60D - Focus Stacking - Magic Lantern

I installed ML on my 60D a few weeks ago but am having trouble figuring out the focus stacking, mainly in relation to setting the start end points. I've watched some tutorials on Youtube but they seem to be using different cameras with a joystick on the back and have different menu settings so I get a little lost after that.

UPDATE: I figured it out and my instructions are in the next post.

Here's how it works on the 60D

1) Turn the camera on
2) Live View
3) Hit delete button for ML
4) Go to Focus tab
5) Change follow focus to arrows
6) Go to focus end point
7) Use left, right, up, down to select the furthest point
8) Hit Set, then the Q button to change the Focus End Point to 0
9) Hit Set again and use the L,R,U,D to select the closest point and hit the Set button
10) Go to focus stacking and select copy rack focus range (this will automatically adjust the # of pics the camera takes. Setting the focus steps/picture to a lower # will result in more pictures being taken)
11) Go to Run Focus Stack and hit the Set button.


One more question.... what's a good aperture to use when doing focus stacking?

Can't help with ML settings but for focus stacking software for free try Combinezp.
For trial software use either zerene stacker or helicon focus.
Think photoshop started with focus stacking in CS4.
Brian v.

Thanks Brian!

I'll give CombineZP a try.

I am having trouble with the stacking routine also, but exposure bracketing is wonderful! Now I can get up to 9 exposures instead of 3 with the standard Canon firmware.
If I get consistent stacking results I will gladly let you know.
Thanks for your insight on stacking so far. Good Luck!

M424canon wrote in post #17438914
I am having trouble with the stacking routine also, but exposure bracketing is wonderful! Now I can get up to 9 exposures instead of 3 with the standard Canon firmware.
If I get consistent stacking results I will gladly let you know.
Thanks for your insight on stacking so far. Good Luck!

I updated the instructions above in post # 2. I have it figured out now!

Here are my first two attempts. I'm using the trial version of Zerene Stacker. There is some halo around the edge of the images. I understand this can be corrected in Zerene but I didn't bother since I was just trying to figure out how to get the focus stacking to work.

The first is a total of 14 pictures and the second image is 10 pictures. Neither are anything special but I'm just happy I figured ML out. Both have crappy lighting (a combination of window light and a handheld shop light) and only resized in CS3. I think I'll be bringing home some flowers this week!

Thanks for the information!

Glad you got Magic Lantern sorted and thanks for the info.
Brian v.

I also have the 60D firmware 1.1.1 How do you guys like ML. I'm willing to try it if it won't screw up my camera

Have been running it since February with no issues. The camera runs normal but if you want to go into ML you hit the delete button twice to enter the ML menu. I use it for focus stacking and increasing the # of bracketed shots the camera will take. It does lots of other things too but that's all I've tried.

Here's a recent focus stacked image I did.

https://shanecostantin​ophotography.wordpress​.com …a-flower-from-the-meadow/

I uninstalled ML several months ago because I had installed the Helicon Remote app on my phone and it didn't seem to work with ML on my camera. Helicon Remote worked great at first but has become incredibly buggy to the point where 90% of the time it just freezes after setting the front and back points. I updated the app each time it was revised but it made no difference. So after it freezing on me 5 consecutive times tonight I've decided to uninstall it and go back to ML for focus stacking. I'm just waiting for the battery to charge then I'll be back in the ML club again.

One question shane_c, does ML do well with the very small focus changes? I've seen it used for things like landscapes and such where focus moves quite a bit but always wondered how well it would do for macro where sometimes the change is almost breathing on the focus ring. Your samples look pretty good though.

You can set it to 1 focus step per pic. Seems pretty good. The images above aren't that good but I'll try to get some better shots in the next few days. The only thing I'm trying to figure out is how to keep focus peaking on when stacking. It's on when I'm just in live view but when I switch to the focus stacking I seem to lose peaking.

Updated instructions for how to get focus peaking when stacking focus...

1) Turn the camera on
2) Live View
3) Hit delete button for ML - go to Expo tab and turn off exposure simulation.
4) Go to Focus tab
5) Change follow focus to arrows
6) Go to focus end point (hit Set, then delete)
7) Use left, right, up, down to select the furthest point. Once achieved hit delete to go back to focus stack menu.
8)Hit the Q button to change the Focus End Point to 0, hit set to re-enter live view screen, then hit delete to bring up the focus peaking.
9) Use the L,R,U,D to select the closest point and hit the delete button.
10) Go to focus stacking and select copy rack focus range (this will automatically adjust the # of pics the camera takes. Setting the focus steps/picture to a lower # will result in more pictures being taken)
11) Go to Run Focus Stack and hit the Set button.