One of the greatest challenges in macro photography is the depth of field, or DOF for short. Not only does the zone of sharpness drastically fall off as we get closer to our subjects, other factors such as the lack of light and diffraction softening make it tricky to use narrow apertures on top of that.
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Focus Stacking in Camera. Some of the newest cameras now offer focus stacking as well. A few popular cameras with this feature include the Canon Eos RP as well as Nikon Z6, Z7, and D850. The newest Panasonic Lumix and Olympus OM-D cameras also have this capability. The stacking process would vary from one camera to another.
At a magnification ratio of 1:1, it is already impossible to get the entire scene in focus unless you are photographing your stamp collection, and it only gets worse as we increase the magnification ratio.
The DOF-Challenge and Its Solution
The reason for that is, as mentioned above, the very nature of optics: the closer a subject is to the lens, the shallower the depth of field is going to be. This can be counteracted by a narrow aperture, which cancels out a large portion of the light cone in order to decrease the fall-off in sharpness.
But this only works to a certain degree. If the aperture opening becomes too narrow, light waves begin to bend and soften the image. This phenomenon is called diffraction. Luckily, there is a technique called Focus Stacking, that allows us to work around this challenge by combining multiple images.
Focus Stacking
As the name suggests, focus stacking is a technique where you take multiple photos of the same subject, but at slightly different focusing distances, and “stack” them. When we merge these images in post processing, we produce one overall sharp image where the whole frame is in focus. Many landscape photographers like using this method to get both their foreground and far background in focus, but it’s especially useful for macro photography.
The basic idea is to mount your camera on a tripod, compose the shot, and then take a sequence of images while slightly shifting focus between shots.
When it comes to performing a focus stack there are quite a few ways to do it, so let’s have a look!
Option 1: Manually shifting focus
This works best in live-view at full zoom or with focus peaking enabled. The advantage of this technique is that you won’t need any additional equipment besides your camera and a tripod, so this is perfect if you are just starting out and want to get a feel for it.
The downside of this technique is that, depending on your lens, it can require a good amount of cropping. Some lenses change their focal length as you shift focus (focus breathing) and your final image can only be as large as the smallest image in the stack:
Option 2: Manual focusing rail
One of the big advantages of using manual focusing rails is the avoidance of focus breathing. They also make it easier to execute a consistent step size.
Manual focus sliders are quite affordable, but please don’t buy the cheapest one you can find on eBay—the $20 models are constructed quite poorly and have very “wobbly” performance. Manual focus sliders are easy to bring into the field and work well enough for magnification ratios up to 5x.
Option 3: Automated focusing rail
This is the most advanced option: step sizes are electronically controlled, and you’re all-but-guaranteed a perfect stack.
Such sliders can be found as DIY Kits or as pre-assembled products, and typically start at a price point of around $200. There are also DIY instructions on the web, in case you feel crafty. A great rail that many macro photographers recommend is the Wemacro focusing slider.
Option 4: Automated stacking in-camera
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Some cameras come with an internal focus stacking function, which allows you to define the start and end point of your stack, and the number of images you want it to take. Many Olympus cameras have this feature and most Canon DSLRs can obtain it by installing the third party Magic Lantern firmware (at your own risk).
In-camera focus stacking is a brilliant feature, as it allows to precisely control the step size between frames and doesn’t require any additional equipment. Unfortunately, this only works for electronically controlled lenses.
Option 5: The Helicon Tube
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The Helicon Tube is a specialized extension tube that enables your camera to perform automated and software-controlled stacks. Conveniently, it’s brought to you by Helicon, one of the leading focus stacking software producers in the industry.
This is an ideal solution, that unfortunately only works for electronically controlled lenses.
Option 6: Handheld stacking
Handheld focus stacking is another way to create stacks without additional equipment. It takes a fair bit of practice and post-production, but it rewards you with a maximum of flexibility and images you wouldn’t be able to take otherwise.
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Unlike all of the other methods mentioned above, this one does not require a tripod, which makes it ideal for insects that won’t stand still for long. This candy striped leaf-hopper is a good example; compare the images before and after focus stacking the scene:
These are a lot of different techniques to choose from, and which one is the right for you really boils down to what you are photographing and your personal preference.
Before You Start Stacking
Before you take a focus stack, please read over this checklist for best results:
- Make sure your batteries are charged and you’ve got enough space on your memory card.
- Compose your shot whilst focus on the very end of the zone you’d like to stack. Your final image will only be as large as the image focused the furthest away from the camera.
