Stacking macro shots

Processing
1

So, i’m a bit of a macro nerd. Love to do it. And once in a while a dabble with stacking. I build a cheap automated rails to do the shooting (As seen here). But i always find the results of the stacking not as good as i want them to be.

For now i often use the really good Zerene Stacker here, but that’s not OSS, what i would prefer. On the plusside it is really fast. and gives a result as this.

5202×3464 1.9 MB

Another option i’ve tried is using enfuse following @patdavid s howto, (appart from the allign-image-stack, which made a real mess alligning stuff), and that gives the following result:
http://kees.nl/~kg/tigerbeetle/enfuse.jpg
Downside of using enfuse it is TERRIBLE SLOW, it will take about 40 to 50 minutes on my machine to render the image compared to 8 minutes for Zerene.

That put asside. Both programs have their downside in the result. What they both have in common and do wrong is when from depth perspective they merge something in the back and in focus, with something in front what is in focus.
Other things i don’t like, for the Zerene one: the noise is amplified. so it looks gritty. and for the enfuse one: it has a strong halo.

So to get to the question. Can you do it better ? and preferable with an oss solution.

All images needed (120MB)

p.s. It’s a green tiger beetle

3 Likes
2

Did the motor mounted on the back of the rails, in the video, turn after every shot, to change focal point on the image? Oh, and no, I couldn’t do better. I like the Zerene stacker better.

3

I think enfuse was made for a time when ram was small and so it works off the disk. One 270mp panorama I did once took 23 hours.

It desperately needs a replacement.

4

Yes, the motor (steppermotor) takes after each a few steps, and the controller will trigger a mirror up, and after a delay it will take a shot.

5

Not persee a replacement, but an update to make it a bit speedier would also do it for me. As it does in general (with panoramas) an excellent job.

6

That is a very nice, clean build. Is the rig running on Arduino or Raspberry? Did you design it yourself? Are the plans open source? I’m impressed.

7

Just linking the video for context on the questions concerning the build.

Imgur

1 Like
8

I use a teensy 2++ for this, stepstick stepper driver, 4016 to trigger my camera, and a HD44780 compatible lcdisplay. And some buttons. All parts i had laying around. It’s more something i threw together then a real well documented project.
The code is quite hackish (as is the build). So can release the code. But doubtful if it would help anyone.

9

Thank you for the info andabata. One last question: Would you mind telling what the material is between the rails and the wooden block, that was used, to allow smooth movement of the camera along the rails?

10

I just used the smallest drawer slides i could find in the hardware store. But to be honest, i don’t like them. The rails itself is pitted so it creates movement i don’t want. For my next rebuild i will use something different.

I used a piece a threaded rod to do the actual movement. and it’s coupled to the stepper with a piece of tube.

1 Like
11

I was thinking of using drawer rails, also. The kind with the Teflon wheels running on the inside of a bottom, and top rail. I haven’t really looked into it, yet. But, I was thinking of cutting them down to shorter, horizontal, length. I don’t think that the vertical profile is very high, about 20mm. Thank you for making this post, it has given me an idea for making a manual version of your idea, some day.

1 Like