#ZERENE FOCUS STACKER SERIES#

Switch to DOF preview in the controls on the right hand side of the main window(see image below).

Use Depth of Field (DOF) preview and take a few test shots to see what an appropriate f number is (recommended value is up to 20).

At this point you should find an appropriate aperture value to use: a higher f number (smaller aperture size) will produce a larger depth of field but may reduce image quality (e.g sharpness).Begin by getting the equipment up and running, frame your sample and get it in focus.The macro photography setup in the Imaging lab has a camera mounted on a copy stand and is controlled via a computer with the canon eos utility. Taking the photos using the Macro photography setup The final image at the bottom is a composite image. The images at the top each have a portion in focus. Then stack the parts of the image that are in focus together to make a single in-focus image.įocus stacking.

#ZERENE FOCUS STACKER SERIES#

The general process with focus stacking is to take a series of images that cover different focus levels. This may be suitable if you don’t need a really high resolution image. Please note that image quality (e.g sharpness) does degrade with higher f numbers.Īnother approach is to simply move the camera further away and then digitally crop the picture. It’s a good idea to see if you can get enough depth of field by adjusting the f-number (aperture size) up to something like 20.

Samples that are quite flat are usually ok. a small brachiopod) that has depth on the order of its width/height when viewed in the orientation it needs to be photographed in (e.g. The most typical situation is photographing a small (cm-sized) specimen (e.g. distance between the front of the object and the back when viewed from the camera. You may need to focus stack when you are trying to take a photo of something with a lot of relief, i.e. Aperture size: The smaller the aperture size (greater f number) the greater the depth of field.įor more information look at the Wikipedia article on Depth of Field When do you need to focus stack?.Camera to subject distance: the closer you are to a subject the narrower the depth of field.Focal length: The Macro photography setup in the Imaging Lab is a 50mm prime lens so we can ignore the effects of changing focal length.For DSLRs the primary factors are lens focal length, subject distance and Aperture size (f number). Most compact cameras have a far greater DOF than DSLRs. There are several factors that affect Depth of Field (DOF). This post supersedes the previous focus stacking post I wrote which recommended using photoshop.īackground information What is focus stacking?įocus stacking is the process of stacking (combining) multiple images with different levels in focus into a single image that is “in focus”. For example Zerene Stacker took 72s to stack 11 images and photoshop took 125s, the difference in stacking speed is even more pronounced when more images are used. Instructions are for using Zerene stacker to stack the images rather than photoshop because it is faster, easier and produces better results in all cases that I have seen. This article has been specifically written for using the macro-photography setup or the stereomicroscope setup in the Imaging Lab (formerly called the Graphics Lab) in the geology department.

Zerene focus stacker