 Joined: 27/08/2005(UTC) Posts: 11,071 Location: Murrumba Downs QLD
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If you are not satisfied with the quality of say , Loco photos there is some software out there that Focus Stacks the picture. Ed MultiFocus. You take a number of photos of the loco with a different focus point say 12 or more . The software picks the focus points and combines them into one glorious photo. One piece of Software (Free) but does take some mastering is FREE Multifocus another simpler to use but Costs about $110 with free upgrades is Helcon multi focus examples. the last is the finished article. using the helicon software. (Not mine got this from a friend.) Use tripod, shutter release, manual focus and just change the focus point, upload the photos, run the software and in a few seconds a composite photo all in focus. Great for those of us who are not photographic geniuii. nevw attached the following image(s): |
NOt wearing the Pink Pinny, which is hard to see and now I have a white Pinny which also is hard to see against MY pure white Skin Still have 2 new shiny tin Hips that is badly in Need of Repair matching rusting tin shoulders
and a hose pipe on the aorta
Junior member of the Banana Club, a reformist and an old Goat with a Bad memory, loafing around |
 6 users liked this useful post by nevw
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 Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,770 Location: New Zealand
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Thanks Nev, I might take a look at it. One thing I've found with the Canon 60D is that it isn't very easy to get full depth of field on something like a loco, even when using something like an F16 aperture. There always seems to be some part not quite in focus.
The Canon Powershot SX150 IS compact camera that I also have seems to be better in that regard.
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Joined: 31/12/2010(UTC) Posts: 3,994 Location: Paremata, Wellington
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Cookee Wellington  |
1 user liked this useful post by cookee_nz
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Joined: 15/03/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,757 Location: Auckland NZ
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Nev All, Thanks for bringing this topic up again Nev, my pics could certainly use some enhancing I reckon, maybe like Dave said, that these flash new cameras, do get a bit picky, if you'll pardon the pun when taking close ups of Loks. My Nikon D5100 does have several metering modes which I should try, but will have a look at that free software Nev, thanks for the post  Also Cookie thanks for the link to last years one, which is really good too, I wonder what the good version of Photoshop costs ?? In that thread it is interesting what Ross did with his chooks and house pic, I missed Ross's postings in that thread as I didn't spend too much time on the forum after returning from holidays, in Sydney early Oct last year, due to work, which hopefully is all about to get busy again for me in the next week or two |
Glen
Auckland NZ
" Every Marklin layout needs a V200, a Railbus and a Banana car", not to mention a few Black and red Steamers, oh and the odd Elok !
CS1 Reloaded, Touch Cab, C Track Modules, K track layout all under construction. Currently Insider |
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 Joined: 09/12/2011(UTC) Posts: 2,533 Location: VA
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Originally Posted by: Bigdaddynz 
The Canon Powershot SX150 IS compact camera that I also have seems to be better in that regard.
Hi all, The smaller the image sensor, the greater the depth of field (area in focus) will generally be. Smaller point and shoot cameras actually do this better than bigger DSLRs since their sensors are a lot smaller. However, outside of model photography it can be very difficult to create a photo with a nice smooth out of focus background using a point and shoot. Smaller point and shoots will also generally focus a lot closer than a DSLR with a standard lens (often down to a few cm). Larger sensors do offer less noise, better high ISO performance, better quality (in terms of better enlargements). Much like model railroading, photography is also full of compromises. Another thing to look into may be Adobe Lightroom. It's Adobe's product for digital photo workflow (editing, etc). Take a look at the list of features for Lightroom, it may be enough that you can avoid the extra cost of Photoshop. Photoshop is much more powerful, but you're also paying for features above and beyond processing photos for better presentation. -Brandon |
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2 users liked this useful post by BrandonVA
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 Joined: 16/08/2006(UTC) Posts: 5,382 Location: Akershus, Norway
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BrandonVA wrote:
The smaller the image sensor, the greater the depth of field (area in focus) will generally be.
