
1- Shoot.
2- Find and extract suitable frames
3- Stack-process and tweak stacked results
Here’s a few examples of stacks from 4k clips:
Lacewing on window glass. Nikon bridge camera, the P950.
Springtail on log with N P950 again.
Dead fly (found in windowsill) with Samsung Note 10 phone.
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