Spartan Stack

[janis]

Well, it wasn't all that spartan; I had a few halos to clean up, but apart from the fact that I could have done a better job of levelling the camera, I thought this wasn't bad for my third attempt. My nephews supplied the subject, a miniature that is maybe 3" tall, and we had fun watching the Helicon tools do their thing. Let me know what you think and if you see any flaws.

[jeeperman]

Looks pretty good to me, Janis.

[janis]

Thanks, Paul.

[rasbury]

Ditto to Paul's reply.
How many images did it take to do this?

[janis]

Thanks, Ra. It was a 10-image stack at 5.6. The depth from the front of the pedestal to the tip of the sword was not all that great. I used Method B, with Radius 3 and Smoothing 2. I wish the HF Help were better, as I do not understand how to choose among the other adjustable parameters, nor how to use the touch-up brushes. I may just have to proceed by trial and error, unless you have some tips or tutorials to share. The original stacked image had a halo around the sword, the headdress and the top of the shield; I don't understand why. I had similar haloing around the cactus bloom I tried to shoot earlier in the day.

Love the Remote Tool; I used it to adjust the focus, though as you probably know, it can also drive a motorized rail. It did all the calculations for me, presumably based on my lens. You can literally set it all up and walk away. A real time- and back-saver. A bit of a drain on the camera battery, so if you were to take it into the field, you might want more than one spare. I had my laptop plugged in the whole time, so I couldn't judge the drain on the laptop battery.

Edit: I just noticed that I missed a bit of haloing in the space between the two wings of the headdress (lower left of the oval). If anyone can tell me what causes that effect and how to avoid it, I would be grateful.

[rasbury]

Remote sounds like it would be a back saver Janis.I do not have the remote part of Helicon,so all of my stacking is done by adjusting the focus point by hand.

As for Helicon Focus,I leave everything at the default setting.If I'm not mistaken,I'm using the Lite version and do not know if it has the touch up brushes.

I have watched the videos that Chris had posted on another thread on focus stacking and it is quite informative, about all that jazz,although a tad on the tedious side if you ask me.That gentleman uses Zerene to do his stacking.I would think that it can't be to different from Helicon,so they might help to explain the process.Your right about the help in Helicon,It ain't much help.

Good luck on your trials and tribulations with focus stacking.

[janis]

Thanks, Ra. I had started reading some of that guy's materials, but he is rather long-winded. I will take a look at the videos.

[Stevewebb]

Looks goo d to me, and looks like you are really getting into this stacking lark.

[janis]

Would that I could do a bit every day, but life has a way of intervening...