Focus stacking

I have always found Close Up Photography , very fascinating but never been in inspired enough go an buy a Macro lenses. because of costs and weighing up how much use I might actually get out of it,

Focus Stacking I found to be a good introduction to close up and detail photography before outlaying a great deal of money first.

In this exercise many subjects were photographed but none made the grade as interesting subjects go until photographed the Watch, it been done so many times before but still am amazed at the amount of detail bought out by this procedure

When to Use Focus Stacking

When a photographer requires more depth of field, they typically just increase the f-stop setting of their camera lens. While this is a simple and effective technique, choosing a higher f-stop also has its disadvantages. It increases the necessary exposure time, and in extreme cases, it can also reduce image sharpness due to diffraction. Furthermore, one might desire a greater depth of field than a particular lens's maximum f-stop is able to provide. Specific example scenarios may include:

 In This case the watch was laid upon the background , Being a brown fabric Lounge, matching the gold in the watch madde nice composition,

A Tripod was set up to take image of the watch at different focus points one being very slightly different from the next,

Focus stacking works in three general stages:

1. Capture

 

2. Align

 

3. Merge

1. . If the subject is composed of only a few distinct layers (such as the sphere example above), then this can be performed manually using layer masks. Otherwise Adobe Photoshop CS4+ or specialized software packages such as Helicon Focus, TuFuse or CombineZM are required.
2. 1. Several photos are taken by gradually incrementing the focusing distance across the subject. The number of separate photos ranges from a couple (for two distinct layers of subject matter) to as many as dozens (for expansive scenes). In general, moving subject matter should be avoided.
   2. These photos are then aligned so that their content is overlaid pixel by pixel. This step is necessary even when using a tripod, since changing the focusing distance always causes misalignment (more on this later).
   3. A composite image is then created based on the sharpest regions from each of these separate photos. If the subject is composed of only a few distinct layers (such as the sphere example above), then this can be performed manually using layer masks. 
    I Began by taking Several photos gradually incrementing the focusing distance across the subject. The number of separate photos ranged from a couple (for two distinct layers of subject matter) to as many as dozens (for expansive scenes).  as I has learned In general, moving subject matter should be avoided.
   2.These photos were then aligned so that their content is overlaid pixel by pixel. This step is necessary even when using a tripod, since changing the focusing distance caused misalignment
   3.A composite image is then created based on the sharpest regions from each of these separate photos
3. The finished result

 

 

Some of the different focal plane that mad up the shot