One of the most helpful videos that took my macro to the next level. This video is gold. Thank you sir for your contributions !

@JamieSpensley

25 күн бұрын

Thanks, glad it was helpful!

I can see your channel taking off quickly, mixture of in field walks with occasional workflow thrown in, fast becoming one of my favourite macro channels. Been using Zereene for a long time now it has some amazing built in tools.

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Thank you! I will keep posting and hopefully people like the content. I've only been using Zerene for a couple years and it's amazing

I’ve never been happy with stacking in Photoshop so I will give Zerene a go. Hope you do some more videos like this as there’s quite a lot to pick up in one go! Thank you for sharing all this as I know how long it can take to work it all out….

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

I used to stack in Photoshop but I would highly recommend Zerene Stacker. I'll make more videos on my process in the future. Definitely a lot of information to cover

Really nice video, and cool to see some of your editing workflow! I have quite a similar process in zerene, one thing I'd recommend is you can retouch the dmap stack using part of the pmax stack. pmax tends to render areas with overlapping focus areas like multiple hairs much better, so I usually start with the dmap stack (since like you said the colors are better on that), and paint in the parts that pmax rendered better. After that I still often do quite a bit of retouching from the input frames, but using the best parts of both methods definitely saves some time.

@JamieSpensley

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I've never thought of doing that. Thanks for the tip :)

Fantastic video! I think more macro content creators should share their stacking and editing process

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!

I like your process. Since you go through so much detail I suggest something that I've found useful. I've found that I very often find stuff later that I've missed so 13:21 instead of flattening after all that work, keep the layers in a group, dupe the group and flatten that. That way there's always a path for me to fix stuff without having to remember all the steps I went through. Especially when you get into smart filters/layers and detailed layer adjustments. If you're just futzing around with one photo merging and moving on works. But if you have a bunch of work and deadlines, being able to walk your editing back is a huge time saver. And it's less HD intensive than saving multiple versions. This way you're keeping the multiple versions in one file. It also helps to name your groups and layers. You always think you're surely going to remember what you did, but even a few weeks later it's a mystery without naming things.

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

I've done some more complicated things in Photoshop before and I have used this method you mention. But for macro, there are only a couple adjustments so I don't worry too much about organisation

Final image amazing

Nice tour of your workflow. You mention how long and tedious it can be retouching some end photos in Zerene Stacker. I think that part of the problem is caused by using the DMax option instead of PMax. I have been steadily doing focus stacking for 5 years now, using Helicon Focus mostly, Affinity Photo occasionally, and Zerene Stacker almost exclusively for the last 3 months. PMax (or the equivalent, e.g. Method C in Helicon Focus) is better for subjects with overlapping features at diffferent planes, such as insects legs. PMax is more contrasty, but it takes less time to adjust this in the photo editor than endless retouching in the focus stacking software. You can also reduce the contrast in the photos before submitting them to the focus stacking software. My workflow starts by culling useless photos and creating a folder for each stack using Faststone Image Viewer (a great software with lots of uses). Then I process each stack with Dxo PhotoLab 6. This is the longest part of the workflow because I shoot in CRAW (Canon) and I found that DeepPrime noise reduction makes a big difference even when shooting at 200 ISO. The exported JPGs are then sent to the focus stacking software. I switched from Helicon Focus to Zerene Stacker mostly because of the alignment process. Zerene Stacker and Affinity Photo are more robust at accurately aligning my photos, which are often wobbly because I exclusively do hand-held focus bracketing. I found that trying to manually adjust the alignment parameters by trial and error in Helicon Focus is tedious. However the retouching tools are more powerful in HF, and the interface is more modern and elaborate, with options to save 3D movies, etc. The final editing (crop, horizon, contast, light,etc ) is done in Dxo PhotoLab, and I occasionally use Topaz Labs software to improve sharpness or reduce noise. If you want to see some of my results, you can check on iNaturalist, my tag is cback. By the way Wolf Amri did a nice video on focus stacking that complements yours ( kzread.info/dash/bejne/o3WArs9vncLOYdo.html ). Keep going on, your videos are always interesting to watch.

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

I saw your comment a while ago, only just got round to replying. I have recently been generating PMax's and painting them into my DMap's. It makes the process a lot quicker! Thanks!

