Unsharp border around focus stacked images with GFX100s

[Painter19]

I’ve been trying focus bracketing and stacking for the first time the past week or so. The past few days I’ve been shooting and stacking using my GFX 100s + GF63, GF 45-100@65mm, and even GF30. I’ve been shooting my studio and all the shots have been at f11. I’ve shot sequences with ES, MS, and EF shutter settings using the camera’s FBKT Manual, and FBKT Auto modes. I have a Mac computer and have been using Photoshop’s tools to create the stack and auto align and then blend the shots. I think I’m doing all the steps bracketing and stacking correctly ,but all the flattened stacks from the various lenses and shutter types have an unsharp band at or near the edge of the frame pretty much all the way around the frame. I recently updated my 100s firmware to V 2.12 . Never tried bracketing or stacking prior so don’t know if the firmware might be an issue? Anyone's ideas would be much appreciated. A few captioned crops included from the GF 45-100 stacks below. Only the top edge of the crop is also the edge of the full frame stack. Again the unsharp band goes all the way around the frame of the full frame stack.


GFX100s+Gf45-100@65mm, EF, FBKT Auto Mode (shot 19 frames) , 0 interval, f11, on tripod.


GFX100s+GF45-100 @ 65mm, MS


FBKT Auto Mode (it shot 20 frames), 0 interval, on tripod f11. unsharp band can be see along top edge of the crop

 

[vjbelle]

Try using either Zerene or Helicon to see if that eliminates the blurred edge. I do not use photoshop for any focus stacking.

Victor B.

 

[fredlord]

You could try Affinity <https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/>

It also has a stacking function.

 

[Painter19]

Try using either Zerene or Helicon to see if that eliminates the blurred edge. I do not use photoshop for any focus stacking.

Victor B.

Thanks. I see a lot of folks like Helicon and they have a free 30-day trial. Hadn’t heard of Zerene. I’m just curious what the issue is. I know someone with the same gear as I’ve been using and an older firmware version for the 100s (I think) who doesn’t have this issue.

 

[Painter19]

You could try Affinity <https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/>

It also has a stacking function.

Thanks. I’ll have a look.

 

[JimKasson]

Looks like focus breathing to me.

Jim

 

[Painter19]

Looks like focus breathing to me.

Jim

Thanks, Jim Is there any remedy for it ? As I mentioned I tried 3 different lenses with similar results. Things seemed a bit better when I used the 45-100, though. Here’s a top right corner crop . The top and right edges of this crop are the edges of the full frame stack.


GFX 100s + GF 45-100@65mm, 0 interval, ES, FBKT Auto, f11, on tripod

 

[JimKasson]

Looks like focus breathing to me.

Jim

Thanks, Jim Is there any remedy for it ?

Cropping. Or editing the layers.

As I mentioned I tried 3 different lenses with similar results. Things seemed a bit better when I used the 45-100, though. Here’s a top right corner crop . The top and right edges of this crop are the edges of the full frame stack.


GFX 100s + GF 45-100@65mm, 0 interval, ES, FBKT Auto, f11, on tripod

--
https://blog.kasson.com

 

[Painter19]

Looks like focus breathing to me.

Jim

Thanks, Jim Is there any remedy for it ?

Cropping. Or editing the layers.

As I mentioned I tried 3 different lenses with similar results. Things seemed a bit better when I used the 45-100, though. Here’s a top right corner crop . The top and right edges of this crop are the edges of the full frame stack.


GFX 100s + GF 45-100@65mm, 0 interval, ES, FBKT Auto, f11, on tripod

Thanks. Can you tell me a bit about what editing the layers would entail? Are there any softwares like Helicon, or other, that can deal with this better than Photoshop? Anything I could do in the shooting to minimize the problem?

 

[Crispy_Bee]

Looks like focus breathing to me.

Jim

Thanks, Jim Is there any remedy for it ?

Cropping. Or editing the layers.

