Focus Stacking Advantages

Good macro photography technique says to get the subject square to the camera (parallel to the focal plane). That's because the depth of field--the zone that's in focus--is very shallow.

The camera was directly above this flat bug, so the body and head are in focus. Click an image to compare pairs. (f/6.7  1/3000s  ISO 800  #5 of 8 images)

Focus stacking most prominently added more of the flower. It also improved the bug's legs and antennas. There are artifacts, too, in the form of a reflection on the left side and distorted petal edges.

 

This fly is not square to the camera. It didn't respond when I asked it to move, so what could I do? I like the shot, though. (f/5.6  1/500s  ISO 800  #2 of 5 images in the stack)

Focus stacking added the fly's wings, the fly's legs, and the stem it's standing on.

 

I'm attracted to bees' faces, and this one was square to the camera. Without focus stacking, that's all I'd have. With it, I got its wings, legs, and hairs on its body. (f/6.7  1/350s  ISO 800  8 images)

None of these struck me as being particularly good... (f/5.6  ISO 800  1/750s)

 

 

 

 

... but the 5 pictures stacked together turned out nicely.

Sometimes I can experiment with how much background to include in the stack. (f/4.8  1/250s  ISO 1600  3 images)

Which one do you prefer? (5 images)

Focus Stacking Artifacts

The focus-stacking software I use can introduce artifacts into images.

 

Sometimes a "reflection" is generated. Here, there's one across the bottom. (Check out the crablike spider at the top.)

 

As I was shooting this caterpillar, an ant made its way along a lovage stem, and focus stacking gave ghost ants. There are reflections at the top and bottom, too.

Without ghost ants

When I shoot macro with focus stacking in mind, I set the lens to the closest focusing distance and then approach the subject until just before it's in focus. Then I shoot a burst as I move the lens closer.

I wanted the bug in addition to the bee. The bug was closest to the lens, so for the focus stack I chose an image with the bug and then skipped some images until the bee was in focus. The result is a semitransparent effect. This happens somewhat often and I haven't figured out when it's likely.

Without the image of the bug in-focus, the bee is less ghostly.

To get the picture I wanted, I took the previous image and pasted-in the bug and parts of the flower.

Mantis Focus Stack

A while ago I assembled an image of a praying mantis from five separate pictures. I recently upgraded PaintShop Pro (cheapskate Photoshop that I can pay for once) because of its focus-stacking feature. Focus-stacking software takes a set of pictures and mashes them together, using the in-focus bits of each one.

Here's that mantis, as created by PaintShop Pro:

Made using PaintShop Pro's focus-stacking feature

It's not perfect, but it's better than I can do and is a helluva lot easier.

Made by hand using PaintShop Pro