Very nice Pieter,
Which stacking program do you use and how easy/hard is it to learn?
Thanks,
Joel
Thanks Joel, the total workflow is quite easy I find, and the program I use is Helicon Focus (the "light" version, which does enough for me)
I first shoot the stacked sequence, I focus on the nearest detail I want in focus and then move the camera closer on a macro rail until the furthest detail is in focus. As steps I take about 25% of the dof for lens/distance/aperture. Make sure you still have everything in the frame when you're closest to your subject (so the last shot as I do the sequence). I don't think it makes any difference starting at the furthest detail and then moving the camera back until the nearest detail is in focus.
I then import the photo's into lightroom, select all and then with Auto Sync on I PP all the shots exactly the same (WB, exposure, colours, crop, .....)
Helicon focus comes as a Lightroom plug in so the next step is to export all frames to Helicon Focus.
Once the photo's are in there (the program opens automatically) I just hit "render". So far I've not felt the need to change any of the default settings or do any retouching. Then I save the result as a high quality jpg (multiple other formats are available) and close Helicon Focus. The resulting file is then automatically imported in Lightroom and you can do a few last tweaks before exporting or printing.
That's basically all there is to it, most effort goes into making the photo's of the stacked sequence, after that it's all downhill (at least for me and the kind of subjects I have tried this on)