Focus stacking

A few months ago, I saw some fantastic landscape images shot using focus stacking. Until then I had considered the primary use of this technique to be macro work.

Given that my real passion is landscape - this got me thinking, However, as I am an advocate of minimal processing (mainly because it bores me)I have so far not given it a go.

My questions are:

1. Do you use this technique for landscape and if so do you get significantly better results than just making sure you have your hyper-focal distance correct?

2. Can the pp work be done in elements 7?

3. How long does processing a stacked image take on average?

All thoughts and advice welcome

Carl

Hi Carl

Not sure if this is quite what you're looking for but maybe of some help.


http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=yqAXR94X0T8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DyqAXR94X0T8

I've been having a (brief) look at using focus stacking for landscapes. The obvious problem is movement in the subject between frames - clouds, water, ducks.

I tried it out on Thurs evening at Dovestones Reservoir - stacked three frames, one focussed on infinity and the others at 2m and 1m, using a K30 and Sigma 24mm f/2.8 Superwide II at f/11 (possibly better at f/8 or f/5.6).

I took the shots as RAW and converted them using ACR6.2 in Elements 8. I then used CombineZP (freebie) to stack the images. The results were "OK" but I'm not convinced they were better - actually the infinity focussed shot was obviously better (sharper) than the stacked version. CombineZP, by default, (over)sharpens as part of the stacking process - maybe that's an issue.

No. You need either Photoshop CS6 (or earlier?) or CombineZP.


No long enough to worry about (less than a minute to stack 3 x 16Mp images).

I definitely need to try again before forming a definite view on focus stacking for landscapes. At the moment, the jury is still out.
Cheers
Andrew

Thanks Guys

The pp does not look too bad so will give it a go - have downloaded Combine ZP - now just need to figure out how to use it!

Carl

Give zerene stacker a shot too, it's the best out there

Not exactly cheap though is it? I would certainly want to ensure that results were significantly better before shelling out $90 + tax

Zerene stacker has a 30 day free trial

One thing you need to look at (in the help section) is how to change the defaults for sharpening and added contrast. By default, both are a bit over the top.

Andrew