Simplified Photo Stacking

[rickztahone]

Today I had a photoshoot at a restaurant that I had previously done shots for. They opened with the shots I took and they are doing great now. I had the opportunity to do a very small photostack. This is as simple as it gets because I only took 3 shots which is all I needed.

In order to do this technique you need to follow these steps:

-Camera on tripod
-Lens on manual focus
-manually set WB
-shutter release (optional)
-lock in an aperture

The point of doing this is to be able to throw the background out of focus without sacrificing the other important elements in the shot as well. This allows you to do it, so we are looking to shoot with a somewhat wider aperture to get a nice background. In my case f/2.8. I could have gone to 1.4, but this lens is rather sharp at 2.8 and I didn't feel the shot needed the background to be so out of focus.

So, basically what you do is focus on the front-most subject, in my case, the burger. Second, manually adjust the focus to focus on the second item, in my case, the ketchup. Lastly, manually focus on the last subject, in my case, the fries.

After you have taken the shots of the things you want to be in focus, you run the shots (as many as you need, not just 3) through photoshop.

This video helped me a year or two ago:

https://youtu.be/hk8vxMA3p-o

Once you follow those steps, PS will have gathered the in focus areas and do the work for you.

The first 3 shots show the different points of focus, the last, the stacked image:

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Burger in focus. Without this technique this would have to have been the final shot.
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Ketchup in focus
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Fries in focus
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Hope you learned something :)

I am still editing the photos but I had to take a break from editing. Been at it a few hours now.

Let me know if you want to see some yummy food shots :)

[ericNH]

Ach mein gott that looks delicious.

[rickztahone]

Ach mein gott that looks delicious.

Oh it was! One of the great perks of doing food photography is that you get to eat everything after you finish with that particular dish. This burger in particular was one of my favorite. My assistant and I had close to $400 worth of menu items today according to the chef, lol. Gotta love it!

[Second Hand Pat]

Nice illustration of this technique and the food looks yummy. I bet you walking out of there feeling like a tick.
Pat

[rickztahone]

Nice illustration of this technique and the food looks yummy. I bet you walking out of there feeling like a tick.
Pat

lol, yeah, me and my assistant. I actually didn't eat for the rest of the day. Only breakfast, but not all the items we photographed were breakfast only items. 10am and eating a rib eye steak.

[SMB2]

Oh it was! One of the great perks of doing food photography is that you get to eat everything after you finish with that particular dish.
Not something I would have ever said about bird photography!

Do you have any experience with software other than PS?

[rickztahone]

Not something I would have ever said about bird photography!

Do you have any experience with software other than PS?

Are you sure? Have you ever packed a chicken sandwhich while on a shoot? :laugh:

A long time ago I used to use Gimp. I think Gimp is a very able tool, however, the thing that pushed me towards PS wasn't that PS had more features than Gimp, because on that aspect alone they are very similar, but because of the overwhelming general following that PS has over Gimp.

What I mean by that is that if do not know how to do something on PS, I can simply go on YouTube and find out how to do it. With Gimp, I found that there weren't that many tutorials that covered what I was looking for, or if there was, it was very difficult to come across them.

There is also a whole bunch of freeware out there that does stacking for you as well, but as of late, I have been so paranoid about getting viruses from downloading things. So, I have just stuck with PS since I'd like to think it I know it fairly well.

[Discus-n00b]

Excellent! Something that might be noted is this technique is more for completely stationary objects. I attempt it all of the time on my corals, but with the polyps constantly moving the results aren't as spectacular as these.

I need to start shooting more, I've stepped back and taken a break recently. Getting the bug again though. Got some ideas for some still life type of stuff so this will come in handy.

[rickztahone]

Excellent! Something that might be noted is this technique is more for completely stationary objects. I attempt it all of the time on my corals, but with the polyps constantly moving the results aren't as spectacular as these.

I need to start shooting more, I've stepped back and taken a break recently. Getting the bug again though. Got some ideas for some still life type of stuff so this will come in handy.

