Razor Sharp Photos with Focus Stacking In Luminar Neo? - Beta Version First Tests
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2024
- Get NEO with Focus Stacking and other extensions with discount code ATNEO here: bit.ly/Luminar... Focus stacking is used to achieve maximum sharpness from front to back in your photos. The latest plugin for Luminar NEO now let's us do it. But is it any good. I take the BETA version for a test drive.
Landscapes, product photography and macro all benefit from this technique. Let's take a look at the beta version of focus stacking and I'll show you a big mistake to avoid!
Please let me know if you'd like a follow up video going deeper into focus stacking including how to take the series of images. It's your comments and requests that drive which videos I make. The more requests I get for a topic the more likely it is I'll invest the time to make it. Thanks for watching!
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Thanks for including the mistake you made. It is likely one that we will make too, so it's great to learn from each other.
AT, as always great video! I’d love to have you do a “how to” on landscape focus stacking. I’ve done plenty of those, but would really be interested in your workflow. Sincerely appreciate your time, effort & presentation style on your videos. Please keep up the great work!
Thanks William! 😀
Second!
Super video showing how simple focus stacking is in Luminar. YES, please do another on shooting for focus stacking.
Yes please a video on the process of shooting a focus stack
Hi Anthony, Tutorial on focus stacking... Most definitely... man! "Freestyle" video... Thanks!
Yes please, would love a video on focus stacking. Thanks Andrew
Duly noted. Thanks 😀
Yes please lets see your process for taking stacked focus photo's
Would love to see a "how to" video addressing focus stacking. Always enjoy your videos.
Noted. Cheers Pat!
This is something I've been waiting for Anthony, great video
Thanks again for clear instruction. Further info would be good. Still looking forward to seeing your training on Excire photo and Neo.
Yup, a follow up with more on stacking would be great. Have not been doing that at all, but looks really interesting:)!
Yes, please do how to take the series of photos for photo stacking needs
Another video on focus stacking would be appreciated
Yes .. would like to see your process w/ the Fuji xt-4... great channel!!!
Nice tutorial, oh yes, a how to would be fantastic, thank you.
Hi Anthony, A how-to on taking the focus stacking images would be very useful. Thanks
Love the casual vibe haha. Yes a video from shot through to processing the final image would be great. Maybe two as I would like to see landscape and maybe product or macro too. (Is that 3 videos?)
I'll see what I can do. Thanks Rebecca 😊
Great video. Love to see a video on product focus stacking :)
Thanks Line
Great video Anthony as per usual, Looks like a fantastic addition to the add ons as i went for the one off payment rather than the annual subscription. I would love to see a deep landscape photograph stacked obviously with a lens that has minimal focus breathing to see its potential which could be ground breaking.
Thanks Mark. I'll see what I can do.
Thanks for leaving the "mistake"in We learn more from mistakes than a perfect performance. Would love to see your thoughts on developiing a new system. Mine is a bit long in the tooth.
Thanks Eric. I'll be planning a rebuild for the new year.
Always wondered how this Neo extension would behave with lots of images in the stack. Apart from crunch time, your video shows nice results with 30 images. The software I currently use for photo stacking limits me with only 14 shots. Sounds appealing. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks! It can handle up to 100 photos. Haven't tried that yet but 50 came out very well.
Anthony, please prepare a video about how to set up camera etc. for focus stacking :)
Thanks for this, Anthony. Very helpful. I, too, would love a session on "how to" focus stack for both close-up and landscape pictures. Cheers.
Thanks Anthony my go to resource for luminar neo really clear explanation really excited to get the extension to my luminar subscription
Nice one Ian! 👍
Yes please Anthony, need all the help I can get. Any advice is always useful re tech stuff like focus stacking etc. Cheers. Phil
Thanks for the preview, I'm really excited about this plugin for Neo.
FWIW, the new Nikon Z cameras have a great focus stacking option that makes taking the images dead simple. It kept me sane during lockdown shooting macro shots.
