Page 2 of 2

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 9:03 am
by MichaelG.
janvangastel wrote:A stacking program much used by astrophotographists is autostakkert. It's free and works very well. Maybe worth trying. https://www.autostakkert.com/
Unfortunately, the meaning of the term 'stacking' differs between Astro and Micro work.

In photomicrography, it involves stacking focus [Z-axis] layers to improve the depth-of-field.
In AstroPhotography, it is mostly about alignment in X and Y axes, and noise reduction.

MichaelG.
.

Edit: Here is an good introduction
http://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 11:18 am
by janvangastel
OK, I didn't know that. Thank you.

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:06 pm
by coominya
I can use my new camera itself, though I must admit I haven't composed any as yet, nor been near the microscope in weeks :oops: The Olympus M5 camera I bought has consumed my spare time as I have always been a photography buff but haven't had a decent camera in a couple of decades. Catching up for lost time making stop-go movies and shooting wildlife etc.

Anyway this article explains the process inbuilt in the camera. I suppose in a few years everyone may be employing this technology, especially since the speed of the capture is lightening fast and the focus points precisely measured.

https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/ ... -with-om-d

Quote: The focus stacking feature will shoot 8 photos at the focus positions you set and then merge them into one jpeg file at full resolution. Achieving good results will take some experimenting since so many variables are at play - subject size, distance from subject, lens choice, aperture setting, and focus differential. All eight photos are recorded plus the final stacked image.

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 1:52 pm
by Hobbyst46
coominya wrote: Quote: The focus stacking feature will shoot 8 photos at the focus positions you set and then merge them into one jpeg file at full resolution. Achieving good results will take some experimenting since so many variables are at play - subject size, distance from subject, lens choice, aperture setting, and focus differential. All eight photos are recorded plus the final stacked image.
From this quote I understand that the camera stacks a set of photos that cover a depth of focus range, and were obtained by automatically spaced focusing with the camera itself. This is not identical to stacking photos created by spaced focusing with the microscope, since the microscope image is optimal when the camera and eyepieces are parfocal. So I am not sure that in-camera automatic shooting-stacking can replace the integration of microscope focusing with shooting, then stacking.

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 5:46 pm
by MicroBob
Hi Doron,
in theory this is right, but I think that in practice stacking by camera lens focus change will work very well.
It won't be too difficult to compare the results so I would give it a try if I had a camera with stacking function.

Bob

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:49 pm
by coominya
I didn't realize it when I posted the comment above, but the only way it works is with the camera's auto-focus lens attached. Hence it is probably of limited value in microscopy.

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2020 5:10 am
by RobBerdan
HI I tested all three programs I use Photoshop regularly, Helicon was better and both support RAW files. Zerene was Ok, but did not support RAW images. https://www.canadiannaturephotographer. ... cking.html

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:39 am
by jb89
I also just tried Helicon Focus and I love it.

I can just set my camera to take a video while I lower or raise my stage and then import it and a minute or two later have a fantastically stacked image(useful for me but maybe not photographically excellent).

It's very little effort for an end result that works well for me and I'd definitely recommend it

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 3:05 pm
by BramHuntingNematodes
Wow... PICOLAY is still processing an 8 image stack from when I last posted on this thread. It says it's on step 3206 and it is still counting. I don't think it's going to work for me. Is this normal behavior for this program?
I have used the program a little bit, and although I'm not overly familiar with it I have gotten it to stall on some endless loop a few times. There are many optimization algorithms which may fail to produce an answer even outside of programming error, and this is a common problem with data processing in general. My advice would be that if something is taking much longer than expected, kill the process and try again with tweaked settings. If nothing else, Picolay does a good(excessive?) job of recording your progress.

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 5:57 pm
by MicroBob
Hi together,
I have used Picolay for a couple of years now and it never got stuck, even with over 100 20 megapixel images. I use a faster notebook with i5 2,9 GHz processor and 8GB ram. When you experience a problem with PICOLAY you can contact the very helpful developer, Heribert Czypionka. The program is not idiot proof, it is possible to check boxes that do something you don't actually want. In my experience the end resolution is limited not by that of the single images but by the width of focus gap between them. So usually you don't loose anything when you reduce the resolution by 50% linear beforehand to get quicker calculation times on slow computers.

Bob

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 6:25 pm
by BramHuntingNematodes
I have a similarly spec'd computer, but admit I don't recall it getting stuck since installing the update released on Feb. 6 . Maybe trying the process again with the new version?

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:22 pm
by MicroBob
You could make a test with a couple of small images like 1024 pixel and the least amount of boxes ticked.
My PICOLAY version is from september 2019. Perhaps a software bug was introduced since then?

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:50 pm
by Gasman
Affinity Photo has a nice stacking routine, compares favourably with CombineZp!
Steve

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2020 4:00 pm
by FungusMan
hermitdog wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:51 pm
In all three of these images, I found the farthest away point that was in focus (in the depth of field), made note of that; then I found the closest in-focus point in the depth of field and made note of that. I started with the former and worked toward the latter in tiny increments: making a "capture" of each layer, then rendered those layers using Helicon's Method C (pyramid.)

I have much to learn about Helicon software, but so far I'm thinking it is well worth the investment.
Hi, I am following this thread because I am interested to stack some microscopic images, and I am learning and educating myself :-p . With regards your bulkier subjects, is 40-45 images too far too much to stack? Would you compare 45 images vs 10 images and see if there is any difference or it is a theory that the more images the better is the stacked image overall ?

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2020 9:34 pm
by Element 56
I use CombineZP. If I can do it anyone can!

I have no other experience with other software but I'm content to keep working with this one until I find a reason not to.

Kirby

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 11:13 am
by EYE C U
ANOTHER VOTE FOR HELICON. :D

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 5:20 pm
by Element 56
FungusMan wrote:
Sun Sep 06, 2020 4:00 pm
hermitdog wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:51 pm
Hi, I am following this thread because I am interested to stack some microscopic images, and I am learning and educating myself :-p . With regards your bulkier subjects, is 40-45 images too far too much to stack? Would you compare 45 images vs 10 images and see if there is any difference or it is a theory that the more images the better is the stacked image overall ?
I only started doing this a couple of weeks ago but it's been my experience so far that it depends on the situation. I think you would be correct to test with more and compare your results with less as you suggested.

I've been working with less than 10 images at a time for diatoms and found that my final image looked better using about 4-6 pics. This could be completely wrong but like you I'm figuring it out as I go!

Happy stacking!

Kirby

Not sure why my post appears as a quote!

Re: Stacking Software

Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 11:56 pm
by Blue&green
Gasman wrote:
Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:50 pm
Affinity Photo has a nice stacking routine, compares favourably with CombineZp!
Steve
Totally agree, I use Affinity having migrated from Adobe Photoshop when it went to monthly subscription. Affinity does an impressive job compared to others I have tried. Its also pretty quick and will load in RAW source images from both Canon and Nikon. (Not sire if it caters for others, I only use those two cameras).