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Focus Stacking 2019.1

Answered
Peter Pfeiffer

All,

First use of 2019.1 was to check out focus stacking ... still need more work.Image below is a screen capture of the results compared with PSE using Elements+ plugin (image in right). Both obtained from exact shot sequence.

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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • Pavel Derka

    Peter, I'm highly interested in focus stacking myself, but on these shots, since they are so small, I can't really tell anything.

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  • Peter Pfeiffer

    Pavel, My comparison displayed ghosting and lack of clarity. If you provide your email address I'll share the sequence with you. You'll be able to test the results your self this way.

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  • Peter Pfeiffer

    For Pavel and others who might be interested.

    Here's a link to the 9 raw files used for the test as well as the 2 jpg files created.

     
    jpg files named xmas cactus on1.jpg and PSE elements plus.jpg
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  • Pavel Derka

    I see what you are saying.  Yes that last one is pretty bad.  What I find interesting, in a puzzling way, is how good the textured cloth surface under the stacked flower looks so good and crisp, while the white flowers look so "odd".  

    It does not look like any motion blur, judging by the individual shots.  So if that is in all the stacks, something sure is wrong with the performance of that software.

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  • David Redfearn

    I updated to 2019 specifically because of the focus stacking feature.  I shoot close-up images of my orchids - I use full-frame camera (Sony A7Rm3) and a 90mm Macro lens  - and the depth of field (even at f8) is pretty shallow and orchid flowers are very three-dimensional.

    I just tried the feature on a couple of orchids and got pretty good results - using 7 images once and 5 images for the second plant.  The documentation notes that if the metadata includes focus information, the software will use that information to order the images.  My A7RM3 does include focus distance in the metadata, but On1 doesn't seem to see it.  Focus distance for each images doesn't show in the display and when I check Info, focus distance shows as blank.  So, it seems that On1 is not reading the metadata correctly.  I'm not surprised - each camera is different, and a lot of metadata is not standard.  (Just run ExifTool to see all the stuff in the metadata!)  But, I think On1 needs to support this for all the major cameras.

    So, I'm wondering how important that focus distance information is to this process.  Anyone else see focus distance information when they try focus stacking?

    David

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  • andrea pedrazzini

    I also have problems with the Focus Stack tool. In the below link you will find the pictures (.NEF file from Nikon D750) used to perform 2 tests (see "focus.onphoto" files)

    I used 3 pictures with different focus for each test (in case of macro I prefer to use manual focus). You will see in the attached files that the results are very bad in both test.

    Is there something wrong in the file utilised to generate the merged focus pictures? Can you please suggest best way to proceed in order to generate pictures that when merged with the focus tool do not give problems?

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/65av1abhhtg88zg/AADbPNmlM_8pxx6oTOwmY5NAa?dl=0

     

     

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  • Peter Pfeiffer

    I ran a test on these files:

     

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  • andrea pedrazzini

    Peter ,

    you got a great result with Photoshop Elements !!!.

    At least we have demonstrated that manual focus and the way the source files have been generated is not an issue for this specific case

    The issue is now to adjust possible bugs in Photo Raw 2019

    thank you!

    A 

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  • Pierre Jean Parra

    I have the same problem with a simple stack, the results are quite blurred when compared to the original files or the results from other software.

    Helicon and Zerene both provide very good results, the few tries I did in the past with Photoshop were almost on the same level for simple stacks.

    I tried to understand what was going on and generated a layered output image. I then kept only one layer, reset its mask, and compared this layer to the original file. The layer is significantly less sharp than the original file. It looks like it has been badly resampled.

    I really hope this will be fixed in 2019.05 as this is one of the major selling points of this software for me.

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  • Gerry Whitmarsh

    For those using focus stacking, check this out.

    http://www.digicamcontrol.com/

    It is free (shareware). It is as good as Helicon Focus and cheaper. I use this to take the photos, but use PS to merge. Eagerly awaiting the update to see if ON1 can compete with PS for merging the stacks (also > 14 images).

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