# Focus stacking



## Gary Beasley

How many of you have tried or used the technique of focus stacking on your pen photos? I recently researched the use of it and coincidentally got an upgrade from CS3 to CS6. I learned that CS4 to CS6 can do this with its innate processes as well as several standalone programs out there that are dedicated to this task. Does a great job producing the depth of field needed to make the shot look professional. I got to try it out on some subjects around the house and was pleased with the possibilites I saw.
I got my information from a google search on the subject and then found a youtube video on using CS6 on that technique. Way easier than I thought it would be.


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## Terredax

I have access to CS4, but I've only used Illustrator and In-Design.
In order to make use of the rest of the suite, it would be necessary to learn to take decent photos. That seems impossible, for me at least.


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## Gary Beasley

Dont count yourself out, first thing to do is learn to imitate other great shots. In the process you learn to get what you want in a shot and get better.


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## Sylvanite

I used focus stacking for http://www.penturners.org/forum/f24/fiddling-about-photoshop-109376/ (with a program called CombineZP, not Photoshop).  I wanted to try it out, and the process worked ok, but I haven't otherwise found any need for focus stacking in pen photography.

Regards,
Eric


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## Gary Beasley

The biggest advantage I can see for using stacking is to use the lens at it's optimal aperture instead of stopping down and risking diffraction effects. I tried it out on a glazed ceramic piece to see the effect, it didn't look that different but still had more snap to it than simply stopping down. When I have time I'm going to set up a pen shot with stopped down lens and with stacking and look at them side by side.


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## TomWalton

Focus stacking is ridiculous for an object six inches long.  Use a short telephoto lens (the kit lens with all inexpensive cameras), back up a bit, zoom in a bit, stop down a bit. You need a two-inch depth of field.  You can do that at f/8 or lower; diffraction is an imaginary problem at 50mm and f/8 on an even an APS-C or an M43 camera.


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## magpens

Ok, ok ... this is an old thread, but since it has been revived today ....

... what the heck is CS4 or CS6 .... or CSanything ..... I apologize for my ignorance  

I can think of a couple of possibilities but I know that if I  mention what came to my mind you would all just laugh me out of this forum !!! . LOL !


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## cjester

magpens said:


> Ok, ok ... this is an old thread, but since it has been revived today ....
> 
> ... what the heck is CS4 or CS6 .... or CSanything ..... I apologize for my ignorance
> 
> I can think of a couple of possibilities but I know that if I  mention what came to my mind you would all just laugh me out of this forum !!! . LOL !


Adobe Creative Suite with includes the photo editing programs Photoshop and Lightroom. It's no longer called that, now it's Adobe Creative Cloud. You don't buy a specific version anymore, it's now an annual subscription.


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## magpens

@cjester 

Thank you very much !!


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## pshrynk

I'm looking forward to the new iPhone 11 that was just announced.  I suspect that focus stacking may be a possibility just from the camera alone, according to hints and allegations in their announcement ad.  Three lenses and some high power photo manipulation software come standard.


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## Curly

How does my older iPhone's HDR setting fit in with/compare to photo stacking? Do you take all the HDR pics and stack them with the software?


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## pshrynk

Curly said:


> How does my older iPhone's HDR setting fit in with/compare to photo stacking? Do you take all the HDR pics and stack them with the software?


Not sure.  I'm only going on a hint of "automatically fine-tune(s) detail in both the subject and background."  that certainly sounds like image stacking to me.


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## DrD

You all are way beyond me; I still must remove the lens cover, ignite the flash powder, and replace the lens cover.


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## Gary Beasley

HDR helps with capturing subjects with brightness ranges normally to great for the sensor, has nothing to do with focus. Dont know how a cell camera can be used with focus stacking unless the software controls the focus precisely and does all the work for you. You do need to be in fine control of the focus to do manual stacking.


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## Gary Beasley

DrD said:


> You all are way beyond me; I still must remove the lens cover, ignite the flash powder, and replace the lens cover.


Tell me about it. I was out taking pictures with my 4x5 field camera today. Screwed up every other shot with some dumb mistake or another. Have to wait til I get home to count the casualties.


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## pshrynk

Gary Beasley said:


> HDR helps with capturing subjects with brightness ranges normally to great for the sensor, has nothing to do with focus. Dont know how a cell camera can be used with focus stacking unless the software controls the focus precisely and does all the work for you. You do need to be in fine control of the focus to do manual stacking.


It might all be just hype.  Apple's certainly promoting the "professional Camera" aspect of their new phone.  The previous software allows you to do some funky things with focal plane, though.


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## Gary Beasley

pshrynk said:


> It might all be just hype.  Apple's certainly promoting the "professional Camera" aspect of their new phone.  The previous software allows you to do some funky things with focal plane, though.


Ive got a feeling anything you can do in one of photoshops automated actions can be done in a modern cellphone with the right app. Those things have way more power than my first three computers combined.


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## pshrynk

My son'r girlfriend got one of the new iPhones.  The "Portrait" mode looks like there is some sort of focus stacking going on.  Didn't have any pens available to try it out as I was hogging it from her, but I'm planning on getting one anyway, since the battery on my current model is dying noisily.


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## TaraHudson

You always give so much useful information about photography, I am very grateful to you!


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## TaraHudson

TaraHudson said:


> You always give so much useful information about photography, I am very grateful to you!


Thank you!


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## More4dan

I have a camera that can take a photo and change the focal plane after the image is taken. So any part of the photo can be focused or defocused with a click in processing. 

Danny


Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app


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