Correcting for Photoshop's Focus Stacking Issues

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myxomop
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Location: New Orleans
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Correcting for Photoshop's Focus Stacking Issues

Post by myxomop »

I have a backlog of thousands of images going back to early 2012 which I've only recently begun to develop, as so many of them were taken with the intent of focus stacking in post. Now that I have a machine burly enough to handle the task, I'm running into some familiar issues:

The two main issues I run into are:

1. Photoshop's selections are extremely un-smooth. When I option-click the layer mask, the allowed and disallowed areas of each layer are unusually blocky. Aside from figuring out how to smooth those selections, I'm primarily concerned with why they aren't smooth by default.

2. Some image sets, even seemingly uncomplicated ones, just fail. The work entailed in manually touching up each layer is daunting, not to mention completely outside of my Photoshop skillset. Homogenizing lighting and framing throughout the stack have helped reduce that failure rate, but not eliminate it. One the one hand, this seems like an inevitability, that some things won't work seamlessly with just a few clicks. On the other hand, some of these failed attempts seem so easy for me to notice that I have a hard time understanding how Photoshop's algorithm couldn't combine and blend the stack properly.

While I'm aware of the existence of CombineZP and Helicon Focus (and ocassionally prefer their interface and/or results), I mostly use and have all but settled on Photoshop, as it appears to be the only one of the three with a Lightroom plugin for direct export (HF has one for its Windows version, but it's been perpetually "in development" for Mac). Outputting to Photoshop also lets me keep my ColorChecker camera profile applied to each layer, which is crucial. The resulting TIFF has then has that camera calibration info applied as an embedded profile.

I'm more than willing to give the forum-based troubleshooting thing a go, but in a perfect world, I could meet with one of you living in or around the San Francisco Bay Area. If that's an option, please PM me at your earliest convenience.

Many Thanks in Advance,

-Danny
MACRO:
Olympus OM-D E-M1X, Olympus M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 ED, OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO, Gitzo GT2540EX Tripod, Acratech GV2 Ballhead, 2x Ulanzi VL49 Rechargeable Mini LED Lights, Ulanzi LED Full-Color Photography Light Wand

MICRO:
Trinocular Olympus BHS, SPlan 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x (1.25 N.A.), SPlanApo 100x Oil (1.4 N.A.), BH2-AAC Aplanatic-Achromatic 1.4 N.A Brightfield Condenser, WHK 10x 20 L Eyepieces, NFK 2.5× LD 125 Photo Eyepiece, Diagnostic Instruments PA1-10A SLR Camera Adapter, Canon 6D

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

If you're having trouble with Photoshop's focus stacking, then unfortunately the only solution is to stop using Photoshop for that task. The problems that you're describing are completely typical, and I've never heard anybody say that they figured out how to solve them using Photoshop's very limited range of controls. The solution lies in using a dedicated stacking package.

Given the other info that you've provided, I suggest taking a look at Zerene Stacker. It has a Lightroom plugin that is fully supported even on Mac, and if anything goes wrong with that, I'm the fellow that will be fixing it. Any color profile that is embedded in the TIFF temporaries by Lightroom will be propagated to the TIFF output by Zerene Stacker, so it will appear in the output as an embeddded profile. There's a 30-day free trial, and extensive documentation can be found in the Tutorials section at http://zerenesystems.com/stacker.

--Rik

Chris S.
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Post by Chris S. »

Danny,

Rik is understandably restrained in his advice that you try Zerene Stacker--"understandably," because Rik created and supports Zerene Stacker. Others of us with no direct interest have the liberty to concur with higher enthusiasm than might seem fitting if coming from Rik. I use Zerene Stacker, and urge you to run, not walk, to try it yourself.

If you compare Zerene Stacker, CombineZP, Helicon Focus, and the stacking features in Photoshop, you’ll likely find Photoshop to be worst on the list, for any but the simplest stacking situations. And you'll probably find Zerene Stacker to be best on the list for most stacking situations, especially challenging ones. And since you mentioned retouching: No other stacking software comes close to Zerene Stacker, so far as I’m aware, in retouching capability. In terms of support, Rik sets the model; the price of a Zerene Stacker license is worth it for the support alone.

Also note that if you browse the image galleries here at PMN, a strong preponderance of serious focus stackers use Zerene Stacker. Ditto for the Nikon Small World competition and other world-class collections of focus-stacked work. This is with good reason.

Once you've become well-acquainted with Zerene Stacker, you might also want to try "slabbing" (or "sub-stacking") for some of your image stacks, particularly those that require substantial retouching. Several of us have written cost-free, or nearly-cost-free, slabbing utilities that work with Zerene Stacker's robust batch capability, and you can find them with a quick search. Mine (free) is called "SlabberJockey." Bill Eldridge's "Bugslabber" is also very good software--probably better than mine--though you may have to send him a PM to get a download link. He does ask for a small donation to what seems like a worthy cause, if you find his software useful. Elf's "ZereneVS" is robust, but requires comfort with a command-line interface, rather than a graphical user interface.

Cheers,

--Chris

myxomop
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2012 11:22 am
Location: New Orleans
Contact:

Post by myxomop »

Gentlemen,

Consider me converted. Will grab myself a copy and post back here soon. Always nice to get uncomplicated solutions to what seem like complicated problems. I already feel lighter.

Many Thanks,

-Danny
MACRO:
Olympus OM-D E-M1X, Olympus M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 ED, OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm F3.5 Macro IS PRO, Gitzo GT2540EX Tripod, Acratech GV2 Ballhead, 2x Ulanzi VL49 Rechargeable Mini LED Lights, Ulanzi LED Full-Color Photography Light Wand

MICRO:
Trinocular Olympus BHS, SPlan 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x (1.25 N.A.), SPlanApo 100x Oil (1.4 N.A.), BH2-AAC Aplanatic-Achromatic 1.4 N.A Brightfield Condenser, WHK 10x 20 L Eyepieces, NFK 2.5× LD 125 Photo Eyepiece, Diagnostic Instruments PA1-10A SLR Camera Adapter, Canon 6D

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