I think that "focus stacking" is very different from the stacking applied to astronomy. In astronomy the images are intended to be all at the same point of focus and the best images are then stacked. Focus stacking involves a series of images of an object, each image at a slightly different point of focus so that the whole depth of field occupied by the object appears in focus. I have seen it used in macro images of insects. Mark
I recall years ago helping my Son by attending at a home he had for sale so as to represent an office presence for the client vendor.
The photographer was was impressive in so far as he played up to the vendor discussing angles and light and how to get photos that would do the home justice ....and he dropped in his experience and qualifications blah blah blah....so we had a chat...so to be interested in what he did I asked if he ever took dark frames...no idea.
But I was able to educate him and he seemed happy he learnt something new.
Alex
I keep meaning to try ot with a cheap micro scope that you would get from jcar for about $70
I dont know that you could stack the images i say deep sky stacker but say if you layered up 8 frames of an bed bugs legs or something I think the cheap set up could produce good results...someone would have done it..there will be something out there...
Alex
I've done focus stacking with my microscope, its great. Microscopes have such a tiny depth of focus its a great tool. I don't think its much usein astro though or using astro software as the stacking is different for different reasons. Focus stacking is about keeping the sharpest pixels from the stack and throwing the rest away. But Integration (astro stacking) keeps ALL the pixels to give you more depth/broader histogram in order to pull out faint signalswithout being swamped by noise. By averaging in integration you gain confidence for what each pixel should be which results in a visually sharper image than a single frame yields. But you throw away little of the data at all so to use it for focus stacking you retain all the good plus all the bad and the results are more an ortone or soft focus effect. Maybe artsy but not practical for the purpose, just because your cancer cells look nice does it serve any practical purpose?