Absolutely right. I can easily compare two cameras; a Canon Powershot G6 compact camera with sensor size 1/1,8" (7,18x5,32 mm) and a Canon EOS 5D mark 2 DSLR with a full format sensor (36x24 mm). The depth of field with the G6 is much better than on the full frame 5D at the same aperture opening, e.g. f/8 and the same relative focal length. I will try to make some comparing shots one of these days. For details see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Im...sor_size_and_diffraction |
Best regards Svein, Norway
grumpy old sod
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Joined: 13/12/2011(UTC) Posts: 233 Location: Masterton, New Zealand
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Originally Posted by: Bigdaddynz Thanks Nev, I might take a look at it. One thing I've found with the Canon 60D is that it isn't very easy to get full depth of field on something like a loco, even when using something like an F16 aperture. There always seems to be some part not quite in focus. I read quite an interesting tip on maximizing depth of field in a landscape photography magazine that could work for models, I haven't tried it myself however. You get a greater depth of field with a wide angle lens, so try to physically get closer to your models rather than increasing your focal length. It will also have the side affect of making them look bigger and more impressive. The tip said that you get about one-third of the depth of field (DOF) in front of your focus point and the remaining two thirds behind the focus point. Therefore to Maximise your DOF focus one third of the way into the scene. For our Canon 550D you can connect the camera to your computer (with the software on the disc it came with) and control everything via a USB cable from your PC or Mac. It also has a DOF preview button. The 60D should also support this enabling you to see the results of the focus points and aperture on the computer immediately without actually taking pictures. Even the academic version of Photoshop CS5 is the best part of NZ$500. I'll stick to Photoshop 5.5 (1999 edition) on my 400MHz PowerMac G4 for now!
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1 user liked this useful post by DigitalNZ
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Joined: 13/06/2018(UTC) Posts: 1 Location: California
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1 user liked this useful post by Tyler_23
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 Joined: 09/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 2,969 Location: Somewhere, But Nowhere Near Manchester, England
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Nev I do want to detract from your post, focus stacking is a great tool especially to overcome shallow Depth of Field (DoF) from macro and close up photos, but judging by the position of the loco I would be surprised if you could not get a better image with the loco as shown in focus, as the plane of the loco is angled to the plane of the sensor, as say opposed to being at 90 degrees. I downloaded one of the images and would note that the image has been shot with an Aperture of F8, I see you are using a Nikon 18-105mm lens which I am not totally familiar with but will have a minimum aperture of F22 possibly even lower. I would suggest using your tripod, take some images with the aperture set at F22 instead of F8 and this will greatly increase the depth of field available in your images, and should deliver an image with the whole loco in focus. As has already been said by 'DigitalNZ' DoF operates to the one third / two thirds rule, so ideally your focus point should be a third of the way along from the front for optimum DoF, but as you are using digital not film you can experiment a little. I am not sure how many selectable focus points the D7000 has but failing that you can always manual focus. I would add a cautionary word on autofocus; autofocus works best in good light, when there is clear colour or pattern differences, or different surfaces of textures for it to 'lock-on' to. I have found often when photographing models the focus cannot find a 'lock' and will sometimes because the focus is searching, it is possible to take an image which is off focus. Likewise I have found with my Nikons that when I chose a focus point which the camera fails to lock it will offer an alternative which might be at the part end of the model resulting in the other half being out of focus. I always check focus point and focus lock, before taking the picture. I also always shoot a few spare images to be sure. If using the tripod I personally would reduce your ASA settling down from the 400asa these images were shot at to either 200 or 100asa, and hopefully you will seen a slight improvement in the colours as well. The picture below (is slightly cropped) but I would feel is a similar distance to yours (distance from camera to subject was about 70cms) with a loco at a similar angle, and the whole loco is in focus, this was shot with a (35mm equivalent) 60mm Nikkor set at F22, AutoFocus, Matrix Metering manually overridden, I think on 100asa.  Experiment and enjoy. Thanks for the links to the stacking software BR |
Don't look back, your not heading that way. |
9 users liked this useful post by GlennM
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Joined: 04/08/2018(UTC) Posts: 1,155
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Hi There is another option to focus stacking, if you have an DSLR or Mirrorless This photo is taken with a full frame DSLR at f4.0 and 24mm, single shot without focus stacking.  The picture is taken with a tilt-shift lens, and focus plane is tilted, so the focus plane is along the loco. And just to show, same lens without any tilting at f4.0 
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8 users liked this useful post by bph
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 Joined: 01/05/2016(UTC) Posts: 623 Location: Athens
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Originally Posted by: bph Hi There is another option to focus stacking, if you have an DSLR or Mirrorless This photo is taken with a full frame DSLR at f4.0 and 24mm, single shot without focus stacking. The picture is taken with a tilt-shift lens, and focus plane is tilted, so the focus plane is along the loco. And just to show, same lens without any tilting at f4.0 A tilt and shift lens is the absolute solution for DSRL cameras. The only problem is that one of them will go you back more than 2000+€!!! Of course is a beautiful lens to use to many other situations.... Costas Edited by user 18 December 2018 10:37:31(UTC)
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3 users liked this useful post by ktsolias
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Joined: 04/08/2018(UTC) Posts: 1,155
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Originally Posted by: ktsolias
A tilt and shift lens is the absolute solution for DSRL cameras.