Yeah nice. I use the auto-stacking in my d850 but it just cycles through the shots with focus changes but doesn't do the final merge. Does the Z series also do the merge or just automate the taking of the shots?
@@AnthonyTurnham Only taking the images. Stacking is still required in post and I've been using Affinity Photo but excited to see what Neo can do.
Hi Anthony, could you please do a tutorial on putting together a stacked array of pictures with different focal points, thanks
One image I saw that blew my mind and open my eyes to the concept of photo stacking was a landscape photo with a river in the foreground that created a vanishing point all the way to the mountains in the background and in the water at the foreground it was so clear you could see the river rocks under the water that were in complete focus. The whole image looked so seamless that you felt like you could just walk straight into it. I'd love to learn how to focus stack.
I also need to upgrade my desktop as it's a horribly old build that overheats and bogs down when I try to use it for editing. While trying to figure out what parts I need I ended up buying a Ryzen 7 laptop in the interim just so I'd have something a bit more robust to work with and I can use a KVM with the laptop so I can still edit with my main monitor. Oddly enough, even though the laptop is quite an upgrade from my desktop, Luminar does tend to run a bit sluggish on it and exporting edited files can take almost a minute.
I'd be curious to see what parts you choose for your next computer build.
Would love you to do a video on the process of photo stacking. Not because I'm not familiar with it but because you're such a good communicator. Would also love a video on putting together an entire system of processing photos because that I know absolutely nothing about. Really appreciate your videos. Thanks for putting them out.
Wow, thanks 😊🙏 I appreciate your kind words!
Love your free style way!
Thanks! 😃
Yes love more info on focus stacking
Noted Elizabeth. Thank you.
Yes please go through the entire process of capturing photos for focus stacking. Also, can you do one on exposure stacking/bracketing? Oh one more question, "Is it possible to focus stack and exposure stack at the same time?"
Hi Billy. Thanks for the vid requests! I have done a video on HDR a while back where I cover exposure bracketing ua-cam.com/video/vKHJdstcGVk/v-deo.html I hope to do focus bracketing too with maybe a few more requests from other viewers. Regarding doing both at the same time. Yes, t's possible, but the workflow has to be done in two stages.
I would love to see a video on how to take the series of shots for focus stacking! Thank you in advance...
Cheers for the vote 🗳👍 we'll see how many others are keen and if we hit 'critical mass' I'll put something together. 😀
Me too. Maybe Anthony will do a video.
Great video, and I'd love to see a tutorial on focus stacking, landscape or macro or ideally both!
Anthony, a session on how to take the photos (hopefully that won't be "on my fancy Nikon just hit this button":). Have just bought a new PC but would love a session on building a image specialist PC. Appreciate your efforts here and seeing the blooper was very useful learning point. Thanks
Good to know about the blooper! It was only because I was recording that at midnight and was getting tired that it stayed in 🤣.
Thanks for this very informative video on Focus Stacking Anthony. This is a method I've yet to try out. My camera manual (Canon R5) explains how to do it but it is so much easier to understand the method when watching a demo of the actual process. So yes a video of how to would be very useful.
Okey dokey Ken. Your vote for a demo vid is duly noted. Thank you 😊
I am excited to play with this extension when it is available. It would be great to see your version of how to take the photos for a focus stack. Many tutorials that I have watched simply say to take many photos. There must be a method to where to fucus, which would determine the number of shots to take. Thanks for another great tutorial. Cheers,
Thanks Michael. Yeah, I'll see what I can do for you!
Really enjoyed this video thank you, I am a Liverpool supporter I go to all the games, and was gutted Klopp left.
Thanks for the video. I don't focus stack much, but the bit that I have done was a more manual process with layers in Lightroom. I really like the look of this.
I would also like a video on how to do the stacking. Thanks
Thank you, Yes on more
Great video as always - I would love to see exactly how you would shoot something like this... Thanks
Thank you!!!! And yes please how to would be great!!