Good point Matt. If you turn everything off in your tank, will the corals still move? Have you tried a simple 3 stack rather than more to see if you can get just a little more sharpness than shooting a single shot?

The photography bug is always in the air, however, I find myself not going out as much and that hurts my photography :(. Additionally, I have made it a habit to leave my VG on my body and that causes me to not take it along on a day to day basis. I will remove it and put my 24 2.8 on it so that it is more portable. Please share shots with us whenever you do start shooting again :). You know I love shots of your nano!

[DiscusGino]

Great info! What are you shooting with and the bokeh seems like from a 1.8 lens?

[rickztahone]

Great info! What are you shooting with and the bokeh seems like from a 1.8 lens?

I shot these with a Sigma 50 f/1.4. I didn't want to be wide open because the DOF would have been a lot more difficult to work with in post. I would have had to stack at least 6 shots instead of 3. Doable, but not necessary for me here. I simply wanted to blow out the background and in my case, f/2.8 did it well here.

Background is a super long couche with throw pillows. Very distracting, so close to wide open was the only option. I did not want to shoot from a higher angle either as the burger lends itself well to being photographed from eye level. The bokeh of this lens is good, but the Tamron 90 2.8 that I was switching back and forth from has much smoother bokeh. I did have to employ it a couple of times. I will update this post with more food pics, but for now, here are a few from a set I did for this same owner in the past: (I believe I have shared these in the past but not sure where)
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7524/15361874063_730e9ff5c4_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/pptBXD)Benedict & Hash 2 (https://flic.kr/p/pptBXD) by Ricardo Vasquez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickztahone/), on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7510/15981496635_c2619981fa_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/qmemar)Benedict & Hash (https://flic.kr/p/qmemar) by Ricardo Vasquez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickztahone/), on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7469/15795485999_43de4ff393_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/q4MZFv)Bisquits (https://flic.kr/p/q4MZFv) by Ricardo Vasquez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickztahone/), on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7507/15979504651_f3599c5ff5_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/qm491T)Fried Eggs 2 (https://flic.kr/p/qm491T) by Ricardo Vasquez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickztahone/), on Flickr
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8629/15795480269_ac163400ac_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/q4MXYH)Green Eggs & Ham (https://flic.kr/p/q4MXYH) by Ricardo Vasquez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickztahone/), on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7522/15981485935_b47f545f49_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/qmehYX)Oyster Trio (https://flic.kr/p/qmehYX) by Ricardo Vasquez (https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickztahone/), on Flickr

Before anyone asks, yes, I did try everything from that past shoot as well, haha :)

[DiscusGino]

Great shots!

I need a macro in my collection and looking into the Tokina 100mm f2.8. Right now I love shooting with my 35mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.8. I just got into photography this year and very fun. I need to upgrade my D7100 first though for higher ISO.

Here's a pic of Linkin Park I shot from the crowd at Blizzcon.
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[rickztahone]

At first I thought the photo didn't load all the way but then I realized this was your aspect ratio! Looks good. Only distracting element I see is off to the right top. There is something there that could easily be cloned out. I do like the perspective though and a PR person might like this shot simply to add text on the right hand side as a flyer or something.

Tokina makes good lenses. Actually, they make TANK-LIKE lenses. The ones I have tried are relatively sharp. I have a 19-35 lens that is good across the small range. An 85 1.8 would be a portrait lens for sure. I have been saving up, unsuccesfully I should add, for a 135 1.8. That, to me, is the portrait master of all lenses, only other one that contends with it is the 135 STF which has a double aperture. It is simply amazing.

BTW, your body can handle itself very well with somewhat high ISO. I have ran it through a few noise reducing programs to get relatively usable files at high ISO's. Now the Canon 6D, that is a beast of an ISO manager. If you are looking for good high ISO performance, that is the body you are looking for. Of course Sony now has some a7's that go up to ISO 12,000 with a usuable output. That is simply ridiculous, and something we photographers never thought could happen 5 yrs ago.

[ericNH]

Here's a pic of Linkin Park I shot from the crowd at Blizzcon.

