Better depth of field with software stacking of images

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PlasticHero

Senior Airman
446
915
Jul 31, 2019
Pennsylvania, USA
I have struggled with depth of field and happened on a youtube vid about photographing gaming minis. My mind went straight to thinking "models are a kind of gaming mini". The author used mulitple images with slightly different focus points and photo stacking software. I checked my version of Corel Photoshop but didn't have that option. Some web searching lead me to PICOLAY - Home . This is the result of my first attempt. I used 4 images and I had the final image in about 20 minutes. Now that I know more about how to use it, that time will reduce. This does require a tripod. I will experiment further with a macro lens, getting closer and more images. I am pretty impressed with my first attempt and will post further tests, thoughts and help to anyone who wants to try this as well.
stack1.jpg

Image1 is focused on the tail and it moves forward to 4. I had my camera set to manual focus and moved the focus ring only a degree or so to move the focus plane forward.
stack2.jpg

This is the result. I left the image at the full frame and in the future I will trim and resize the result. You can see that the tail and nose are now in focus. I can't really see any artifacts in the image and will definitely be posting better pictures in the future. I'm really going to have to improve my photo area as well.
 
What are you using instead? This is different than maximizing depth of field; this is stitching together the highest contrast areas into a single photo. I have sooo many ideas that I want to try with this.
 
Another tool that will help is a macro focusing rail. Mount your camera to the rail, then the rail to a tripod and turn the handle on the screw drive to move the camera in tiny increments. Basically keep the focus at one setting on the camera and move the camera closer or further. leofoto_mp_150s_macro_rail_1615799129_1627927.jpg1615798852_IMG_1502753.jpg
 

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