Thanks Debbie 😀
jibber jabber is good stuff, looking forward to the program in Neo, been using photoshop for my current focus stacking
Wow, what an amazing lesson so I learned a wonderful skill.,,😁
Thank you for doing this!
You're welcome! Late night for me getting it done... but worth it 😉
I would love for you to do a landscape photo stacking tutorial Anthony. I have a nikon z6ii and there is some sort of photo stacking in it and would be interested in your take on it. Yet again another top vid, thank you and have a goodnight. 👍😎
Thanks John! Yes I'd love to cover that. Thanks for the comment and vote for another vid!
Are you liking the z6ii? I considered it for a while, particularly for video but the lack of self facing flippy screen put pay to that.
@@AnthonyTurnham I love it Anthony, I agree about the screen it's a bit limiting but good quality. I had a D5500 before so it's a big step up for me but the menus are more or less the same layout so it's easy to navigate the system. I have the 24-200 F4 on it and it's a great lens for the price I also have the FTZ adapter but haven't used it yet.
@@johncameron6853 Nice! With regards to the menu system, hopefully the fact Nikon keeps them pretty similar, hopefully the stacking option in my D850 will cross over to the z6ii.
Another great video, I love the freestyle versions, don't change... I have played with focus stacking a few times using free software or canon dpp, and enjoy it, I now have the R7 which has focus stacking built in, have you tried it? Would you compare Neo against R7? If so which would be better, sounds like a new video to me😁😁
Hi Ron. Sorry mate, I don't have an R7 to compare against.
Sure let's all learn together
2nd the motion on seeing your focus-stacking photography techniques.
Noted Jerry. Thank you
Yes, please tell us the best way to take this photos.
Loved the new style of video, lot more natural. Would be great to have one on focus stacking if you have the time ⏲️
Thanks Guy!
Thanks for the video. Just an FYI on the haloish effect on the edges of the figurines. It's to do with the blurred edges of the figurines in front of the ones that are behind. If you look at the images of the rear figurines they'll have that same effect as the lens tries the see past the front figurines, blurring them out. The only way to get rid of it is to remove the front figurines before taking photos of the figurines at the back. All stacking with such a large depth difference there will end up with that problem unfortunately. it's the "bokeh" of the figurines at the front if that makes sense.
Anyway, great vid.
Thanks Chris. Yeah, that makes sense!
Please do a how to on taking images to focus stack. I try. But mostly fail. Would love an expert, who speaks in such plain language like you, to say here’s how you do it. Thanks. JT
Hi Anthony ! Love your channel. Thank you for your tutorials ! I have a question : After a focus stacking, you get a Tiff file... Don't you edit RAW files before processing the focus stacking ? I assume you get better result if you edit RAW first, right ? Just tell me :-) I would like to get the best of my pictures :-) Thanks
As a landscape photographer I was waiting for this release. :-) Do you really have to take that many pictures or are three or four pictures enough? Thanks for this video Anthony!
Hi Erik, as I mentioned in the video, for landscapes you can get away with far fewer shots. Depends on the situation and how close the nearest element is to your lens, but 3 or four could be a good place to start! 😀
Thank you for sharing. Is the focus stacking output file is in RAW ?
Tiff format. 16bit.
Great video.
Hi thank you for your content its very good. Just wondering would it be better option to take fewer shots with higher aperture? So should be less processing and generally lots more parts of the camera in focus!
