I'm finding that I'm not getting as much front-to-back sharpness on my jewellery photos as I'd like. Does anyone use focus stacking, and what package do you prefer?
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I'm finding that I'm not getting as much front-to-back sharpness on my jewellery photos as I'd like. Does anyone use focus stacking, and what package do you prefer?
Never tried that Peter, but I do get good depth of field results in close ups,when using my Nikon DSLR fitted with a Nikkor 60mm Micro set at f32.
James
I'm using a Nikkor 105mm micro - at f40, the sharpness is fantastic, but the depth of field is minimal. One of the dof calculators reckons it's no more than 1-2mm... My older 55mm micro Nikkor has no electronics, so metering is a bit more of a nuisance (take the shot, study the histogram, adjust accordingly).
I've been trying Helicon Focus; so far I think it is giving me better results than Zerene stacker. It seems a faff having a laptop tethered to the camera, but it does make capturing the focus stack relatively painless.
It's also cheaper than buying another lens!
hello there, i never managed to get hands on, but i did some research as is something would like to learn. Zerene Stacker seem a good package used from professional photographer. zerenesystems.com/cms/home
Tony
When I said Helicon Focus is giving me better results than Zerene Stacker, I mean that a) I've been experimenting with both and b) I've been analysing the resulting output.
Helicon Focus gives a result I find preferable on specular highlights; it also results in better definition on highly reflective surfaces than Zerene. Results may differ for different subject material.
I'll try and find time to resize & post results from the 2, along with the f40 shot. They're just messing, so the lighting is ambient rather than studio.
I have a basic Canon EOS1100D, and the lens is 18-55mm. When set on 'Av' (aperture priority) and the f. number very high (up to f22) there is no problem with depth of focus.
There is also a macro setting which is totally automatic, so I never use it for jewellery. Am I misunderstanding the question?
The problem's partly of my own making: The kit lens that came with my Nikon won't focus as close as I want/need. The longer zoom I have primarily for sports use focusses even further away... So I bought a Nikkor 105mm to supplement the 55mm I have. The combination of the longer lens (and the fact that with a partial-frame sensor there's a pretend 1.5x magnification factor) results in fantastic sharpness at high levels of magnification, but a very small dof even with the aperture stopped down.
I was about to upload the stacked files, only to notice that the one created by Zerene Stacker isn't all that big - it's not quite 270kB, while the one generated by Helicon is around 1.5MB. So a loss of detail is to be expected... I'll have to go back in to see if I can persuade it to generate a larger file.
f40 shot:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8231/8...6e05ee43_z.jpg
Using Helicon Focus:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8377/8...0d5e5818_z.jpg
There's been no other manipulation, so the resulting effective exposures differ. Also interesting to note how much Helicon has resized things - although this lens "breathes" and the image size changes with changes in focus. Oh, the stack shot for Helicon was all done at f5.6.
Another thought - manual focus confirmation isn't great on this camera (I miss the prism screens of the old SLRs); the only way to get decent focus confirmation is to switch it to live mode, then zoom in on an area of interest.
Have you tried taking the photo using less zoom then cropping the image?
Prime lens ;)