Focus and the inevitable rise and fall
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:33 pm
This is a new venture for me and something I am not that confident with yet.
However, I have been asked to make some object movies for an insurance company. The remit is that they are detailed enough for them to be used as good photographic documentation in case of theft.
This means that I shall have to use focus stacking on the images, with which I have been experimenting over the last few days. Much to my frustration . . .
I would love some input into this:
The final image, which can be seen at http://tactus360.com/panos/razor/test5.html, is alright as a test run and, apart from a few problems with my studio lamps, relatively acceptable when it comes to having clearly documented images. However, there is something that is bugging me considerably, and this is the rise and fall of the object as it is rotated.
The camera and turntable are well placed and the object is placed at the turntable's absolute centre, so this I don't think this is the problem. The razor is perhaps a rather strange test subject, but it is an odd shape and a good subject to use for focus stacking.
What I think is, is that as I took each slice, I was having to sometimes alter the starting point for the focus. Elsewhere, possibly another reason for the problem, I altered the number of stacked images, since several slices were redundant.
In people's experience, I wonder if this is the cause of the problem, or is it something more to do with the technique/software I am using?
The software is Control My Nikon for the slicing and Helicon Focus for the montage. I would use the Helicon control, which might make a considerable difference, except that on the laptop I am using for controlling the image, it runs quite poorly and, it seems, is not set up for capturing more than a stack at a time. This is, of course, quite useless if you are wanting to make a series of 36 separate images.
I hope someone will be able to give me the benefit of their advice.
Jon
However, I have been asked to make some object movies for an insurance company. The remit is that they are detailed enough for them to be used as good photographic documentation in case of theft.
This means that I shall have to use focus stacking on the images, with which I have been experimenting over the last few days. Much to my frustration . . .
I would love some input into this:
The final image, which can be seen at http://tactus360.com/panos/razor/test5.html, is alright as a test run and, apart from a few problems with my studio lamps, relatively acceptable when it comes to having clearly documented images. However, there is something that is bugging me considerably, and this is the rise and fall of the object as it is rotated.
The camera and turntable are well placed and the object is placed at the turntable's absolute centre, so this I don't think this is the problem. The razor is perhaps a rather strange test subject, but it is an odd shape and a good subject to use for focus stacking.
What I think is, is that as I took each slice, I was having to sometimes alter the starting point for the focus. Elsewhere, possibly another reason for the problem, I altered the number of stacked images, since several slices were redundant.
In people's experience, I wonder if this is the cause of the problem, or is it something more to do with the technique/software I am using?
The software is Control My Nikon for the slicing and Helicon Focus for the montage. I would use the Helicon control, which might make a considerable difference, except that on the laptop I am using for controlling the image, it runs quite poorly and, it seems, is not set up for capturing more than a stack at a time. This is, of course, quite useless if you are wanting to make a series of 36 separate images.
I hope someone will be able to give me the benefit of their advice.
Jon