• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Focus stacking advice (1 Viewer)

Pete007

Well-known member
Although I regularly like to use my 100mm Macro lens to photograph insects and other subjects I have yet to try the technique of focus stacking so would appreciate some feedback or advice on this.
Firstly I have seen some very impressive photographs of insects but as the subject surely has to remain static to allow a group of 10+ shots to be taken can I enquire how this is achieved. Personally I only wish to photograph live subjects but surely this must be extremely difficult to achieve with small insects I would imagine.
Secondly I have Photoshop CS5 and believe focus stacking may be possible although I'm not entirely sure if this is correct or indeed how to use it.
As someone who is keen to try focus stacking as a technique and help or advice is much appreciated.
Any links or suggestions for books that explain focus stacking for someone new to the process would also be very helpful.

Many Thanks
 
Hi,
If you just want to work in the field it is possible to get 2 or 3 shots using burst mode and stack these.
It's amazing how much extra dof you can get with only a few images.
If you want to bring insects inside, you can slow them down by putting them in the freezer for a while.
It's a bit of a balancing act, you can slow them down permanently as well using this method.
Yes you can stack in CS5 but is clunky.
A Google of "focus stacking CS5" will provide plenty of info.
There's dedicated software to do it.
Combine ZP is free.
Helicon and Zerene make paid software with trial periods.
Decent software will still align images even if you move a bit while taking the images hand held.
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/
Is by far the best macro forum, start reading there and you will rapidly learn way more than you thought you would ever want to know :)
Nice folks as well
http://extrememacro.co.uk is also a good info resource.
Have fun learning, it's addictive and is challenging to do handheld in the field.
 
Yes I do quite a lot of handheld stacking.
As to the how
Practice, Patience and a sense of humor would be the main techniques :)
Practice because it takes quite a while to instinctively know how to lock / hold your body to get the camera to move in a "parallel" direction towards your subject.
Patience because you need to find the right subject that wants to play, a place with very little wind so that the subject is not moving around and hopefully has light.
A sense of humor cos it will drive ya nuts if you can't accept the failure rate :)
Also it comes down to what you are wanting to work at, 1:1 is not too hard, 4:1 ..........
Camera running on the fastest burst mode you have.
Highest shutter speed you can get, without pushing the iso too high, stacking will accentuate noise.
As much light as you can get, while being diffused if your using flash or a constant light source.
The ability to bring your subject inside helps heaps.
In my case I've developed a "portable studio" that helps with some of my field work.
For me the post work is at least half the process.
Good software to cull the rubbish images out of an attempted stack so you can combine the rest or just bin the lot helps heaps.
Good stacking software, you can't beat that.
Good post software, again why make life harder than it already is.
You don't say what you want to stack, flora is easier than fauna, it doesn't bugger of on you or move a wing etc, but is still a challenge.
Landscape a "bit" easier.
Have a look at the links I provided a couple of posts back, heaps of relevant info there if you want to have a scratch through them.
Did I mention
Practice, Patience and a sense of humor :)
It's a fun journey to get half way competent at this.
A bit like birds in flight, it's a mindset, a skill set and something that is either right for you and your gear or is not.
Enjoy :)
 
Warning! This thread is more than 8 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top