49
Votes
mark zawila's picture

watch comp 1

This was shot was a composite using about 10-15 shots in order to to light every comment detail. 22 images were focus stacked, there is no CGI in this image.

NIKON D800E
100mm · f/9.0 · 1/250s · ISO 100
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4 Comments

What software did you end up using to stack focus? I usually switch between Photoshop CC & Helicon Focus. Sometimes I like the results that Photoshop gives me better than I do Helicon

Hi Brian - I use Photoshop almost 100% but have used Helicon and other FS software too, I find photoshop a lot more of a headache to get usable results compared to the other stacking software, but I agree the final result is often better.

I find Photoshop very unforgiving and you often seem to need A LOT of images (22 is actually pretty low, I have stacked 45+ images in the past) to get a good result, but I much prefer the final results in photoshop, I don't know why, just looks better for some reason?

I constantly go back and forth between Photoshop & Helicon. I like Helicon, but I feel like when you zoom into the stacked image, you see a lot of weird patterns/grain in the image. I think Photoshop produces a much cleaner result.

That said, I find myself stacking a ton of frames as well. The watch shot I have listed in my Fstoppers portfolio I know was well over 30 frames stacked in Photoshop and even then I still had to manually mask in pieces. It was a real pain in the ass to be honest. It's comforting to see other photographers going through the same thing though LOL

so very well done!