As I mentioned I tried 3 different lenses with similar results. Things seemed a bit better when I used the 45-100, though. Here’s a top right corner crop . The top and right edges of this crop are the edges of the full frame stack.


GFX 100s + GF 45-100@65mm, 0 interval, ES, FBKT Auto, f11, on tripod

Thanks. Can you tell me a bit about what editing the layers would entail? Are there any softwares like Helicon, or other, that can deal with this better than Photoshop? Anything I could do in the shooting to minimize the problem?

Most dedicated focus stacking software like Helicon Focus have the option to automatically crop the image so border and edge artifacts aren't going to appear any more.

Additionally you can use the GFX RAW files directly with Helicon Focus to generate a linear DNG file, preserving pretty much all of the editing ability of the original RAW file (albeit with a larger file size). In CaptureOne the DNG files are also appear slightly darker but other than that it's a great way of retaining the ability to make some finer adjustments after the stack.

Takes a bit longer though, as the RAW files have to be converted/read/opened by AdobeDNGConverter first, but that automatically happens in the background.

 

[dbateman]

As others have indicated I think its the way Adobe is merging the files. I am not a fan of Adobe products, but I know I am an outlier.

If you spent all your money on the gear and don't have cash for software try Picolay:

https://www.picolay.de/

It has excellent tutorials to get you started.

If you're not happy try Zerene. It has free trial and uses different algorithm than Picolay. Helicon uses the same algorithm as Picolay.

https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker

I own but haven't use Affinity photo for stacking.

You may even want to try different software, as sometimes the output is better with different settings and this can depend on image.

 

[Crispy_Bee]

As others have indicated I think its the way Adobe is merging the files. I am not a fan of Adobe products, but I know I am an outlier.

If you spent all your money on the gear and don't have cash for software try Picolay:

https://www.picolay.de/

It has excellent tutorials to get you started.

If you're not happy try Zerene. It has free trial and uses different algorithm than Picolay. Helicon uses the same algorithm as Picolay.

https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker

I own but haven't use Affinity photo for stacking.

You may even want to try different software, as sometimes the output is better with different settings and this can depend on image.

Helicon and Zerene use the same two general algorithms only the nomenclature is different (can't speak for Picolay or Affinity).

DMap = depth map = Method B

PMax = pyramid = Method C

Differences are mainly that Zerene has additional fine controls (contrast threshold) and very good stereo-imaging, whereas Helicon has hardware acceleration (for most graphics cards and ARM processors like Apple M, so it's extremly fast) DNG output and 3d model rendering capability (based on depth map data).

 

[Rodenmg]

My gut feeling is your test case is not something that would be considered a good subject for focus bracketing and not something you would normally do in “the real world”.

What is the distance from the camera to the closest focus point?

And to the last focus point?

Could you please post the first and last photo in your stack, full frame and unedited?

I use focusing bracketing/stacking with the GfX100s a lot. The anomaly you’re seeing has nothing to do with the camera or firmware level. There are times when it’s just not the right tool for the job.

 

[John Crowe]

I have been manually focus stacking for over five years. There is nothing wrong with your software. Focus breathing means that the software, in the aligning process, has to adjust the size of each image to match up the key elements in the image. The outside frames also get worse when there has been even a slight movement to the camera while making the images.

Simply crop the extreme borders.

Also keep an eye out for any artifacts throughout the image. Unless you use absolutely precise methods, and are dealing with completely still subjects, you may need to use some cloning from contributing images to repair some of the focus blending.

In an outdoor environment focus stacking is a challenge but very rewarding.

Have fun with it!

 

[Rodenmg]

Like Jim and I both said, focus breathing is a problem with some lenses when you try to cover a relatively large range of focus.

For this example I used a GF23-64 at 64mm which I know has a little breathing. 23 frames shot at f11

First example is processed in Photoshop and you can easily see the effect of breathing on the edges.

