Early Autumn garden stacks

GardenersHelper

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Nick
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These images were created by using Helicon Focus to extract and stack JPEG images from 4K post focus videos captured hand-held two days ago in our garden on a somewhat breezy day with a small sensor Panasonic FZ330 bridge camera and Canon 500D close-up lens. TIFF files created by Helicon Focus were post processed in Lightroom. There are 1400 pixel high versions of these images in this album at Flickr.

#1 12 stacked frames

1377 01 2018_09_04 P1530783 PF12f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-160 B6,2 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2 17 stacked frames

1377 02 2018_09_04 P1530785 PF17f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-320 B6,2 LR7 1400h LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3 9 stacked frames

1377 03 2018_09_04 P1530791 PF9f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-320 B6,2 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4 21 stacked frames

1377 06 2018_09_04 P1530806 PF21f FZ3304+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-160 B6,2 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5 18 stacked frames

1377 09 2018_09_04 P1530828 PF18f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-1300 B6,2 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#6 33 stacked frames

1377 10 2018_09_04 P1530829 PF33f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-800 B6,2 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#7 12 stacked frames

1377 12 2018_09_04 P1530835 PF12f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-500 B6,2 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#8 25 stacked frames

1377 13 2018_09_04 P1530840 PF27f FZ330+500D ISO100 F2.8 1-1300 B6,6 LR7 1400h
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
Really good makes me wonder if I should get a Panasonic to get the post focus technology. Although saying that it is your eye that is partly responsible.
 
Really nice set. You have a good eye.

Quite extraordinary! I'd never heard of Helicon Focus. Now I must learn about it... Thanks!

Really good makes me wonder if I should get a Panasonic to get the post focus technology. Although saying that it is your eye that is partly responsible.

Very good set and really great to see what can be done from 4k video

Thank you all for your encouraging comments.

Given the comments about Helicon, Panasonic and 4K video, here are a few thoughts. These personal opinions (YMMV) relate to using stacking for botanical subjects, out of doors, which is where my experience is. I think that most people here who do stacking use it for invertebrates, out of doors or indoors with studio setups, sometimes mechanised, and some of the issues are different from those to do with botanical subject matter out of doors.

Outdoors botanical stacking seems to me to be a rather hit and miss affair. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Worst case, it almost works and you spend an inordinate amount of time trying to adjust a stack so it does work, which in the end may or may not succeed. I have had an on/off relationship with stacking over the past couple of years, much more off than on. This is because of the frustrations I encountered with it. I am in my third or so "on" phase at the moment, and am having more success. I think that is because I've come to understand a bit more about what works and what doesn't.

There are several ways of getting the images needed to do a stack. Panasonic post-focus is, I'm guessing, probably the least popular of them. A lot of people use raw for their stack images; with post focus you can't use raw, and indeed you only get to use JPEGs extracted from a video. This is not quite as bad as it sounds, as you can specify ISO, aperture and shutter speed in the normal way, as long as the shutter speed is at least 1/30 second. But, you don't have the extra latitude that raw gives you, and you don't have the full resolution available from the camera's sensor.

Some people have a careful, meticulous. manual approach to capturing images for stacking, using a tripod and a remote release, and with the focus fixed carefully advancing the camera from shot to shot, perhaps on a focus rail. Alternatively, some cameras do focus bracketing which lets you capture a set of images (raw or JPEG) to use for stacking. You typically get to specify how many shots to capture, and how big the distance should be from one shot to the next (on a scale of 1 to 10 or similar, and using that obviously needs a few experiments). You may also get to specify whether the shots are captured from where the camera is focused outwards, or from where the camera is focused alternately, and progressively, nearer and further away than the initial point of focus. Some cameras let you do an in-camera stack rather than using stacking software on your PC.

In contrast, post-focus lets you use a "quick and dirty" approach to capturing images for stacking. There is nothing to work out beforehand. You simply point and shoot. And it is fast. The video runs at 30 frames per second so in a couple of seconds it can capture 60 images focused at different distances. This speed of capture makes it particularly suitable for hand-held working, and also for working in breezy conditions, which I often am, waiting for brief lulls in the breeze when the subject stops moving around so much (you don't have to have a completely stationary subject, although the more it moves the more difficult the stacking becomes, especially if parts of the subject are moving relative to one another).

The images in the top post were captured using a small sensor Panasonic FZ330 bridge camera and a close-up lens. This was somewhat of a technical exercise for a discussion elsewhere. I usually use a Panasonic G80 micro four thirds camera with an Olympus 60mm macro lens for botanical stacking. Unlike the FZ330, the G80 does focus bracketing and in-camera stacking as well as post focus. I have only briefly tried in-camera stacking and had very mixed results, and some very poor, indeed totally unusable results. But the basic problem I have with in camera stacking is that it lacks the flexibility that comes from being in control of the stacking. I have used focus bracketing a bit, generally with a tripod, and it produced some excellent results, but I have discovered that I much prefer the flexibility and speed of working hand-held with post-focus. And for my purposes the post-focus results are good enough.

I don't know about other brands, but the more recent Olympus micro four thirds cameras (all of them? I don't know) do focus bracketing and in-camera stacking, but only (I think, not sure about this) with Olympus lenses. The recent Panasonic micro four thirds cameras add post-focus to the mix, and will work with non-Panasonic autofocus lenses (all of them? I don't know). The Panasonic G9 lets you use 6K video for post-focus.

As to software to do the stacking, some people use Photoshop or similar photo editors. The descriptions of it I have read make it seem rather involved compared to using specialised stacking software, of which there are two main paid for contenders, Helicon Focus and Zerene Stacker. Both have their proponents. I have the impression that more people use Zerene than Helicon. Both have 30-day full function trials so trying them both is definitely a good idea if one is considering buying stacking software. There is free stacking software, CombineZM (CombineZP is more recent perhaps?). This is less flexible than Zerene and Helicon. There are some other photo applications that will do stacking. I think Affinity Photo is one such.

Afterthought: One other thing. Having done the stacking in Helicon Focus, the images were fairly carefully processed in Lightroom.
 
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Amazingly good Nick given the method - once I have upgraded my body (Fuji X-T20 to Fuji X-T3 - next year probably) there is a built in stacking function which I am keen to try :)

Thanks Mike.

My G80 has a built in stacking function. I got very mixed results with it. But then again, I get mixed results with hand-crafting the stacks so I suppose we shouldn't criticise the cameras for this.
 
Thanks Mike.

My G80 has a built in stacking function. I got very mixed results with it. But then again, I get mixed results with hand-crafting the stacks so I suppose we shouldn't criticise the cameras for this.
We should if you pay extra for it!!!
 
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