Excellent thread!

Bernie and Charlie, excellent thread!

This technique is being termed "focus stacking" and you can google on that term to find many tools.

Helicon is but one tool and it costs $115 for a permanent license, or $30 for a one year license - and it's available for a free 30 day trial.

Another competing tool that's open source (free) is CombineZM. Has anyone tried this product? I've heard it's harder to use than Helicon, so I guess you get what you pay for.

There are other tools as well listed in Wikipedia, but I'm less familiar with those.

The promise of focus stacking tools for getting absolutely stunning model railroad images is exciting. I've seen this topic discussed elsewhere and some seem to feel it's something of a "cheat" and not a "real" image taken with old school methods. To that mindset, I have to observe that it's all art and even the old techniques aren't the real thing - they're all some abstract representation of reality. One could even argue that the old school methods introducing blur outside the depth of field is actually distorting reality more!

I personally love the stunning images possible with all the new tools. If the main point is communicating undistorted information, the focus stacking technique gives you cleaner, clearer visual information in the image. And being a visual sort of guy, I just love that!

CombineZ

I tried CombineZ but was not impressed. It is not as easy to use as Helicon Focus.  I have been so satisfied with Helicon Focus, that I really didn't see the need to try other sources. I bought the Mac version for about $90 IIRC.

Maybe we'll have to do a bake off

Maybe we'll have to do a bake off at some point with all the tools and report on it in MRH. Could be useful info and as a magazine that depends on high tech delivery methods, I would expect our readership to be more skewed in interest to using techy tools in their modeling and sharing.

Focus stacking- cheating?

I don't abide by this notion. As I stated in my post above, focus stacking is a technique that allows model railroad shots to more realistically simulate the hyperfocal effect of a prototype shot. I feel that it is no more cheating than using paint to make a model more realistically look like a prototype, assuming that realism is what we are striving for.

On the other hand, here is a photo-technique website where the author is demonstrating a way to make actual photos look like models -the reverse of what we are trying to do. He basically does this by selectively blurring areas of an image using masks and blur tools.  Here is a link to his website.   http://www.recedinghairline.co.uk/tutorials/fakemodel/

Depth of Field

Some of us are reaching the age where we can see our models much better in photographs than we can by looking at the layout itself.  It's a scary thought, but maybe the only time I will ever get to see even my tiny layout entirely in focus is through using one of these programs . . .

It's More than Depth of Field

I find that by placing a camera within a scene on my layout I get views of locations on my layout that would be difficult or impossible to see in person.

Regards,

Charlie Comstock

If you're going to all the trouble

If you're going to all the trouble to build nicely detailed and weathered models, why not enjoy the visual satisfaction of that effort every way possible?

Focus stacking and railfan viewpoint images of your layout does that marvelously. More eye candy, yum, yum!

Hey Bernie, how'd you get the

Hey Bernie, how'd you get the light on that great picture with the A-B-A units to look so much like sunlight? That was shot indoors wasn't it? Or was it? The combination of light, depth of field, modeling and composition make that picture look like you were shooting REAL trains! N-scale, freakin' just about unbelievable...

Charlie

Rock solid mount?

So how do you keep your camera in a rock solid position between photos, realizing that you've got to both change the focal point and trip the shutter?

Are you hooking the camera up to a computer via USB and controlling it that way?

Use a tripod

 Jeff,

I use a tripod and my camera's internal CF card to store the images. My camera has the ability to shoot using my Mac as a controller, but I tend not to use it.

I import the photos once I have taken the set. I tend to do one pose at a time. This makes it easier to go back and reshoot if I notice a mistake in the image set, such as a wheel off the track or a flaw in the composition.

BCK

I use a tripod too!

But since I am not using remote control of the camera I currently use the self-timer function.

Once the camera is set into position on the tripod, f-stop set, focus and zoom composed then I press the shutter and the camera beeps until count-down to snap the shot, no fuzzy images with this method so far.

BTW, great thread here guys!

Cheers,

Holding the camera rock solid

Holding the camera rock solid is important even when shooting 'conventional' pictures (that is a single frame instead of multiple frames to be combined by a program like Helicon Focus). When shooting at f32 under layout lighting or special photo lighting my exposure times get into the 1 second (or more) range¹. If the camera isn't absolutely steady during such an exposure the picture will be blurred a bit (or a lot). Using tricks like mirror-lock-up² with a DSLR will help as will using a remote shutter release³. Newer digital cameras can be controlled using a USB port. My Canon 40D will let me see on a computer screen what the camera is seing and control all exposure parameters including focus, exposure, f-stop, and white balance. However, you'll need to have a computer near to the camera for this as the maximum length USB cable is around 16' for reliable operation.

When shooting pictures for a program like Helicon Focus the camera MUST be held in the identical position for all the shots necessitating either a tripod or a bean-bag4.

Regards,

Charlie Comstock

¹this is a place where a compact camera with its min aperature of f8 or so helps - exposures at f8 are a LOT shorter than at f32 - with the much shorter lens focal length of a compact f8 will give aproximately the same depth of field as f32 on a 35mm camera.

²in a DSLR or film SLR there is a mirror which directs the image coming through the lens up into the viewfinder. To take a picture the camera must swing this mirror out of the way prior to exposing the image. Moving the mirror assembly makes the camera 'quiver' a bit. The quivering lasts about 1/10 to 1 second depending on the lens attached - the more telephoto the lens the more quivering sensitivity is present.