The second example is processed in Helicon which does a nicer job of masking the problem.




Photoshop




Helicon



--
... Mike, formerly known as Rod.
... https://www.flickr.com/photos/198581502@N02/

 

[BobsYourUncle]

As others have indicated I think its the way Adobe is merging the files. I am not a fan of Adobe products, but I know I am an outlier.

If you spent all your money on the gear and don't have cash for software try Picolay:

https://www.picolay.de/

It has excellent tutorials to get you started.

If you're not happy try Zerene. It has free trial and uses different algorithm than Picolay. Helicon uses the same algorithm as Picolay.

https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker

I own but haven't use Affinity photo for stacking.

You may even want to try different software, as sometimes the output is better with different settings and this can depend on image.

Helicon and Zerene use the same two general algorithms only the nomenclature is different (can't speak for Picolay or Affinity).

DMap = depth map = Method B

PMax = pyramid = Method C

Differences are mainly that Zerene has additional fine controls (contrast threshold) and very good stereo-imaging, whereas Helicon has hardware acceleration (for most graphics cards and ARM processors like Apple M, so it's extremly fast) DNG output and 3d model rendering capability (based on depth map data).

I use Zerene on my M3 Mac and it processes stacks fairly quickly. Recently a 70 image GFX100SII stack concurrently processed in both the DMap and PMax with alignment took no more than 30->60 seconds.

 

[Painter19]

Like Jim and I both said, focus breathing is a problem with some lenses when you try to cover a relatively large range of focus.

For this example I used a GF23-64 at 64mm which I know has a little breathing. 23 frames shot at f11

First example is processed in Photoshop and you can easily see the effect of breathing on the edges.

The second example is processed in Helicon which does a nicer job of masking the problem.


Photoshop


Helico

Thanks very much to you, and to Jim for identifying the problem for me, and to you both and all the others who have responded for your suggestions about how to deal with it. It’s all so helpful, and very much appreciated ! Sorry for my delayed response. I got up late today.

My crops were from the scene shown below in my painting studio in rather dim light . My 100s was on a solid tripod on a Leofoto geared head angled down and towards a far corner with the lens plane not parallel to either of the walls or floor, or the canvas surface.

The stool top in my shots was about 3.5’ from the front of my lens. The blue painter’s tape on the far wall was about 12’ away. Here are the first and last frames in one of the stacks.

I’m not sure how much focus stacking I’ll be doing in the future in my mainly landscape photography, but it seems like a useful tool to know about and be able to use. Accordingly, I may try Helicon or one of the other softwares at some point. I see Helicon has a free 30-day trial.

Here are the first and last images from a FBKT Manual, 15 frame max (camera shot 15 frames), step 6, 0 interval sequence shot with my 100s + GF 63, f11 on a tripod . They were opened in ACR then in PS with Adobe’s Neutral Profile applied otherwise sooc. I saved these 2 as tiffs and and am sharing them as pngs scaled to 50%. Unfortunately, these are the only 2 frames from a bracket I saved. Otherwise, I would have shared some GF 45-100 frames from a FBKT Auto Mode stack.


First image shot


Final image shot

I’m wondering if anyone has tested the various GF lenses for how much focus breathing they do?

 

[John Crowe]

Did Helicon actually do a better job of alignment, or did it simply crop out the problem automatically, as suggested in another reply?

I'd rather do the cropping myself.

 

[Rodenmg]

Did Helicon actually do a better job of alignment, or did it simply crop out the problem automatically, as suggested in another reply?

I'd rather do the cropping myself.

I would rather use the one that processes a 150 frame stack in 1/10 the time and gives you tools to edit the results on a frame to frame basis.

 

[John Crowe]

Interesting to hear. If I start pushing the limits of PS I'll have to consider it. Affordable too! Know any good stitching software? I tried many alternatives to PS about ten years ago and they were all from the age of the dinosaurs. Hmmm, I resemble that last remark.