Focus stacking

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At f/11, the DOF in this image of a Wolf Spider is very limited.

Combining 8 exposures, each taken at f/11, gives good DOF.

Focus stacking is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field (DOF) than any of the individual source images.

Getting sufficient depth of field can be particularly challenging in macro photography. The images at right illustrate the increase in DOF that can be achieved by combining multiple exposures.

Other digital imaging techniques used to increase DOF include wavefront coding and plenoptic cameras.

[edit] Software

Focus stacking software

Name	Primary author	Platform	Open source?
CombineZM	Alan Hadley	Windows	Yes, GPL
Helicon Focus	Danylo Kozub	Windows, Mac OS X	No, proprietary, 30-day trial
Extended Depth of Field plugin for ImageJ	Alex Prudencio	Multi-platform (Java)	No, "free to use this software for research purposes"
PhotoAcute Studio	Almalence Inc	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux	No, proprietary, time-unlimited trial
Stack Focuser plugin for ImageJ	Michael Umorin	Multi-platform (Java)	Yes, GPL

[edit] See also

• High dynamic range imaging (HDR)
• Image stitching
• Deconvolution microscopy

[edit] External links

• online article by Rik Littlefield.
• Link directory Focus stacking (Extended Depth of Field).