Focus stacking is a technique in which you take multiple shots of the same scene—each shot focused at a different distance—and then combine them in focus stacking software to create a sharp image over much greater depth than would be possible with a single shot. The software for stacking.

Download Helicon Focus 4 for Mac full version program setup free. Helicon Focus 4.2.9 for macOS is a fantastic program that empowers photographers to enhance the focus of images by merging them, add a text watermark and export images as animations or 3D models.

Helicon Focus 4 for Mac Review

• Jul 04, 2020  Lynkeos is perhaps the only freeware planetary stacker software for Mac OS X, sparing you from turning to Windows for using Autostakkert! The interface is quite intuitive to navigate, but not when it comes to performing the different tasks.
• Oct 02, 2019  Both are great pieces of software, particularly Helicon software used alongside the Helicon Tube, because they make automated focus stacking easy. Nevertheless, I personally prefer Photoshop.

Helicon Focus 4 for macOS is a powerful program specially developed for enhancing the focus of images by merging them. This excellent and intelligent software for photographers helps to enhance the focus of images by merging them, add a text watermark and export images as animations or 3D models. The program comes with a feature-rich, yet well-structured interface that enables smooth navigation between the various composition and editing functions. You may also like ImageRanger Pro Edition for Mac Free Download

It makes use of a technique called stacking, which means that it takes multiple images and stacks them one on top of the other, overlapping and summing up the focused portions. Its impressive editing tools help digital artists to retouch the photos before rendering them into one single output file. Digital artists can use a brush to copy parts from a source image, as well as clone them or paint with textures. The brushes can be adjusted in terms of size, hardness, color tolerance and brightness in order to achieve the best and quality results.

After finishing with editing, it allows artists to save the final image in JPEG or TIFF format as well as print it. Apart from those, users can also create an animation that depicts the focus transition throughout the images, and even export them as individual PNG layers. All in all, Helicon Focus 4 for macOS is truly a wonderful tool for anyone that is into macro photography and is driven by the need of obtaining great levels of detail.

Features of Helicon Focus 4 for Mac

• A perfect program for photographers to extend the depth of field in their shots
• Enables users to process RAW files in native color space and save result as DNG file
• Empowers users to add a text watermark and export images as animations or 3D models
• Displays a comprehensive structure that makes it easy to load and edit the photos
• Helps artists to choose to save the final image in JPEG or TIFF format as well as print it

Technical Details of Helicon Focus 4 for Mac

• Software Name: Helicon Focus 4
• Software File Name: helicon_focus_4.2.9.zip
• File Size: 12 MB
• Developer: Heliconsoft

System Requirements for Helicon Focus 4.2.9 for macOS

• macOS 10.9 or later
• 50 MB free HDD
• 1 GB RAM
• Intel Core 2 Duo or higher

Download Helicon Focus 4.2.9 for Mac Free

Click on the button given below to download Helicon Focus 4.2.9 DMG for Mac setup free. It is a complete offline setup of Helicon Focus 4 for macOS with a single click download link.

Focus stacking (also known as focal plane merging and z-stacking^[1] or focus blending) is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field (DOF) than any of the individual source images.^[2][3] Focus stacking can be used in any situation where individual images have a very shallow depth of field; macro photography and optical microscopy are two typical examples. Focus stacking can also be useful in landscape photography.

Focus stacking offers flexibility: since it is a computational technique, images with several different depths of field can be generated in post-processing and compared for best artistic merit or scientific clarity. Focus stacking also allows generation of images physically impossible with normal imaging equipment; images with nonplanar focus regions can be generated. Alternative techniques for generating images with increased or flexible depth of field include wavefront coding and light-field cameras.

Technique[edit]

The starting point for focus stacking is a series of images captured at different focus distances; in each image different areas of the sample will be in focus. While none of these images has the sample entirely in focus they collectively contain all the data required to generate an image which has all parts of the sample in focus. In-focus regions of each image may be detected automatically, for example via edge detection or Fourier analysis, or selected manually. The in-focus patches are then blended together to generate the final image.

