To focus stack or not...

Lord Vetinari

Simple comparison of some shots of a very cooperative soldier fly.
Apart from the control of DOF focus stacking can give- it's very useful for cross-eye stereograms although you are asking a lot of the subject.

Brian V.

Single shot F10



5 shot focus stack (all F10)



Single shot F8



7 shot focus stack (all F8)



Cross-eye stereogram

obecanobe

It's always a great help to see the with and without shots Brian.
Could you please let me know two things
1) What is a good photo stacking program to use?
2) When you take your shots to be stacked what sort of distance should you be moving the camera each time, or is this dependent upon the f stop you are shooting at?

Lord Vetinari

obecanobe wrote:

It's always a great help to see the with and without shots Brian.
Could you please let me know two things
1) What is a good photo stacking program to use?
2) When you take your shots to be stacked what sort of distance should you be moving the camera each time, or is this dependent upon the f stop you are shooting at?

Thanks Geoff,

I tend to use one of the combine series (actually prefer the oldest combinez5) - they are freeware - just google combinezp. Should add I often just hand stack pics in photoshop using the repair brush.

When I'm taking shots for stacking I simply note where the image is just going oof in the viewfinder and make sure that is in clean focus in the next shot. Obviously the lens is wide open when focusing but I find this tends to work pretty well especially when you need to shoot fast for an insect that is not likely to stop still very long. In general this tends to give shots with good overlapping DOF- if you try to get too technical with it you can end up with OOF stripes on the stack which are very unforgiving on a detailed foreground.

Brian V.

obecanobe

Mant thanks Brian.

blacksmith

This is a good comparison, thanks Brian.

I don't think I am able to shoot upto 5,7 frames like you did . Only 1 shot and the insect fly away. Do you have any tips to shoot 5 shots at those samples?

Thanks,

Lord Vetinari

blacksmith wrote:

This is a good comparison, thanks Brian.

I don't think I am able to shoot upto 5,7 frames like you did . Only 1 shot and the insect fly away. Do you have any tips to shoot 5 shots at those samples?

Thanks,

Thanks

Basically it's a take one shot with the eyes in good focus and then if it doesn't fly off try some further shots for a focus stack. I was lucky with this particular fly, it didn't move while I took more than 50 shots of it.
Brian V.

Travis

The cross-eyed stereogram is pretty cool. Of course I can't get my eyes uncrossed now which should make work interesting today.