Focus Stacking for May Flowers

6.03.2018

Focus Stacking for May Flowers

I did a lot of focus bracketing and stacking last month. Both my Olympus and Panasonic cameras have a focus bracketing feature that allows me to focus on the closest part of the flower with the first shot, followed automatically by sequentially further focused shots thereafter. The beauty of this feature is that this is done with one press of the shutter and at a speed of approximately 10 frames per second. I then combine the images on my computer using Zyrene Stacker.

Iris

Columbine (wild)

Both cameras were set for 25 images (the maximum is 99) and both cameras allow you to dial in the distance you wish there to be between shots. Some trial and error is required, because the distance options are 1 through 10, with 1 representing the shortest distance, but none of these numbers are defined. As far as I can tell the distance varies depending on the subject distance. In all cases I used a distance of "2".

Fern (wild)

Only in the Pansy image at the very bottom here did I need 25 images to cover the flower from front to back. In all other cases it was 4-18 images and on average I needed 11. Twenty-five images was generally overkill, and the unnecessary ones were just deleted on my computer. Perhaps the Pansy needed 25 shots because I shot at F2.8 (the others were at F4) and I was very very close.

Trillium (wild)

Fern (wild)

All but the last two were hand-held. I was able to hold the camera (sort of) steady because I was either sitting cross-legged or was sitting on a folding stool I bring with me. Either way, my elbows were firmly propped on my knees. But the "elbows on knees" technique is not as stable as a tripod.

Wood Poppy (wild)

Trillium (wild)

The final two images were taken on a tripod. I think I will use the tripod more, going forward. I find the tripod reduces the apparent movement of the flower between shots. It is not a matter of images being sharper, as the shutter speed is sufficiently high to get 25 sharp shots even hand held. But the more movement there is of the flower (and/or camera!) during the 25 shots, the more difficult is it for the software (Zyrene Stacker) to align the images. Hand held images show more movement (change of position?) of the flower within the frame, from shot to shot (though the images are sharp), because the camera moves between frames, while images taken on the tripod show less movement of the flower from shot to shot. Obviously I am unable to hand hold without moving during the three seconds or so it takes to take 25 images. The side to side movement is obvious when viewing the location of the flower in the images, and I am guessing that there is some (but less observable) movement back and forth.