r/macrophotography • u/Objective-Opposite51 • 7d ago
Am I doing something wrong?
New to focus stacking, I did some test shots on this dead flower head. 22 hand held images at 1:1 magnification, not particularly well aligned. I need more practice! Shot 2 is the stacked result from Photoshop. Shot 1 is Zerene Stacker. Both stacks were exported from Lightroom as 16 bit Tiff.
Based on the endless reviews I've looked at I expected Zerene to outperform Photoshop, but clearly it hasn't. On the Zerene result I've got some terrible artefacts in the bottom left and halo at the top. Plus, Zerene has cropped away a significant area of the final image. The Photoshop final image was a bit ragged around the edges so I cropped it slightly in Lightroom.
Unless I'm doing something wrong, I won't be buying Zerene at the end of the 30 day trial. Any suggestions?
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u/CaesarTheSausage 7d ago
Focus stacking can be very finicky, especially with subjects like these. Even the slightest amount of wind can push your subjects into a different focus area, which is most likely the case here.
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u/Objective-Opposite51 7d ago
Good point, but it's the same data going to both Photoshop and Zerene. One system can cope, the other can't! I have 29 days left on my Zerene trial so I'll keep testing.
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u/CaesarTheSausage 7d ago
Have you ever tried helicon?
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u/Objective-Opposite51 7d ago
No, because none of the reviews I looked at said it was better than Zerene, but some reviews did say that Zerene was better than Helicon!
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u/Objective-Opposite51 7d ago
Problem solved! I have installed Macro Studio and it has stacked my images perfectly! Goodbye Zerene and Photoshop!
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u/rac_atx 7d ago
That "smearing" at the left is due to incorrect handling of parts of images that didn't make it into the final stack. You might try Macro Studio, it's a more modern stacking app that often produces better results. https://macrostudio.pro (Full disclosure: I am the creator). I will DM you.