³remote shutter releases let you trip the shutter without having put your hands on the camera potentially jiggling it when you press the shutter release button. Older cameras often have mechanical release that works a bit like an old automotive choke cable (piano wire sliding through a flexible tube). Newer cameras will have either an electric release that is plugged into the camera body or a wireless - infra red or radio - release. Some  wireless releases can work at large distances (300'+) and are for wildlife photography.

⁴A bean-bag is just what it sounds like - a small bag filled with 'beans'. The camera is placed on the bag which provides a steady/inert platform. Sometimes the 'beans' are lead shot for further stability.However using a bean-bag to shoot Helicon-Focus images requires using the USB port because touching the camera to refocus will likely shift it on the bean-bag.

Helicon focus

I've made my picture with "CombineZM". It's free!

http://www.westportterminal.de/H0-USA/Diamond_Valley/structures/08-08-16_IMG_5234-51_1200.jpg

Wolfgang

Bernard, I believe Jeff's

Bernard,

I believe Jeff's question was more focused on how do you actually avoid moving your camera between shots, when you manually operate the focus ring. This is exactly what I was about to ask before reading Jeff's comment...

the tripod eliminates movement

 With the camera solidly locked in the tripod, there is no movement of the camera body. All I do is carefully turn the lens by a small increment. I use the rubber grip lines on the lens as a guide. I generally turn the focus about two or three lines per shot.

On those occasions when I am a clutz and trip on the tripod leg, moving the camera, I just erase the images and start over.

Focus Stacking with ImageJ

Hi Guys,

I have tried the plug-ins available for ImageJ - a nice Java program that runs on Mac, Windows, Linux and others.  The two plug-ins are the ones mentioned on the Wikipedia page "Focus Stacking" that Joe mentioned above - "Exnteded Depth of Field" and "Stack Focuser".  With both plug-ins you load all the images into imageJ and then you make them into a stack - you can cycle through the stacj easily and make sure all your images are aligned - and then you activate teh plug-in.  I fiddled with the options to get teh best picture in both cases I could.  You can see that neither got the telephone pole right, probably because it moves quite a bit between images as the images change focus.  the Stack Focuser did the best job with the fewest artifact and was the simplest to use.  I found the default options were the best.

Both programs are free and ImageJ is free.  ImageJ is very useful in its own right as an image processor.

Here are the two images; Stack Focuser first and Extended Depth of Field second:

Duncan McRee http://www.tamvalleyrr.comSan Diego

An attempt with PS Elements

So here is my attempt at creating something using Elements.  I used 5 photos and layered them up so the forground was at the bottom then deleted the out of focus parts in each layer, making sure I didn't leave a hole in the photo.  It was a bit tricky around the handrails and I found I could copy small selections from one layer to trim another.  It took me about 4 hours including setting up (out in the driveway) to take the photos.

For a camera I used a Samsung S850.  On aperature priority it stops down to about F7.4 in macro.  It was on a tripod of course.

The train is an SD40-2 and 2 B30-7As pulling a Boeing train, the greenish blue thing visible through the bridge.

Cheers,

Paul Mack Hillsboro, OR

Man that looks good

Man that looks good but that's one heck of a lot of work! But hey, if it weren't for the size of the spike heads I would have had a hard time figuring if was really a model or was a ringer (a real train presented as a model)!

Did you get any interesting reactions from passers by while you were doing the shooting?

btw. Paul is one of my operators on the Bear Creek and South Jackson.

Cheers,

Charlie Comstock

Thanks Bernard, this makes it

Thanks Bernard,

this makes it clear!

Excellent job!!!

Excellent job!!!

Nobody noticed

Our driveway is at the end of a dead end street so nobody even went by.  I think the neighbors are all out of town or used to me photographing things in the driveway.  (At least I think there are people living in the houses around us, I very seldom see anyone.)  The track is Atlas Code 83 and not only is the spike detail huge the rail head is a funny shape.  It is quite durable though.  The next module will have Micro Engineering track but I will have to do something to keep the rail attached to the ties during setup.  I will probably do something similiar to what you did, Charlie, at your gate at the door, soldering the rail to a screw.

I could probably do another one in about half the time, now that I have the process figured out.  I wish the trees in the background were farther away or smaller but at least the greens all match.  Now I wonder how to do HDR photos with Elements.

Paul

Hot off the presses...

Here are two more helicon-focus contructed photos (so new the electrons barely had time to dry before I posted). The BC&SJ paint shop foreman showed up for the Saturday nite op session with a pair of Kato RS-2s (dang those things run nicely!) in the new paint scheme so naturally I had to waste time photographing them.

Anyway I staged a meet at Oakhill with all BC&SJ yellow stripe units and here are the results...

(a more or less conventional view)

(I sat the camera down inside the layout for this one)

Ain't that micro engineering flex gorgeous in the low angle lighting?

Update!

Well, it seems that these two pix don't really have the resolution to show off the depth of field. So! For your viewing enjoyment here are links to a couple of much higher res (1920x1200) images.

http://www.bcsj.org/HFpix/20080901-BCSJpaintjob_07_aa.jpg

http://www.bcsj.org/HFpix/20080901-BCSJpaintjob_10_aa.jpg

Cheers,

Charlie Comstock