In this photo I used the method of stacking 5 photos, each focused at a different position in the frame.

Edited by user 11 October 2012 23:03:42(UTC)  | Reason: Changed the topic header to include Focus Stacking in main title /Webmaster

Piper that is an impressive photo. I really like it. Your Avatar, is that "Midrand" airport in the background or as I remember it as "Grand Central Airport"?

Thanks Dave.
The PA28 is at Rand Airport, Germiston. If I may, why do you ask?

Pieter

Very nice, Pieter.

I see a Canon L zoom in the background. What kind of camera and lens did you use for the five photos?
I have Photoshop CS5 and have to do a test.

Very interesting technique indeed...

Very nice photo - would you be able to post a single-focus of the same image for comparison - ie if you did not have the ability to retouch it and had to pick a focal point that you felt was as good as you would get? - love to see what an improvement your technique has?

I definitely need "Photoshop for Dummies", all the things I know 'can' be done to improve pictures but what a learning curve involved.

Well done

Cookee
NZ

Wow, what a HUGE difference it makes, someone (not you) could waffle forever about the 'theory' behind this, but to have a comparison like you have shown just shows the remarkable result for what you've done - thanks heaps. I guess it would be most effective for an angle shot like this.

And of course this is not really 'retouching' in any way, no airbrushing etc, just using the varying focus shots to apply to the whole 3D image. Awesome.

Presumably (not that I would understand without knowing the software) there has to be some way for the process to know how to blend the images to the the sharp focus of each one is what is needed. ie, a shot that had the Cab number in focus for example would then have the firebox number out of focus and blurry? - the ability to progressively apply the sharp/focused portion of the image is smart stuff.

Can I take it that the blurry section of the photo (just past the smoke deflectors and down to the valve-gear) is just where you might need to do some fine-tuning, or did you not have that area as a focus shot? - not a criticism, just trying to understand.

Cheers

Steve

Pieter,

Great picture, and clever technique !

Regards,
John

Thanks Hannes & John

That is a really interesting technique Pieter! The one above is just great! I like how the light is just the right level and how the tender sort of "fades" away in the dark. Maybe you could (next time you take pictures) try having the loco headlights on? (if the track is actually wired which I sort of guess it is not?). I think that would make the picture even better.

Oliver

Don't forget to post it here! .

Ross

Very nice picture & Loco

Pieter

Hi Pieter,

Thanks for your comment. I like the loco and picture as well.

As I mentioned I have just completed an article and posted it to my web pages concerning the King Wilhelm II locomotive.

Amazing pictures, I have to give this a try!

Regards Henrik

Hello Everyone,

I decide to explore this photo stacking a little more and decided to photograph the moving chooks made by Viessmann that I have just installed on my layout.

First I took a photo of the chooks in front of the farm house with the focus on the house, the chooks are not in focus.



Next I focused on the chooks and took 6 photos as a continuous burst, this was to capture the chooks in different positions, the house is out of focus.



I then stacked the photo of the house (in focus) and one photo of the chooks (in focus). I removed the out of focus parts from both layers then I selected the two new layer copies and did "Edit --> Auto-Blend Layers" to blend the in focus sections into one photo.



I repeated this process for the remaining 5 in focus chooks.

With 6 photos with the house and chooks in focus I created a new stack with align source images box ticked.

I then output an animated gif file using "File --> Save for Web and Devices" which has six frames with 0.2 seconds for each frame that runs continuous to get the final result.

Excellent, Ross.

Looks like it's a windy day with the grass moving in front of the house...

Could it be that you used AF for the pics of the chicken and a slight focus point change occured between the pics?


Actually this is great example of what can be done with a camera + software if you think "out-of-the-box", simply excellent...

This topic is very inspirational indeed...

Excellent Ross, thanks for the time creating the image and sharing.
Only noticed your posts in the thread after Nev's one had the link from Steve