This processing is also called z-stacking, focal plane merging (or zedification in French).^[4][5]

In photography[edit]

Getting sufficient depth of field can be particularly challenging in macro photography, because depth of field is smaller (shallower) for objects nearer the camera, so if a small object fills the frame, it is often so close that its entire depth cannot be in focus at once. Depth of field is normally increased by stopping down aperture (using a larger f-number), but beyond a certain point, stopping down causes blurring due to diffraction, which counteracts the benefit of being in focus. It also reduces the luminosity of the image. Focus stacking allows the depth of field of images taken at the sharpest aperture to be effectively increased. The images at right illustrate the increase in DOF that can be achieved by combining multiple exposures.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission has a device called Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), which can take photos that can later be focus stacked.^[6]

In microscopy[edit]

In microscopy high numerical apertures are desirable to capture as much light as possible from a small sample. A high numerical aperture (equivalent to a low f number) gives a very shallow depth of field. Higher magnification objective lenses generally have shallower depth of field; a 100× objective lens with a numerical aperture of around 1.4 has a depth of field of approximately 1 μm. When observing a sample directly the limitations of the shallow depth of field are easy to circumvent by focusing up and down through the sample; to effectively present microscopy data of a complex 3D structure in 2D, focus stacking is a very useful technique.

Atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy encounters similar difficulties, where specimen features are much larger than the depth of field. By taking a through-focal series, the depth of focus can be reconstructed to create a single image entirely in focus.^[7]

Software / Application[edit]

Gallery[edit]

Pictures[edit]

• Pepper mill, stack of 28 frames

• Stacked image of 3 × 2.5 mm electric wires

• Shaver head, stack of 36 frames, retouched

• Macrolepiota procera, stack of 15 frames

• Stacked image of the inner ridge of an orchid blossom

• Stacked image of two Arecaceae viewed through a hole in a tree trunk

• Pellet, stack of 32 frames

• Alluaudia comosa, stack of 10 frames

• Mold on Litchi chinensis, stack of 20 frames

• Skull, stack of 6 frames

Focus Stacking Lightroom

Videos[edit]

Diagrams[edit]

• Software creates from the sharpest areas in a stack of sections.

See also[edit]

• High dynamic range imaging (HDR)
• Shift-and-add for stacking astrophotos

References[edit]

1. ^'Malin Space Science Systems - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Instrument Description'. Msss.com. Retrieved 2012-12-10.
2. ^Johnson, Dave (2008). How to Do Everything: Digital Camera (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. p. 336. ISBN978-0-07-149580-6. There are a number of programs that allow you to get the equivalent of infinite depth of field in your photos, with sharp focus from the foreground all the way back to the rear. How is this possible? By taking multiple photos of the same scene and stacking them afterwards into a composite that features only the sharpest bits of each image. One of the best is Helicon Focus.
3. ^Ray 2002, 231–232
4. ^'Afficher le sujet - Proposition d'un terme français pour 'focus stacking' • Le Naturaliste'. Lenaturaliste.net (in French). Retrieved 2012-10-05.
5. ^'Malin Space Science Systems - Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Instrument Description'. Msss.com. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
6. ^'MSL Science Corner: Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)'. MSL-SciCorner.JPL.NASA.gov. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
7. ^Hovden, Robert; Xin, Huolin L.; Muller, David A. (2010). 'Extended Depth of Field for High-Resolution Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy'. Microscopy and Microanalysis. 17 (1): 75–80. arXiv:1010.4500. Bibcode:2011MiMic..17...75H. doi:10.1017/S1431927610094171. PMID21122192.
8. ^'Focus Stacking Made Easy with Photoshop'. photo.tutsplus.com. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
9. ^'Avizo User Guide, Module 'Image Stack Projection''. 2018-03-30.
10. ^'Focus stacking online - free online focus stacking application'. FocusStackingOnline.com. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
11. ^'GUI to Combine Photos to Get Deeper DOF or HDR'. SourceForge.net. Retrieved 2017-10-19.

• Ray, Sidney. 2002. Applied Photographic Optics. 3rd ed. Oxford: Focal Press. ISBN0-240-51540-4.

External links[edit]

Focus Stacking Software Free Mac Pro

• Which cameras have built-in focus stacking?, Nov. 2019.
• Media related to Focus stacking at Wikimedia Commons

Focus Stacking Software Freeware Mac