CombineZP: stack your images for free. 13 Comments / Ants. If anyone uses a mac and needs a focus stacker i recommend checking it out. The main problem I. Mac Focus Stacking Software For Beginners. ImageJ ImageJ is a free java application that can be freely downloaded, and also does focus stacking with. Download Helicon Focus 6.5.1 from our software library for free. The program's installer files are commonly found as HeliconFocus.exe, HeliconFocus1.exe, HeliconFocus2.exe, HeliconFocusCr.exe or HeliconFocus_.exe etc. The size of the latest installation package available for download is 310.4 MB. The software relates to Photo & Graphics Tools. Photoshop or another focus stacking software. How to Shoot for Focus Stacking. Focus stacking is similar in principle to HDR. However, with focus stacking, images are captured with different focus points, and later combined in Photoshop, to create an image with more DOF than would be possible with a single exposure.
Active1 year, 8 months ago
The main way that extreme macro differentiates itself in software terms is the use of, in which various stacking vendors compete for the limited number of stackers. Most notable of these are Zerene Stacker and Helicon Focus. On DSLRs and full frame cameras, reversed enlarger lenses and microscope objectives make for a good value for money lens to stack with. Focus Stacking Software. There are two main commercial vendors of focus stacking software: Zerene Stacker and Helicon Focus.
What software is available and widely used for macro focus stacking? In other areas photoshop, lightroom, aperture, etc are kind of industry standard options. Is there such a thing for focus stacking?
rfusca
rfuscarfusca
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Best Focus Stacking Software5 Answers
I believe you are looking for something like Helicon Focus.
I've heard from reliable sources that stacking can also be done manually in Photoshop CS 5, but I haven't done it myself.
mattdm
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qa_testqa_test
You can also use the hugin toolset which includes the align_image_stack and enfuse tools. You may also wish to add the EnfuseGUI to cut down on the typing.
There is a very nice walk through here.
Steve BarnesSteve Barnes
In Photoshop CS5 or later, load your images into layers.
There is an open source program CombineZP
feetwet
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MikeW♦MikeW
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One solution has been omitted for this question - most people who stack actually tend to use Zerene Stacker - it's the only package that has various user generated plugins for substack slabbing. If you look through Flickr there are twice as many Zerene pics as there are for Helicon. Helicon is faster though and suits lab workers better, ZS better for photographers. Both this and Helicon are the class leaders.
MikeW♦
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user24722user24722
I've worked with both Helicon focus and the two-part combination of a Stackshot rail paired with ZereneStacker.
I prefer Stackshot and Zerene.Once all the various parts are wired together properly (takes some effort to figure it all out) I fire up:
1) entangle tethered directly to the camera and2) Zerene Stacker, which has a GUI interface for controlling the rail--all of which I have mounted on a tripod in front of a light tent.
Lighting is a big issue too. I won't attempt that discussion now. Use trial and error to determine the ideal manual exposure. My Nikor 105mm macro lens seems to like F8 best.
Determine closest focus point and the furthest. Click the mouse appropriately to tell Zerene where those points are. Fire away. Zerene controls it all from that point on.
Now quit everything. You now have N raw exposures in the stack all exposed and lighted identically. Edit any one raw image from the middle of the stack with rawtherapee. Save a *.pp3 file in the current directory, perhaps named as now.pp3
From a terminal window type:
mkdir tiffs [enter]
rawtherapee-cli -o tiffs -p now.pp3 -t -Y -d -c . [enter]
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That performs the same rawtherapee editing steps, as defined in the pp3 file, to each raw image in the stack, converting to *.tif on the fly. That command also deposits each *.tif file in the tiffs directory made above.
Now run Zerene again on all tifs (ZereneStacker.sh *tif). Align and stack all tifs as per various GUI options.
Now save as a single stacked *.tif, named what ever you like. It's convenient to name stacked tifs as stk-filename.tif
Ni license activator 1.1. Now run gimp on stk-filename.tif to make the final image.
Helican was full of bugs two years ago when I used it. Perhaps they have it ironed out by now. Helicon electronically twists the focus ring on the lens for each new exposure. Stackshot and Zerene leave the lens focus ring as is and physically moves the camera instead.
Zerene/Stackshot works best for me. Helicon may be better suited to larger subjects while Stackshot/Zerene is better suited to the smallest subjects.
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https://www.photomacrography.net/ is a great source of information. With access to experts.
pittendrighpittendrigh
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Active1 year, 5 months ago
I am interested by focus stacking software and I heard about Helicon Focus.
This one is very good and compatible with OS X but it is with a license cost, after the trial period there will be a text on the calculated pictures.
In the free domain there is Combine ZP but it runs only on Windows platform.
I am looking for such a software without license cost and running on Mac OS X.
unor
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рüффпрüффп
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3 Answers
Hugin is a free panorama stitcher that also includes Focus Stacking - it runs on Linux, Windows & Mac so no problems there. Facilities include alignment correction, so that if you are not using a tripod you can still stack without problems.
To quote the manual:
Although Hugin is essentially a panorama stitcher, like other GUI front-ends[*] it has a range of advanced features:
Among the Hugin workflow options, it is possible to correct exposure[], Vignetting and White balance[] between photos; generate HDR, exposure fused[] or focus stacked[] output from bracketed photos; or use 16bit and HDR input data natively.
Photos can be digital or scanned, and taken with any kind of camera. A full range of lenses are supported, from simple cameraphones to obscure fisheye[*] lenses. Hugin supports various output projections including a range of spherical, cartographic, and camera projections.
Hugin supports panoramas taken with multiple rows of photos, with or without bracketing. Bracketed photos can be handheld, taken using a DSLR bracketing function, or as consecutive panoramas shot at different EV exposure levels. Hugin can produce successful panoramas shot with cameras that always shoot using auto-exposure and auto-whitebalance.
hugin also supports the use of masks which means that you can exclude parts of images you don't want to appear in your panoramas, or include parts of image you specifically want to appear in your panoramas.
Steve BarnesSteve Barnes
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Enfuse is an open-source command line utility that can accomplish focus stacking, although it more typically is used for exposure fusing. The underlying algorithm selects pixels out of a stack of images based upon specific selection criteria. The main three criteria are exposure, contrast, and saturation. If you weight exposure as the main selection criteria, you get exposure fusing. If you select contrast as the main selection criteria, you get focus stacking. Say hi to your mom numbers and mumbles zip codes. You will also want to select hard masking.
However, enfuse only does the fusing of the stack. It does not do alignment of the stack. For that, you will need a separate tool, such as align_image_stack, which is included in the panotools open source project.
In addition, there are many GUI front-ends that can invoke both command line tools together for you to perform either focus stacking or exposure fusion. Two of the most popular would be the panorama stitching package, Hugin, and the Lightroom plugin, Lr/Enfuse. You could also use Hugin simply to align the images and then run enfuse via the EnfuseGUI frontend.
See also: http://blog.patdavid.net/2013/01/focus-stacking-macro-photos-enfuse.html
inkistainkista
Enfuse works quite well, when your shots are already properly aligned (eg. taken with automation with camera on a stable tripod). IIRC, this is also the actual backend that's used by Hugin. It is invoked from the command line (terminal).
byteborgbyteborg
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