Increasing depth of field in macro using panorama stitching software

[daniel_m._german]

I admire the work of <a

href="http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm">Mark Plonsky</a> and

I look at his work as a source of inspiration for my own macro work.<p>

 

My <a href="http://hugin.sourceforge.net/">macros</a> have improved

since I started (almost 2 years ago) but I am still far being able to

match him. From his writing I know that he uses panorama software (I

think he uses Panorama Tools) to increase depth of field in his photos

(for those who have never done macro, depth of field is one of the

biggest challenges that this type of photography has). Of course

technology matters, but at the end, there is just as much as you can

do in this respect.

<p>

I have been wondering about this for some time and I finally gave it a

try. I was able to catch a fly today. Not a greats photos, but some

that I knew I could use to try this technique. Using <a

href="http://hugin.sourceforge.net">Hugin</a> I proceeded to "stitch"

them into one. Hugin is a great piece of software.

<p>

I then moved to photoshop to combined the two TIFFs that hugin

created. Here is the result: <p>

 

<center>

<img src="http://turingmachine.org/dmgimages/cheatingMacroCombined.jpg">

</center><p>

 

And these are the component images (after they have been processed by

Hugin):

 

 

<p>

<center>

<img src="http://turingmachine.org/dmgimages/cheatingMacroLayer1.jpg">

 

<img src="http://turingmachine.org/dmgimages/cheatingMacroLayer2.jpg">

</center>

<p>

the results look promising.

<p>

daniel german<br>

<a href="http://silvernegative.com">Silver Negative</a>

[koen_hufkens]

Nice... there are some tools that do the same but the panorama software approach is a new and cheaper alternative.

[john_houghton]

There's quite a lot of information on these techniques here: http://www.janrik.net/ptools/ExtendedFocusPano12/

 

John

[joseph_wisniewski]

I use CombineZ, one of the programs mentioned in the article that John shared with us. (Thanks, John). It's free, and is updated pretty much weekly (which get's us past Koehn's newer and cheaper concerns).

 

And it's effective.

[3d-aeropanoramic project]

some tools of http://www.zoerk.com could also help. check his pricelist

or-do you have 10000 usd?- this unique camera:

http://www.focoz.com/

maybe imagestacker-(pls report here)

http://www.tawbaware.com/index.html

or john harts technique

http://www.stereo3dgallery.net/ImageStacks.shtm