Great to see your editing process. love all the tips. Thanks Jamie :D

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Thank you for this video! All of your videos are great for people to learn from, and your images are amazing. Keep it up!

@JamieSpensley

Жыл бұрын

Much appreciated!

Nice video again Jamie, thanks!

@JamieSpensley

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

simple and good! thank you and keep walking

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Awesome work from you. Heavily Underrated! Glad i founf your channel

@JamieSpensley

2 ай бұрын

Thank you! Should have more macro content out soon

Good 👍

Great video Jamie, I have just bought an Olympus set up for macro, keep up the workflow videos! BTW your macro shots are next level mate 👌

@JamieSpensley

5 ай бұрын

Thank you! I hope you get some great shots with your new setup!

Love your channel 🙂Very informative video. You inspired me to try Zerene

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! Glad to have inspired you

Hi, I'm new to macro photography, and I really like your channel, and I wanted to know how you take so many photos with the flash without losing power, or what do you recommend for focus bracketing, in terms of power settings and taking photos, thanks

Thanks for great stacking process video, very interested to know your process to capture so many consecutive shots in order of front to back focus plane to be used in stacking software?

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Thanks! I use automatic focus bracketing which is where the camera turns the focus ring for me while taking images. I sometimes just move back and forth while holding the shutter too

Thanks for sharing your focus stack editing process Jamie. It's really very instructive to see, but it does also demonstrate that there's a *lot* of post-processing work involved to create each focus stacked image (and presumably quite a powerful PC?). I'm sure it's difficult to generalise, but roughly how much time on average would you say you spend at the computer to produce each final image?

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

It depends on how well the image stacks. If it does a bad job of stacking, I can spend about an hour ish retouching. But if it is a clean stack I can probably edit it in about 10 to 20 mins

Hi Jamie! Excellent video! Have you tried Helicon Focus? It looks like Zerene Stacker works the same as Helicon. Just was curious if they are comparable or one is better than the other? Thanks again!

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

I've tried it but I like the layout of Zerene Stacker. It's a lot easier to work around in my opinion. But I've heard that Helicon has pretty much the same results as Zerene

so you took 116 images single shots ? Did you just keep moving back and forth while firing off shots. I know the focus bracketing mode can only do 99 so I'm assuming thats what you did? I'm just learning so sorry for all the questions.

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

Bracketing can go up to 999 shots. So I just press the shutter again to stop the process when I've got enough shots

Thanks for that. Have you compared this to stacking it in Photoshop?

@JamieSpensley

Жыл бұрын

I haven't but I used to stack in Photoshop and the reason I switched was because Zerene Stacker was much easier to retouch.

@alandimery3379

Жыл бұрын

@@JamieSpensley thanks. Zerene is probably the way I wil go if I migrate from PS.

Is the advantage of Zerene over Helicon the ability to edit your images before importing to the stacking software? Helicon will only import the unedited dng image. The stacked dng image can then be edited once staked.

@JamieSpensley

Жыл бұрын

I edit my images in Lightroom which is another software, before stacking in Zerene. I've tried helicon once and it let me do the same.

Very helpful video re image stacking workflow. I’ve been using Photoshop but can see how Zerene Stacker makes sense for big stacks. Is Zerene better than Helicon in your experience? Think I need to commit to one or the other. Cheers.

@JamieSpensley

9 ай бұрын

People have made videos comparing them but they are virtually the same. I'd say pick the one you feel most comfortable using. I liked the interface of Zerene so I stuck with Zerene.

You shoot these pictures with just a manual lens?

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

I use manual focus but I often use auto bracketing which is where the camera turns the focus ring for me

@iikzii

11 ай бұрын

​@@JamieSpensley oh okay, but how do you focus stack an insect if you were using just manual focus, do you just have to have a super steady hand? or do you just take like 100 shots and choose which ever are the best in focus, sorry for these questions I've never done micro photography before and my camera doesn't have focus stacking feature sadly

@JamieSpensley

11 ай бұрын

@@iikzii I get at steady as I can and move very slowly forward to get all the focal points I need for stacking. It is much easier to stack when the bug is on the floor or you are holding the object the bug is on

@iikzii

11 ай бұрын

@@JamieSpensley oohh I see thank you I might give that a try sometime