- Focus Stacking is a simple technique. It’s easy to learn and easy to implement. The resulting photos, however, can be striking and unique. Read this review to find out if you need focus stacking software like Helicon Focus.
- Jan 03, 2018 Download Focus Stacker for macOS 10.11 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Focus Stacker combines sharp areas from multiple images into one seamless composite image. The focus stacking is used in macro photography for subjects like flowers, insects, jewelry, in microscope image processing, in landscape photography.
- Mar 01, 2009 Focus stacking on a Mac in Macro. Perryge wrote in post #4470777 Windows has CombineZM, which is free focus stacking software, but the two solutions I found out there for the Mac are not free, and I don't wanna pay for software that I won't use that often yet.
- Nov 18, 2017 Does anyone have any recommendations for free or affordable focus stacking software? I'm not going to be doing anything terribly sophisticated, and I doubt I'll be doing a lot of slices per image. I'm willing to buy something at a moderate price. Is the personal version of Zerene adequate? The middle level version is out of my price range.
Download Helicon Focus 4 for Mac full version program setup free. Helicon Focus 4.2.9 for macOS is a fantastic program that empowers photographers to enhance the focus of images by merging them, add a text watermark and export images as animations or 3D models.
NEW!
We are happy to introduce our new product that has no analogues on the modern photography accessories market - Helicon FB Tube. Mounted on the camera as a conventional extension tube, Helicon FB Tube automates focus bracketing in single shot and continuous shooting modes. Adjust settings, hold down the shutter button to shoot a stack and process it in Helicon Focus to achieve a perfectly sharp image.
Helicon Focus and Focus Stacking
The digital revolution of the last few years made professional photo hardware widely available and affordable. Now it's the advanced technology that makes the difference. Plain single shots are bit by bit giving place to improved and more sophisticated technologies like HDR and EDoF.
Today it's hard to imagine macro or micro photography without focus stacking technique. Professional photographers and enthusiasts seeking to keep up with the trend take advantage of focus stacking to create eye-catching images.
With focus stacking software you can make your usual camera render results that could not be achieved even with a classic tilt-shift lens. Take several shots at different focus distances instead of just one, and Helicon Focus will quickly and smartly combine the stack into a fully focused image.
Nowadays micro photography, close-ups, jewelry and product photography became truly dependent on focus stacking. But it does not matter what you shoot – landscapes or flowers, animals or still-life – Helicon Focus will make your images stand out. Watch the tutorials, read the articles and impress your colleagues and friends with your new photo achievements!
Click to enlarge
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.
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.
Free Stacking Software
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]
Focus Stacking Free Software Mac
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]
![Focus Stacking Free Software Mac Focus Stacking Free Software Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126485354/487882966.jpg)
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.
External links[edit]
- Which cameras have built-in focus stacking?, Nov. 2019.
- Media related to Focus stacking at Wikimedia Commons
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