so close on a stacking try..

[JLew24asu]

this was 7 shots! I'm not sure what went wrong. I really thought I had it all covered :(

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/jlew24asu/macro/2009-06-02-213222ZSPMax.jpg

[LordV]

Not bad - think you actually have got a mis-alignment by the software so part of the flower has been duplicated- can happen when there are repeating patterns.
If you are using combine series software you could try a manual alignment as detailed in the second part of this tutorial http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/macro/focus_stacking/
Brian v.

[JLew24asu]

thanks Lord. I was using the other software (the new one posted here)...but I have combinz too..I'll give this a try. thanks!

[JLew24asu]

ok I'm officially lost.

HOW DOES ONE FOCUS STACK? with a Sigma 105?..I have a tripod that works like a macro rail. but I'm still confused.

how do I focus on different sections of the subject? when I move the focus ring (and I dont even know if thats what it really is on a sigma 105) the subject moves....same when I move the camera on the rail. which explains why my images, when stacked, came out very unaligned as seen above.


:(

[LordV]

ok I'm officially lost.

HOW DOES ONE FOCUS STACK? with a Sigma 105?..I have a tripod that works like a macro rail. but I'm still confused.

how do I focus on different sections of the subject? when I move the focus ring (and I dont even know if thats what it really is on a sigma 105) the subject moves....same when I move the camera on the rail. which explains why my images, when stacked, came out very unaligned as seen above.


:(

When you take a series of pics for a focus stack you either leave the focus alone and move the camera or use a fixed camera and move the focus wheel. Both methods can give good results. The software actually resizes each image to align the FOVs. The problem with a highly repeating pattern I think is it either throws the resizing or the subsequent alignment of images or both and the software just gets it's wrong.
In the combine series you can do the manual alignment as mentioned above which often helps the software sort this out. In manual alignment you pick 2 points on one of the images and then tell the software where those 2 points are in the rest of the images.

Brian V.

[JLew24asu]

When you take a series of pics for a focus stack you either leave the focus alone and move the camera or use a fixed camera and move the focus wheel. Both methods can give good results. The software actually resizes each image to align the FOVs. The problem with a highly repeating pattern I think is it either throws the resizing or the subsequent alignment of images or both and the software just gets it's wrong.
In the combine series you can do the manual alignment as mentioned above which often helps the software sort this out. In manual alignment you pick 2 points on one of the images and then tell the software where those 2 points are in the rest of the images.

Brian V.

ok thanks Brian for comfirming I am not crazy :) I guess I just need to keep trying and improve me manual align method as well. :oops:

[JLew24asu]

still failing :(

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/jlew24asu/macro/crop_filtered.jpg