The only problem is that one of them will go you back more than 2000+€!!!
Of course is a beautiful lens to use to many other situations....
Costas
Quite right a tilt shift set you back a bit, and you need to use tripod as well. It’s not an ideal hobby to have together with model trains. The tilting and manual focus can be a bit fiddley, so often I just use a 100m macro hand held with ring flash and a small aperture. The downside with flash and small aperture is slight los of shapes and dust is showing really well Like this: taken at f/32 and 1/60s 
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Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,770 Location: New Zealand
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Originally Posted by: Bigdaddynz Thanks Nev, I might take a look at it. One thing I've found with the Canon 60D is that it isn't very easy to get full depth of field on something like a loco, even when using something like an F16 aperture. There always seems to be some part not quite in focus. Originally Posted by: DigitalNZ For our Canon 550D you can connect the camera to your computer (with the software on the disc it came with) and control everything via a USB cable from your PC or Mac. It also has a DOF preview button. The 60D should also support this enabling you to see the results of the focus points and aperture on the computer immediately without actually taking pictures. Having just purchased two new lenses for my Canon EOS 60D (can't believe I've had it for 6 years now), I thought I'd experiment using them with the EOS Utility software as Daniel suggests.   BR18.3Steam loco and G2000 Diesel loco. Both pictures taken with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4l IS II USM lens at F22 / ISO 800 with approx 70mm focal length  This photo of the BR18.3 was taken with a Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM again at F22 / ISO 800 with 18mm focal length
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1 user liked this useful post by Bigdaddynz
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Joined: 25/07/2001(UTC)
Posts: 11,165
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I myself bought an Olympus OM-D E-10 MkII this "Black Friday" for a great price... It has a feature called "Focus Bracketing", where you can set up a burst of photos for focus stacking. In that mode, you can set up the number of pics and focus delta... Great feature.. Tested with my 1/43 Lamborghini Espada model today...  Normal focused model shot attempt in low light (focus pinned on the nearest corner)...  Focus stacked in Photoshop (9 pic burst)  Now I can't wait until Christmas holidays to set up an area where to take good pics of train models...   This focus bracketing feature is however in the same class as Pokémon Go is for mobile phones regarding battery drain...  But it's a very useful feature of this cheap Olympus OM-D indeed, you can even do it freehand without using a tripod since the burst is less than 0.1 sec - may depend of the # of shots of course... The newer more expensive Olympus OM-D cameras can do this in-camera - ie burst some shots and focus stack them for you too... |
Juhan - "Webmaster", at your service...
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Old Chinese Proverb] |
9 users liked this useful post by Webmaster
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Joined: 15/03/2003(UTC) Posts: 9,588 Location: Australia
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I see that there is lots of dust in Sweden too..  |
Adrian Australia flag by abFlags.com |
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Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,770 Location: New Zealand
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Originally Posted by: Webmaster It has a feature called "Focus Bracketing", where you can set up a burst of photos for focus stacking. The new Canon EOS 90D also has that feature.
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1 user liked this useful post by Bigdaddynz
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Joined: 25/07/2001(UTC)
Posts: 11,165
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Originally Posted by: Bigdaddynz The new Canon EOS 90D also has that feature. Yeah, they still copy features from Oly... The 90D is a brand new camera, the one I bought is almost 4 years old now...  Did a bold try with a "real" subject tonight in very bad lighting, completely hand held with shaky hands... So the small print is not as sharp as it could be if done properly with a tripod...  Sorry Nevw, for posting in your topic... I use Photoshop as the photo editor...  |
Juhan - "Webmaster", at your service...
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes. He who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. [Old Chinese Proverb] |
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