Z8 pixel shift + focus shift simultaneously

[Gordon Ripley]

I did my fiirst experiment this morning doing a simultaneous pixel shift and focus shift together. I set the pixel shift to 8 photos max and the focus shift to 200 steps with step size of 1. I set the focus limiting from .7 to .9 meters (I was photographing a Eucalyptus blossom plus leaves behind it). It took a LONG time and resulted in 1599 images that were ALL IN THE SAME FOLDER!! So, I had to figure out what I had. It seems it should have been 200 sets of 8 photos but instead yielded one image less. The 200 groups of 8 represent a pixel shift group for all 200 photos. This means that I have to combine 200 pixel shift groups of 8 images each to get 200 final pixel shifted images. Then I have to combine the 200 pixel shifted images and treat them as a group of focus shifted images to finally get 1 image that is pixel shifted and focus shifted!!!

I am spelling this all out in the chance that someone else might be confused as to what happens when pixel shifting is combnes with focus shifting. To summarise, the camera does a pixel shift GROUP FOR EACH FOCUS SHIFT POSITION.

When processing the final images do so in groups of shifted pixel images to get single pixel shifted images for each focus shift position. Those photos and THEN processed as focus shift photos.

I hope this was of use to other Z8 users who are thinking of trying this out.

I expect that perhaps next time i will forego the pixel shift process and just do the FOCUS SHIFT PROCESS PLUS FOCUS LIMITING.

Gordon Ripley

 

[skyrunr]

Any samples to share? I'd kind of like to see the differences between FS, PS, and FS+PS.

 

[jaymc]

Here's a good youtube of someone doing this.

 

[Gordon Ripley]

with 200 imeges to process, i haven't had time to do so. I will try to share when i have them done. I thought i would see if there is a way to automatically process 200 pixel shifted groups of 8 images per group. If i find any I will also share that process.

Gordon

 

[Gordon Ripley]

thank you. great source of information.

Gordon

 

[Pshots23]

I tried it, it is a amazing technology and the results are really good, (amazing really, this is an amazing capability). My only issue is, my computer, (so far only tried photoshop), can not handle merging the pixel shift / focus shift photos. Combining pixel shift images is not an issue, but taking the large pixel shift images and trying to combine them for the last step, I can't do it on my system unless I keep it to like 2 or 4 images.

 

[Gordon Ripley]

So, if the following is known:

1. focus step set

2. Lens attached

3. Focus distance (from focus limiting)

4. Camera being used

5. F stop

Shouldn't we be able to determine ahead of time the number of photos that will be taken? I think there could be an App for this! s

In my original test I set the number of shots to 200 and that is what it took.

This is now confusing to me!!! If I specified the number of shots and a specific step then how is that reconciled with the focus distance that I specified?

Question is: What if the number of shots hapens before the farthest distance set in focus limiting has been reached ?

I seem to remember that with focus shift before focus limiting that it take pictures starting with where it was initially focused and then continue taking pictures until it was sharp out to infinity?

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Gordon

 

[Gordon Ripley]

I jst asked Google and it says that the number of shots limit supercedes the farthest distance specified. So, if I specify 100 shots and the camera has not reached the farthest distance the process just stops

That app I mentions could be very useful in this situation!

Gordon

 

[Gordon Ripley]

Last one I hope...

I feel that if nikon wanted to, they could, with a firmware update, show the number of pictures that will be taken based upon the lens mounted, f/stop set, near and far distance set in focus limiting and the step value set etc.

They could ALSO take into account whether of not Pixel Shift was also included in the mix and include the the shifted images count as well in the total.

Just a thought

Gordon

 

[Ken Seals]

I did some tests of this with my Z 8 right after the firmware V3.0 update.

Have you been able to get NX studio to combine the .nefx images created with each pixel shift series into the final focus stacked version? I had to do the final focus stack of the nefx files in Photoshop.

 

[myb17]

Bryan

 

[Pshots23]

I did some tests of this with my Z 8 right after the firmware V3.0 update.

Have you been able to get NX studio to combine the .nefx images created with each pixel shift series into the final focus stacked version? I had to do the final focus stack of the nefx files in Photoshop.

 

[Ken Seals]

I did some tests of this with my Z 8 right after the firmware V3.0 update.

Have you been able to get NX studio to combine the .nefx images created with each pixel shift series into the final focus stacked version? I had to do the final focus stack of the nefx files in Photoshop.

No, I don't think NX Studio does focus stacking. How many pixel shifted images did you focus stack in PS and how did that go for you? I noticed your system has 64gb of RAM, that would help me decide if upgrading from 32gb is worth it.

I tried several different camera settings. One focus stack merge of the nefx images was 15 and another 9. It wasn't really fast but acceptably quick.

I sent the images to PS from LrC in order to easily get them into layers. So, LrC was also running, as well as chrome.

 

[MasterOfGoingFaster]

So, if the following is known:

1. focus step set
2. Lens attached
3. Focus distance (from focus limiting)
4. Camera being used
5. F stop

Shouldn't we be able to determine ahead of time the number of photos that will be taken? I think there could be an App for this!

When I was reading your post, I thought "200 shots times 8 shot focus shift is 1600 shots." Perhaps the only app you need is a calculator. BTW, I suspect your first shot was named something like Z8-0000 and the last shot Z8-1599, a total of 1600 shots. Your first shot was "0", and the second shot was "1". So 1600 shots will end up as "1599".

Question is: What if the number of shots hapens before the farthest distance set in focus limiting has been reached ?

It stops shooting.