Yeah, good point. For sure going to f11, f16 and beyond will naturally give a greater depth of field. However f8 is the sweet spot for this lens in terms of maximising sharpness and minimizing diffraction so because I'm using focus stacking anyway I wanted to keep the quality of each frame as high as possible. In my experience going to f16 and beyond still doesn't give enough in focus when shooting so close to objects yet the softening from diffraction becomes more noticeable. f8 / f11 is good for me :)
@@AnthonyTurnham Good point, I tout it was much bigger aperture! Thank you 👌
Different style of video here guys. I left in the little sentence stumbles and also an error I made in the processing. Do you prefer the more "freestyled" approach, or do you prefer a tighter cut video without errors? I'm thinking this video feels more "real". I'd love to know your thoughts! (bit.ly/Luminar-NEO discount ATNEO for the best price on the extensions)
Hi Anthony, it's anthony here. No one gives a sh about your tight hip flexors 😂
Personally, I prefer the freestyle. Videos that have multiple editing cuts within a single sentence don't flow as well - errors create a smile and prove that even Gods can make mistakes! ;-)
Anthony, I would appreciate a series of freestyle videos where you edit a photo you have not edited before from start to finish, explaining your thought processes as you develop the photo. Like other comments here I find the slight movements between takes a bit off-putting.
Hi Anthony, Great video as always even though I am watching some of your backlog on this one! I have been using Luminar products for years and I would love to switch entirely to Luminar for my professional work and ditch the Adobe albatross. You mentioned building a new system. I recently built a system with 32 gigs of RAM a NVIDIA 3070TI and an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor. Luminar NEO is still slow sometimes! I am wondering if there is any optimization that I can do on my end to make it run a bit better. Don't get me wrong, it is much better than it was upon release and I am so grateful for all of the updates pushed out by the Skylum team. Still, would like to see it better optimized to take advantage of high-end GPU's and until then would like to know how to make it run as quickly and smoothly as possible! Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks for all you do!
I need a new computer. Could you please make a video of how to build a computer for photoediting? Love you instruction videos. Thanks, Mark
Me too! My once was beast is now flailing. I'll be constructing a new one soonish and when I do I intend to make a video on it 😀
I never plan to photostack, so in the moment, I'll handhold the shots, physically moving incrementally forward to hopefully capture sharp focus as I go. This is hit or miss, I admit it! But I've also gotten some wonderful final images (stacked in PS but now I'll switch to doing them in NEO). Photostacking is a lot of fun. Everyone with a camera should give it a try, now that NEO has made it easier to create the final result.
Hi Antony, I would like to know how to Set up for propper fotostacking.
Regards
Fritz
Can you make a video comparing the Denoise AI Extension vs the Denoise Tool in Luminar Neo?
Nice idea. I'll see what I can do.
Video on focus stacking please....
When you stacked the Fujifilm camera images, you highlighted a problem with product photography, dust. I'd like to see a video on how to remove dust from objects images (not sensor dust that Luminar Neo handles). This is also an issue when digitizing slides.
Thanks for the suggestion. The erase tool is pretty good for that sort of thing and worth having a go with.
For closeup photos which is best, the changing of the focus point of the camera as you just demonstrated or tracking the camera forward without touching the focusing point of the camera?
Good question. Depends on the distance to the object and how many frames you're hoping to rattle off. If I get enough requests for a follow up vid on focus stacking I'll try to include a brief discussion on this.
@@AnthonyTurnham I guess that will also depend on your camera, tripod, rails etc., I have a XT3, so the camera can take all the images in one go. Haven't tried it but Pal2tech does a great walk-through specific to the Fuji range.
Love the channel.. run and gun is good! Make the mistakes..natural is more entertaining !
Thanks mate
Hey Anthony, is the auto alignment option powerfull enough in Luminar Neo when you take a handheld stack for example? Now I align my photo's in photoshop en then take them to Helicon focus for stacking... If It's all possible with one program, it would be great offcourse :-)
Hi Wouter. At the moment I'm not sure. All examples I did were on a tripod. If I do a follow up I'll try to remember to add this to the testing!
@@AnthonyTurnham Thanks a lot!
I was looking forward to seeing how this would turn out rather than using photoshop I was hoping to just get this extension to match my HDR merge but they have forced you to buy a year bundle to get these so looks like I wont bother which is a shame
I'm wondered if in the future the extensions get sold separately 🤔 That'd be good.
Anthony, can this extension be used in exposure stacking, too?
Like shooting 10 shots of the Milky Way and getting one better composite.
