When I was in the alps with, Hans Strand, I came across focus stacking for the first time.
I found out that the Olympus camera has built in functions for stacking and bracketing.
I found it to be very useful for landscape photography but with time I noticed that there was something fishy going on. I could not fully predict the result, many times i got part of the stacked photo unsharp.
When taking a closer look I found that many of the images that was the base for the process was unsharp and only one or two was useful for stacking.
When taking a closer look I found that many of the images that was the base for the process was unsharp and only one or two was useful for stacking.
I had the camera and lens sent to Olympus to check the function of the camera and lens to ensure it was not a faulty camera causing the issues I had. The camera and lens came back and no issues was found.
This is the image that made me aware of the issue. If following the branch to the very tip it is noticeable that the leaves are not sharp. There are also other unsharp areas.
As can be seen the background is not sharp although it should be, why? See slide 8 below.
I was in contact with Olympus but they was equally confused, one of the Olympus support team took he's own camera and did some test at he's backyard an came up with the same experience as I had. Unfortunately he could not explain the result and got no response when escalating within he's organisation
But it was when I found the ON1 software that things started to be clearer to me. With this software I was able to get actual focus distance for each photo, hidden somewhere in the metadata.
When I started to lining up the photos in accordance with focus distance i found that many photos was using the same focus distance and that many was on my side of the focus point I had sat although in he manual maximum two should be closer than the focus point. I also found that many images had no focus data that could be extracted with ON1, my understanding is that they where focused on infinity.
When I started to lining up the photos in accordance with focus distance i found that many photos was using the same focus distance and that many was on my side of the focus point I had sat although in he manual maximum two should be closer than the focus point. I also found that many images had no focus data that could be extracted with ON1, my understanding is that they where focused on infinity.
I came to the conclusion that the best way to work with OM and focusstacking is to use the bracket function and set the focal point on the nearest object and keep the focusdifferent at 5 . The camera will then take as many shots needed to get every thing sharp up to infinity, it will add a few extra shot with focus distance closer to infinity than needed, probably to be safe.
Then stack all images with Olympus own OM Workspace or Photoshop, ON1, Helicon Focus or any other software you prefer.
Then stack all images with Olympus own OM Workspace or Photoshop, ON1, Helicon Focus or any other software you prefer.
And avoid the in camera built in Focus Stacking function for landscape photographing.
Below is the consolidated document about my findings and thoughts that I sent to Olympus for comments, neither me nor the Swedish market company got a serious reply.