You were at BLIZZCON?!?!? I am insanely jealous.

My apologies rickztahone, I know this isn't on topic.

[Jack L]

i'm assuming this is worth the hassle compared to a selection mask and a blur from a single photo w/ entire subject in focus...that post processing would take about 5 mins and to casual observer...same result, no?

[SMB2]

Man I am so hungry now!
Stacking keeps coming up and I really haven't played with it.
Met a man last week who works at the Air and Space Museum in DC. They are now cataloging their ENTIRE (70K ++) collection with photographs into a computerized digital storage system. Many of the images are 60+ stacked or 3D. When they review the final products the definition is so good that they are seeing ID marks or original writing on pieces that have never been seen before.
Canvas on a Wright brothers wing had marks and calculations written in pencil. Really neat stuff.

Well it's winter so time to play with PS (which I have with LR, but don't use.)

[rickztahone]

i'm assuming this is worth the hassle compared to a selection mask and a blur from a single photo w/ entire subject in focus...that post processing would take about 5 mins and to casual observer...same result, no?

No, simply put, it defies logic to take a shot like this on camera. You'd have to select a larger DOF and then dealing with blurring that would be a pain. Although this seems more complicated, it is much easier than actually trying to blur. There is definitely a time and a place for blurring, but for me, this isn't it.

[rickztahone]

Man I am so hungry now!
Stacking keeps coming up and I really haven't played with it.
Met a man last week who works at the Air and Space Museum in DC. They are now cataloging their ENTIRE (70K ++) collection with photographs into a computerized digital storage system. Many of the images are 60+ stacked or 3D. When they review the final products the definition is so good that they are seeing ID marks or original writing on pieces that have never been seen before.
Canvas on a Wright brothers wing had marks and calculations written in pencil. Really neat stuff.

Well it's winter so time to play with PS (which I have with LR, but don't use.)
That is so amazing! Is there a place to follow this progress?

[Second Hand Pat]

Man I am so hungry now!
Stacking keeps coming up and I really haven't played with it.
Met a man last week who works at the Air and Space Museum in DC. They are now cataloging their ENTIRE (70K ++) collection with photographs into a computerized digital storage system. Many of the images are 60+ stacked or 3D. When they review the final products the definition is so good that they are seeing ID marks or original writing on pieces that have never been seen before.
Canvas on a Wright brothers wing had marks and calculations written in pencil. Really neat stuff.

Well it's winter so time to play with PS (which I have with LR, but don't use.)

WOW, would love to see this :D
Pat

[Chipps-h2o]

Today I had a photoshoot at a restaurant that I had previously done shots for. They opened with the shots I took and they are doing great now. I had the opportunity to do a very small photostack. This is as simple as it gets because I only took 3 shots which is all I needed.

In order to do this technique you need to follow these steps:

-Camera on tripod
-Lens on manual focus
-manually set WB
-shutter release (optional)
-lock in an aperture

The point of doing this is to be able to throw the background out of focus without sacrificing the other important elements in the shot as well. This allows you to do it, so we are looking to shoot with a somewhat wider aperture to get a nice background. In my case f/2.8. I could have gone to 1.4, but this lens is rather sharp at 2.8 and I didn't feel the shot needed the background to be so out of focus.

So, basically what you do is focus on the front-most subject, in my case, the burger. Second, manually adjust the focus to focus on the second item, in my case, the ketchup. Lastly, manually focus on the last subject, in my case, the fries.

After you have taken the shots of the things you want to be in focus, you run the shots (as many as you need, not just 3) through photoshop.

This video helped me a year or two ago:

https://youtu.be/hk8vxMA3p-o

Once you follow those steps, PS will have gathered the in focus areas and do the work for you.

The first 3 shots show the different points of focus, the last, the stacked image:

92255
Burger in focus. Without this technique this would have to have been the final shot.
92256
Ketchup in focus
92257
Fries in focus
92258

Hope you learned something :)

I am still editing the photos but I had to take a break from editing. Been at it a few hours now.

Let me know if you want to see some yummy food shots :)

Great tutorial!