Question about focus stacking and stitching

[Clintoslocos]

Hi

I'm fairly new to photography and this forum

And wanted to know if it's possible to focus stack 3 separate image's, then stitch 3 photo's together?

Here's a focus stack of a recorida yuma from my salt water reef aquarium:



Hoping to take 2 more pic's to the left and right of it, of different colored one's, then stitch them together


It's around the size of a ping pong ball. I'm using a canon eos t3 and a 50 mm 1.8 with 12 mm extension tube.

I have another question about macro rail etc

[Triple A]

As long as everything is consistent and your images overlap you should be able to stitch them together as a pano. Give it a shot.

[LordV]

Yes you can focus stack shot series before stitching them together in a panorama.
The ultimate example of this here http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15927 - 3100 shots stacked into 37 frames before stitching
Brian V

[rick_reno]

beautiful photo, let us know how this stacking thing work out. i'm about to try it (i found a feather this morning to try it on)

[Clintoslocos]

Originally Posted by rick_reno

beautiful photo, let us know how this stacking thing work out. i'm about to try it (i found a feather this morning to try it on)

sure

Thanks for the compliment

[Clintoslocos]

Originally Posted by Triple A

As long as everything is consistent and your images overlap you should be able to stitch them together as a pano. Give it a shot.

Tried this:



For just playing around, it's not focused stacked, but want to see the result's of stitching for the first time.

I think I should of took a picture from the top, then lowered the height and took another shot etc?.

Around 5 shots.



instead I adjusted the fastener that allowed me to tilt the camera from the top tilted down


first try horizontal:


2 shots

[Clintoslocos]

Originally Posted by LordV

Yes you can focus stack shot series before stitching them together in a panorama.
The ultimate example of this here http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15927 - 3100 shots stacked into 37 frames before stitching
Brian V

Now that's beautiful.

[gmillerf]

Originally Posted by Clintoslocos

Tried this:
I think I should of took a picture from the top, then lowered the height and took another shot etc?... instead I adjusted the fastener that allowed me to tilt the camera from the top tilted down

It doesn't (shouldn't) matter, the software stitching the images together should correct for perspective distortion. Every lens, even within a single image, has some perspective distortion (though it is usually less pronounced on long focal lengths, and some higher end lenses attempt to reduce it). So if the software didn't correct for it, then they wouldn't fit together, no matter what you did.

This image isn't focus stacked, but it is along the same lines in that it's HDR and panorama. I processed each set of images in Photomatix, then stitched them together in Photoshop:
Full size: http://louisville-astro.org/gallery/...2_itemId=19736

[Clintoslocos]

gmillerf

Nice shot

How did you go about taking that pic? use anything special?

[Clintoslocos]

Say for example with this recordia yuma shroom:

It was taken with a 50mm 1.8 with a 12mm extension.

Would using 4 shot's stitched with something like a 50mm 1.8 and 36mm, Potentially turn out better?

[gmillerf]

Originally Posted by Clintoslocos

gmillerf
How did you go about taking that pic? use anything special?

Thanks. Nothing special involved, not even a tripod. Just set the camera to auto bracket +/-2ev, stood in one spot and panned around a 180deg arc taking shots.

[Clintoslocos]

Some random question's

I'm using around 10 images for image stacking by just turning the focusing ring slightly from foreground to background, would trying for 20 increase detail or depth of field?

Is there only so many images you can take using this method?

Would taking the exact same image twice be beneficial?

sorry for the weird question's, I am very new.

[LordV]

Originally Posted by Clintoslocos

Some random question's

I'm using around 10 images for image stacking by just turning the focusing ring slightly from foreground to background, would trying for 20 increase detail or depth of field?

Is there only so many images you can take using this method?

Would taking the exact same image twice be beneficial?

sorry for the weird question's, I am very new.

The number of images you need in a stack depends on the focus depth you want and the actual DOF of the single shots at the aperture you are using. I tend to do it by looking where the image in the view finder is just going OOF and then making sure that is in sharp focus in the next shot. As the lens is wide open when viewing this gives some overlap of focus between the shots when the lens stops down to the set aperture.

The limit in shot number is probably more down to your PC than anything else- people often do stacks of 100 or more shots.

No , taking the same image twice would not be beneficial (ie with the same focus point)

Brian v.

[gmillerf]

In theory, you can stack as many photos as you like. In practice, the more photos you have, the more likely software is going to be confused by something in the image and require some touch up work on your part. If you need 20 images to get the DOF you want, then go for it, but always do it in the least amount of images possible. You can still take 100 images when you only need 10, but delete the ones that don't help if the stack comes out poorly.

Taking the exact same image twice, equivalent to just putting the same copy of an image in the stack twice, is useless. You can take multiple photos of the same scene and average them together to reduce the amount of signal and spacial independent noise. but this won't help much in situations where you control the lighting like macro, and is most commonly used in astrophotography where the signal to noise ratio is small.

[Clintoslocos]

Originally Posted by gmillerf

In theory, you can stack as many photos as you like. In practice, the more photos you have, the more likely software is going to be confused by something in the image and require some touch up work on your part. If you need 20 images to get the DOF you want, then go for it, but always do it in the least amount of images possible. You can still take 100 images when you only need 10, but delete the ones that don't help if the stack comes out poorly.

Taking the exact same image twice, equivalent to just putting the same copy of an image in the stack twice, is useless. You can take multiple photos of the same scene and average them together to reduce the amount of signal and spacial independent noise. but this won't help much in situations where you control the lighting like macro, and is most commonly used in astrophotography where the signal to noise ratio is small.

Thanks for the explanation.

That's what I noticed about my software, which is P.S 5 I think, and the computer I am using. It's a pretty fast computer, but at the same time it take's a long time if I add more then 15 photo's. a lot of time's I have to redo it, especially if I am surfing the net or playing video's while waiting.

Some of the turn's I do when focusing from near to far are 1/64th of a turn, which I'm sure does nothing, at least from what I see just before taking the pic.

I'm guessing around 1/32th of a turn should do. since the focusing ring doeas arounf a little less then 1/2 a turn.

About bridge, I use bridge to review my photo's in a stack before sending it to P.S to image stack.

all the time so far I do leave every image there, even thou I know 1/4 is not needed. I see that there is a way to use the magnify glass option, is there away to spot the focus line's?

How does focusing work? are there thin horizontal line's, that stretch from left to right?

It's really hard to tell the focusing lines if they are lines of the subject and background.
would using the magnifier glass help?



signal and spacial independent noise

Does this have to do with Iso?

Thanks for your help.