- Use live-view at full zoom. If you’re using a camera that doesn’t have live-view, start stacking before the zone of focus and finish beyond it. It is easy to get tricked by the viewfinder, and if you miss just one shot, the entire stack might be useless.
- Use a self-timer or, even better, a remote control/intervalometer to avoid camera shake.
- Use the sensor-cleaning function of your camera to avoid dirt specs in your photos. Automated focus stacking typically renders all of these into the final image.
After You Completed Your Stack
Once you have all the images you need, it is time to stack them together. If your camera doesn’t support in-camera stacking you will have to use a computer for this task.
There is a variety of specialized software available. Helicon Focus and Zerene are two of the most popular tools, and both work very well. Both are great pieces of software, particularly Helicon software used alongside the Helicon Tube, because they make automated focus stacking easy.
Nevertheless, I personally prefer Photoshop. It has a great built-in stacking function and countless other tools that allow more control and fine tuning. Especially for handheld focus stacking, PS is the ideal application. To learn more about focus stacking in Photoshop, read the follow-up article here.
About the author: Maximilian Simson is a London-based portrait and event photographer who also shoots fine art and macro photography. To see more of his work, visit his website. This article was also published here, and is being republished with permission.
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Series of images demonstrating a six-image focus bracket of a Tachinid fly. First two images illustrate typical DOF of a single image at f/10 while the third image is the composite of six images.
Focus stacking (for extended depth of field) in bright fieldlight microscopy. This example is of a diatommicrofossil in diatomaceous earth. Top left are the three source images captured at three different focus distances. Top right are the three masks used to obtain the contributions of their respective images to the final 'focus stacked' image (black is no contribution, white is full contribution). Bottom is the final 'focus stacked' image.
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Focus stacking (also known as focal plane merging and z-stacking[1] or focus blending) is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field (DOF) than any of the individual source images.[2][3] Focus stacking can be used in any situation where individual images have a very shallow depth of field; macro photography and optical microscopy are two typical examples. Focus stacking can also be useful in landscape photography.
Focus stacking offers flexibility: since it is a computational technique, images with several different depths of field can be generated in post-processing and compared for best artistic merit or scientific clarity. Focus stacking also allows generation of images physically impossible with normal imaging equipment; images with nonplanar focus regions can be generated. Alternative techniques for generating images with increased or flexible depth of field include wavefront coding and light-field cameras.
Technique[edit]
The starting point for focus stacking is a series of images captured at different focus distances; in each image different areas of the sample will be in focus. While none of these images has the sample entirely in focus they collectively contain all the data required to generate an image which has all parts of the sample in focus. In-focus regions of each image may be detected automatically, for example via edge detection or Fourier analysis, or selected manually. The in-focus patches are then blended together to generate the final image.
This processing is also called z-stacking, focal plane merging (or zedification in French).[4][5]
Video example of how focus stacking is applied to images
In photography[edit]
Getting sufficient depth of field can be particularly challenging in macro photography, because depth of field is smaller (shallower) for objects nearer the camera, so if a small object fills the frame, it is often so close that its entire depth cannot be in focus at once. Depth of field is normally increased by stopping down aperture (using a larger f-number), but beyond a certain point, stopping down causes blurring due to diffraction, which counteracts the benefit of being in focus. It also reduces the luminosity of the image. Focus stacking allows the depth of field of images taken at the sharpest aperture to be effectively increased. The images at right illustrate the increase in DOF that can be achieved by combining multiple exposures.
Stacked image of the Curiosity Rovers first sampling hole in Mount Sharp. The hole is 1.6 centimetres (0.63 in) wide and 6.7 centimetres (2.6 in) deep.
The Mars Science Laboratory mission has a device called Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which can take photos that can later be focus stacked.[6]
In microscopy[edit]
In microscopy high numerical apertures are desirable to capture as much light as possible from a small sample. A high numerical aperture (equivalent to a low f number) gives a very shallow depth of field. Higher magnification objective lenses generally have shallower depth of field; a 100× objective lens with a numerical aperture of around 1.4 has a depth of field of approximately 1 μm. When observing a sample directly the limitations of the shallow depth of field are easy to circumvent by focusing up and down through the sample; to effectively present microscopy data of a complex 3D structure in 2D, focus stacking is a very useful technique.
Atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy encounters similar difficulties, where specimen features are much larger than the depth of field. By taking a through-focal series, the depth of focus can be reconstructed to create a single image entirely in focus.[7]
Software / Application[edit]
Name | Primary author | Application type | Platform | License |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adobe Photoshop[8] CS4, CS5, CS6 | Adobe | Desktop | Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary |
Affinity Photo 'Focus Merge' | Serif | Desktop | Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary |
Aphelion with Multifocus extension | ADCIS | Desktop | Windows | Proprietary, 30-day trial |
Amira / Avizo 'Image Stack Projection'[9] | Thermofisher | Desktop | Windows, Mac OS X, Linux | Proprietary |
CamRanger | CamRanger | Desktop / Mobile | iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Windows | Proprietary |
Chasys Draw IES | John Paul Chacha | Desktop | Windows | Proprietary |
CombineZ | Alan Hadley | Desktop | Windows | GPL |
Enfuse (combined with align_image_stack or similar) | Andrew Mihal and hugin development team | Desktop | Multiplatform | GPL |
Focus Stacker | Alexander Boltnev, Olga Kacher | Desktop | Mac OS X | Proprietary |
Focus Stacking Online[10] | Focus Stacking Online | Web application | All | CC BY-ND 4.0 |
Shutter Stream Product Photography Software | Iconasys | Desktop | Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary |
Helicon Focus | Danylo Kozub | Desktop | Windows, Mac OS X | Proprietary, 30-day trial |
ImageJ with Extended Depth of Field Plugin | Alex Prudencio, Jesse Berent, Daniel Sage | Desktop | Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X | Public domain |
MacroFusion[11] | Dariusz Duma | Desktop | Linux | GPL |
Picolay | Heribert Cypionka | Desktop | Windows | Freeware |
QuickPHOTO with Deep Focus extension | Promicra | Desktop | Windows | Proprietary, 30-day trial |
Zerene Stacker | Rik Littlefield | Desktop | Windows, Mac OS X, Linux | Proprietary, 30-day trial |
Gallery[edit]
Pictures[edit]
- Pepper mill, stack of 28 frames
- Stacked image of 3 × 2.5 mm electric wires
- Shaver head, stack of 36 frames, retouched
- Macrolepiota procera, stack of 15 frames
- Stacked image of the inner ridge of an orchid blossom
- Stacked image of two Arecaceae viewed through a hole in a tree trunk
- Pellet, stack of 32 frames
- Alluaudia comosa, stack of 10 frames
- Mold on Litchi chinensis, stack of 20 frames
- Skull, stack of 6 frames
Videos[edit]
Diagrams[edit]
- Software creates from the sharpest areas in a stack of sections.
See also[edit]
- High dynamic range imaging (HDR)
- Shift-and-add for stacking astrophotos
References[edit]
- ^'Malin Space Science Systems - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Instrument Description'. Msss.com. Retrieved 2012-12-10.
- ^Johnson, Dave (2008). How to Do Everything: Digital Camera (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. p. 336. ISBN978-0-07-149580-6.
There are a number of programs that allow you to get the equivalent of infinite depth of field in your photos, with sharp focus from the foreground all the way back to the rear. How is this possible? By taking multiple photos of the same scene and stacking them afterwards into a composite that features only the sharpest bits of each image. One of the best is Helicon Focus.
- ^Ray 2002, 231–232
- ^'Afficher le sujet - Proposition d'un terme français pour 'focus stacking' • Le Naturaliste'. Lenaturaliste.net (in French). Retrieved 2012-10-05.
- ^'Malin Space Science Systems - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Instrument Description'. Msss.com. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
- ^'MSL Science Corner: Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)'. MSL-SciCorner.JPL.NASA.gov. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
- ^Hovden, Robert; Xin, Huolin L.; Muller, David A. (2010). 'Extended Depth of Field for High-Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy'. Microscopy and Microanalysis. 17 (1): 75–80. arXiv:1010.4500. Bibcode:2011MiMic..17...75H. doi:10.1017/S1431927610094171. PMID21122192.
- ^'Focus Stacking Made Easy with Photoshop'. photo.tutsplus.com. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
- ^'Avizo User Guide, Module 'Image Stack Projection''. 2018-03-30.
- ^'Focus stacking online - free online focus stacking application'. FocusStackingOnline.com. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
- ^'GUI to Combine Photos to Get Deeper DOF or HDR'. SourceForge.net. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
- Ray, Sidney. 2002. Applied Photographic Optics. 3rd ed. Oxford: Focal Press. ISBN0-240-51540-4.
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External links[edit]
Focus Stacking Photoshop
- Which cameras have built-in focus stacking?, Nov. 2019.
- Media related to Focus stacking at Wikimedia Commons
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