For want of nothing better to do, I thought I'd have a go at taking a picture of one of my watches and have a crack at focus stacking. Here is the result of about an hour's "work".
This is a composite of 14 images.
The setup I used is shown in the shot below...
The camera is a Leica CL and I used a 90mm Macro-Elmar M lens on Macro-M adapter-L and some Novoflex tubes. The only light source is a fluorescent desk lamp, which is why there are hard shadows. In this instance, I wanted to keep things fairly simple.
I think the focusing stage on the tripod is an essential piece of kit to keep everything in alignment.
I may have a play with using a light box to create a white background and then use either the desk lamp or a flash to provide front/top lighting.
Once I had googled how to do focus stacking, it took all of 5 minutes to create the composite image.
One thing I learned was that I was too close. I could have done with a lower magnification ratio as the stacking created some fuzzy artefacts at the periphery of the shot which I cropped out in Lightroom before exporting the jpeg you see above.
Anyway, let me know what you think and show some of your focus stacked shots as I could do with the inspiration.
Cheers
Mark.
For a first time, that actually looks really good. It does take some time and experience. I had so - so results, mostly because of my lack of patience.
Here are three examples made from 36 (little anomalies around pushers sinced tle light changed in the room and the time is off), 28 and 8 shots
Nono,
thanks for your comments and sharing your shots. I can see this becoming an addictive past time!
Cheers
Mark
Good results gents. This has been discussed a few times in the DP sub forum, with regards to lenses and making a focussing rail/table etc. What stacking software did you use? The Photomacography forum is very interesting, but like everything it could lead to great expense if one became hooked!
F.T.F.A.
A few cameras have focus stacking built in by altering the focus point. Nikon D850 or Olympus OM-D EM1 MK2. Must try feature out.
Wow, I have learned something new here, cool shots.
I usually set up a shot and shoot a long exposure in the dark and paint the object with light to get an effect.
I will try focus stacking. added to the list of things to try.
Thanks - I used Photoshop CC 2018 to create the merged image. I must have a delve into the DP sub forum...Originally Posted by magirus
I've never tried photo-stacking but I do appreciate seeing the results, well done to the OP and Nono.
That place is a black-hole, I've managed to lose many hours browsing in there.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
In the other direction, ie shots taken on large plate cameras rather than looking inwards, take a look at Shorpy and be prepared to lose many more hours Ralph. When you zoom in the detail in there is truly staggering on many of the shots. Also the social and historic elements are marvellous, right back to the American Civil War.
Take a look here for some large plate pictures-https://evans-hulf.pixelrights.com
The railway ones where taken where I work....
I use a. Nikon D850 which has a focus staking setting which you set the camera to a close focus point on the watch then tell it how many images to take and it moves the focus point to make sure all is in focus, great setting and easy to use but only time I tried using it was on landscapes and not watches.
If you use helicon focus in retouch mode you can get rid of the staggered movement in cogs and balance wheels, just brush in from the frame that has the most in focus, also useful for when you get edge effects where there are areas way out of focus right next to something sharp, this gets you 95% there before tweaking further in photoshop.
Photoshop has a stacking tool but I found it very poor and not at all usable for what I shoot (watches and still-life > www.garysmithphoto.com
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