Hi Mate, I haven't tried that. But if your getting the extensions you'll have access to HDR Merge too, and that is perfect for exposure stacking! bit.ly/NeoPlugins
Is it possible to get similar result using layers?
At first i thought you can ‘fix’ the photo with this extension, but it is not the thing.
Hi Sanin. I haven't tried that yet, but theoretically, yes. Photoshop's focus stacking actually uses a layered approach and shows the layered stack with marks that makes up the image. So we could employ a similar approach in NEO to 'repair' areas that may not be how we want. However, the extension does a solid job. The first pass bodge was user error 😆
Will the AI focus stack work if I shot it in hand held and not all of the shots are perfectly aligned but generally in the same position? Like handheld camera never moved just held in hand, may have shifted the composition a slight bit on the edges, and also subject in shot did not move) will the FS AI still try to focus stack all my shot.
Should do. Just use the auto alignment feature.
I don't have any experience focus stacking, but when I've seen it described, it's usually around 3 images. I wonder if you went overboard on the number of images you stacked.
Shooting very close up requires more shots. 3 is great for landscapes in most instances but the smaller the object gets that you're recording the more images you need to depict a sharp image front to back. Kind of counterintuitive but the extension needs to be able to handle multiple frames for these situations.
Have you done an update to this video? How good is it now.
I hired a Nikon 850 and it prevented me from using the focus stacking option! Any reason?
Do you mean the camera refused to auto stack or the software? It's possible the camera issue could be having the lens in manual focus mode.
Haha brilliant, the boys look good [- what do you mean it killed you :;)
Well y'know, probably would have gone viral if it featured Ten Hag and the MUFC crew 😜
Thanks for the loan. Legend! x
Do you know if it matters if you throw raw files or JPEG?
I used both to test. It works with either.
A lényeget sikeresen átadtad. A videód 15 perc hosszú, ami túl sok. Ezt az anyagot 5 percben lényegre törően le lehetett volna adni! A rengeteg gesztikuláció ilyen közeli felvételnél igen zavaró. Üdv.: Pál
Great advice. Thanks 😀
auto align does not do a good job with handheld shots i would like to know if you have tried it with any success
Question...Neo offers bokeh for faces...why not for landscape subjects?
Just a guess but for instance when I shoot a landscape my aesthetic preference is for the scene to be sharp front to back. My preference with portraits is the opposite, ie sharp on the subject, quickly falling off to minimize distractions in the background. My hunch is that's true for most photographers so they didn't see the benefit in developing that functionality.
@@AnthonyTurnham , I like finding that lone tree, dead and, a beautiful stand out in a bleak overall landscape. I'm sure it's a bit of a nuanced preference on my part. Thank you very much for your reply!
Yes, a "how to focus stack".
Focus breathing? If you didn’t want to use focus stacking, you could always bring out your favourite f64 lens.
Hi Luke. The defraction that most lenses experience above f16 or f22 make the end results pretty soft so focus stacking should still gets a better result. Also for super macro even f64 can't guarantee sharpness front to back.
comment for the algorithm
Comment back, y'know, for the algorithm 😅😉. And to say... cheers for the continued support! 👍
Should have clicked auto-align to avoid the halo effect.
Yeah, that was my mistake. I left it in the vid so viewers can learn from my error.
@@AnthonyTurnham Actually, it's a very good way of demonstrating the pros and cons. Excellent video, well done.
We should all be talking about the elephant in the room here. The cost of each and every extension offered is far too expensive. I'll make a one off purchase of helicon focus for all my stacking and although I've purchased two licences each for luminar neo and luminar AI. Plus I have HDR merge. I'm beginning to wish I'd never bought any of their software. The yearly price to purchase the 5 extensions: noiseless and the other 4 on pre order is a joke.
I think Skylum are keen for people to adopt a lower priced, yet recurring, subscription model 🤔 perhaps the plugins will get sold individually for less in the future... we'll see.