Issue with Focus Merge

[Friedster]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm brand new to Affinity, and really enjoying learning how to use the software. I've run into a weird issue, though it may entirely be because I don't know what I'm doing.

 

I'm trying my hand at focus merging in macro photography, and I'm getting weird artifacts after I merge. It literally looks like there are several images stacked on top of each other. This was shot on a tripod, with the only thing changing being the manual focus. It's entirely something that I did something wrong here, but if anyone can provide any insight that would be awesome. Thanks!

 

 

[firstdefence]

Looks like they aren't being aligned. Are they all the same size etc

[John Rostron]

Weird artefacts are not uncommon in focus merging, especially in the edges. However, it would help if we knew a few other things. How many images are you stacking? What was the focus range between the nearest and furthest? Did you check the box for Align Images? It would also help if we had a couple of the unstacked images.

[Friedster]

@John Rostron My initial thought was that this is an issue with alignment. I can't seem to find a check box for Align images, maybe I'm missing it? This is 6 images in total, and unfortunately, I didn't mark down the focus range. I've added the unstacked images.

abstract_paintings22.dng

abstract_paintings23.dng

abstract_paintings24.dng

abstract_paintings25.dng

abstract_paintings26.dng

abstract_paintings27.dng

[John Rostron]

I have downloaded and stacked your images OK. The Focus Merge Stacking does the alignment automatically, so there is no box to tick!

Looking at your six images individually, I am not convinced that every patch in the subject has a focussed area on at least one image. Your subject matter looks as if it only has a small focus range, just a few mm. Did you adjust focus using fingers and thumbs. It could be that you could not get enough fine control. I made myself a graduated focus scale from cardboard which fits over the lens and allows fairly fine control.

[John Rostron]

I attach here a photo of my camera with the graduated focus scales attached.

The cut-outs on the right hand side allowed me to nudge the focusing ring very gently

These rings were designed in Affinity Designer. I attach the design file here.

Rings.afdesign

Hope this helps.

John

[John Rostron]

Looking at your original images, the region in the upper centre does not seem to be in focus in any or them. Was this painting on glass? Perhaps what we are seeing is what is behind that.

I converted your images to jpegs and ran them through Helicon Focus and Zerene Stacker. ZS worked fine, but (unusually) Helicon Focus failed on two out of its three algorithms, with unaligned images apparent. Al the rest seemed to produce a good merge (apart from the upper centre). I attach these images below.

John

Affinity Stack

.

Helicon Focus Depth Map

Helicon Focus Pyramid

Helicon Focus Weighted Average

Zerene Stacker Depth Map

Zerene Stacker Pyramid

 

[Friedster]

Thanks @John Rostron! I'm pretty sure the discrepancy is that I missed focusing in some areas as I was just messing around and trying it out. I was more confused by the layered look of the photo I purchased. Still not quite sure why it did that, but I appreciate your help!