Macro Photography
January 31, 2012
Using "Focus Stacking"
One of the challenges in photographing small objects ("Macro Photography") is the shallow depth of field (DOF). Increasing DOF by using small apertures has its physical limitations (diffraction etc.)
One of the promising solutions is to shoot a series of images sequentially focused in such a way that all parts of photographed subject are sharply focused on at least one of the images. Using special software one can then combine these sharply focused areas of each image into one sharp photograph.
Example of focus stacking - rose (1.3MB):
The resulting macro photograph of this red rose can be seen here or purchased here.
Additionally, individual sharply focused areas and corresponding focusing distances could be combined to create an interesting 3D model of the object.
3D model rotation using Helicon Focus:
Download the video file in HD (20 MB .mov file).