I thought some of you might be interested to hear about my recent experience using a fairly new (and FREE) image stacking program called Zerene Stacker (ZS).
I've been using image stacking software for about 3 years now (mainly using CombineZP and earlier releases). I use it to stack images taken through my stereo microscope and when shooting close-up and macro on the bench (mostly finely detailed fossils) and in the field (insects and spiders).
About 6 weeks ago I was contacted by the developer (Rik Littlefield) suggesting I might like to try out ZS. He was particularly interested to see how the product worked out in the field where alignment of the individual frames would typically not be as precise. Rik calls the process of shooting and stacking hand-held images in the field "Wild Stacking". An appropriate and quite fun term for it I think
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I know that several WAB members are experienced "stackers" however for the benefit of readers that may not be familiar with technique here's a brief explanation of the what and why of Image Stacking:
A major problem with macro photography is that at high magnification the depth of field becomes very shallow. In practical terms this means that at typical macro lens magnification of 1:1 only a part of even a very small subject will be sharply in focus. Take a look at the following four images of a barklouse that measured ~3.5mm long (when viewed side-on). You can clearly see that only a part of each image is sharply in focus.
Stacking software compares (in this instance) the four images. First it aligns each image and then combines the sharpest (most in focus) bits from each of the four images to produce a single stacked (highly detailed) image. This is the result of stacking the above 4 images using ZS:
You can stack any number of images from just 2 to well over 100 (table top macro). Typically I take between 2 and 6 images when stacking in the field (wild stacking). By way of comparison I generally take between 40 and 50 frames when shooting a 3mm deep fossil slab through my Mieji stereo microscope.
Continued.....see next entry (forum would not accept as a single post?)
Bruce