#Zerene stacker vs. helicon focus manual
Next, set your camera to Manual mode, then dial in an exposure. Pick a scene that will remain steady for the few minutes it takes to set up your shot.) (Quick aside: You’ll struggle to focus stack scenes that feature moving subjects, which is part of the reason why portrait photographers, wildlife photographers, and street photographers rarely use this technique. If you don’t have a tripod, you can do handheld focus stacking, but you’ll need to maintain the composition as carefully as possible. Mount your camera on a tripod and carefully compose your photo. Let’s take a look at how the stacking process works, from shooting in the field to blending the images on the computer: Step 1: Pick your subject, choose a composition, and set your exposureįocus stacking starts by locking down a subject and a composition. Photoshop (or another form of focus-stacking software).An interchangeable-lens camera and a lens capable of focusing manually.
#Zerene stacker vs. helicon focus series
( Shallow depth of field shots can look beautiful when done carefully!)Īs I’ve explained above, focus stacking is pretty easy to do, and you can focus stack with a smartphone camera and nothing else. You can take a single shot with a shallower depth of field and try to make the effect work. And you can narrow your aperture, but at a certain point, you’ll start to run into optical problems caused by diffraction. Of course, you can always try to back up or use a wider lens, but that isn’t always feasible (especially if you’ve already chosen your composition). Your depth of field just won’t be deep enough, and only parts of the shot will turn out sharp (while other parts will turn blurry). Specifically, you’ll run into depth of field problems when working with: And if you’re faced by a standard close-up subject such as a flower, you can back up slightly from your subject and narrow your aperture to get your desirable depth of field.īut in a few situations, you won’t be able to achieve a deep enough depth of field to keep the entire shot sharp (from the nearest foreground element to the most distant background element). If you’re faced by a sweeping landscape, you can choose a wide-angle lens and you can narrow your aperture that way, you can capture the entire scene in focus using a deep depth of field. In most situations, you can handle your depth of field requirements without focus stacking. On the other hand, as you widen your lens, move away from your subject, or narrow your lens aperture, the amount of the scene that’s in focus will increase. So as you zoom your lens, move closer to your subject, or widen your lens aperture, the amount of the scene that’s in focus will decrease. This can really help in some cases where there's complex, overlapping morphology.Now, if you’re familiar with camera optics, you’ll know that the depth of field is affected by three key factors: Regarding the editing capabilities of these programs that you said you may not need, on very good function is the capability of manually retouching details from one layer onto the final stack. I use Zerene, developed by Rik Littlefield, who is extremely knowledgeable and always helpful over at. A 10x 0.25 objective needs about a 0.0088mm step size. And make sure you use appropriately small steps. It's usually best to capture images from the midpoint and up, so to speak. If you haven't stacked microscopic subjects before (or any subjects, for that matter) I wouldn't rule out the possibility that your pictures might be the limiting factor, not the software.īecausee many microscopic subjects are semi-transparent, the stacking algorithm can get confused if you try to stack images with overlaying details. That said, you do need to be a bit careful when taking the pictures. Stacking very often improves things dramatically, even if you're only using three or four images.
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