I recently got a cell phone camera lens, and immediately tried it out on some coins. I use an iPhone SE with 12mp resolution. This macro lens is absurd and allows for unprecedented magnification and image quality! A look into Trajan's corroded eyes The amazing technicolor dream coin The goddess of Viminacum Plautilla looking a bit green for the wear Artemis's bow And my personal favorite, Mercury!
Focus stacking sounds great. With my lens the bokeh is too extreme on the edges; FS seems like it would fix that right up.
As I understand it, FS is compositing a series of images taken at different focus levels to create an image that is in-focus throughout. My photos show extreme focus falling on the edges; FS would basically stitch together multiple photos that have perfect focus in different areas, and then create a composite that is always in focus, everywhere i have no idea how to do that though
I think I am having the same issues. I'm only using one image for my coins. Not sure how to stack them or anything. PS, your pictures look really good. Can almost see the blackheads on Trajan's nose
Thanks. Yes, focus stacking combines several photos to create an image that is in focus throughout. Most useful in macro photography, and especially in coins with unusually high relief. I bought a point and shoot a few years ago specifically for the inbuilt focus stacking feature. It can be done manually although others might know better how to do this.
That's an awesome feature for a compact cam! I have a really nice Olympus OMD E-M5 mark 1. Unfortunately, only the Mark 2 has the focus stacking feature
I'm afraid that's not bokeh (out-of-focus blurring for objects closer or further away than the focal point); it's coma, a form of distortion where the lens blurs objects away from the center of the image. You won't be able to correct it; the best you can do is crop away the blurry parts.
If you are an astronomer you probably already have it, but here is an online one https://focusstackingonline.com/ for programs free and pay : https://chasingheartbeats.com/open-source-focus-stacking-software/ Zerene ( pay) is complicated but many use for special problems. Jim
FYI, I tried to go to the first site that you linked to, but my Norton anti-virus software wouldn't let me, giving me a "Malicious Site Blocked" message.
For over 15 years I had been using a freeware program for focus stacking called CombineZ. During that time the author made several versions with different letters tacked on the end (like CombineZP) and I do not know which is latest and best for various purposes. If you download it online, be sure you are getting a clean copy and not using the places that try to tack on other things for which they charge you. There were other programs that did the same thing not at all better and charged high prices to service those people who believe that expensive things are better than free things. I do know that I ONLY stopped using it when Canon added a focus stacking routine to the FREE software that comes with all Canon cameras I have owned called Digital Photo Professional (DPP) which was easier to use with my latest Canon camera (mirrorless EOS RP) which has a built in routine to take stackable images sequences. Canon calls the 'Focus Bracketing' but it is the same concept. I have posted quite a few image stacked coin photos on Coin Talk over the last ten years and explained the process several times. When shooting images to be stacked, you ALWAYS shoot from a solid tripod or stand and shoot the closest one first. After that you focus slightly farther away and shoot another and another until you have shot enough images to have every point sharp that you want. I have done this with 3 or four and I have done some with 50 depending on the subject. Canon's new cameras allow setting up to 999 images to be taken with focus change amount being adjustable from almost nothing (used with microscopes mostly) too rather coarse. It takes practice to learn which settings to use. About the same time as I found Coin Talk in 2009 (old timers did not know it was lost) I posted the above little demonstration showing how three images with some sharp points joined to make one with front to back focus. The add on lenses sold for phones tend to be a single element (often plastic) and lack corrections for aberrations that require multiple elements that are made from different types of glass with different indices of refraction. The worst one have no flat field so the center might be sharp at one distance but the edges at another. There are may different aberrations some relating to shape and size of image points and some relating to how color changes the sharpness of the image. On one of my earlier photo pages I showed a comparison of images taken with a color corrected close up lens and a single element lens which introduced color fringing. In the last 20 years the state of the art in lens design has progressed to the point that the $500 lens I bought in 2006 is considered worthless today by people we call 'pixel peepers' but still take what most of us consider to be great photos. There are also software routines that can 'correct' some aberrations to some degree. I can not keep up. My current camera and most recent lenses are second rate but still better than the best that was available ten years ago. It is scary.
Sorry, I forgot that CT can't handle image links at the moment. the image I wanted to show is on this 2003 page about halfway down under 'Accessory Lenses': http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/ph2003.html This page from 2003 was when I was using a, then considered good, camera that cost a lot of money and is worthless in the used market today.
Rather than editing to correct the lost image links above: This is the demonstration of focus stacking (click to enlarge): This is just a sample of a coin that lends itself to the technique: This was the first image I took trying to learn to use the Canon built in Focus Bracketing. It suffers here and there from the subject moving between the exposures.
