Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
upd: add experience details
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
  • Loading branch information
@baidakovil
baidakovil committed Dec 16, 2023
1 parent 7f70d0b commit 7f738dd
Showing 1 changed file with 29 additions and 26 deletions.
55 changes: 29 additions & 26 deletions README.md
View file
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -2,13 +2,15 @@

[![Pylint](https://github.com/baidakovil/pyfocusstackfo/actions/workflows/pylint.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/baidakovil/pyfocusstackfo/actions/workflows/pylint.yml) [![Testing](https://github.com/baidakovil/pyfocusstackfo/actions/workflows/python-pytest-flake8.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/baidakovil/pyfocusstackfo/actions/workflows/python-pytest-flake8.yml) [![mypy](https://github.com/baidakovil/pyfocusstackfo/actions/workflows/mypy.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/baidakovil/pyfocusstackfo/actions/workflows/mypy.yml)

This repo for those who knows what is focus stacking photographic technique.
It consists of two scripts:
* **pyfocusstackfo.py** - organize files from camera into folders: 1 folder = 1 future photo
* **photoshop_script_subfolders.js** - do focus stacking in Adobe Photoshop for many folders at once
This repo for those who knows what focus stacking photographic technique is. And for those who don't know, but like macro photo.

I found workflow with this scripts excellent for ease, robust, quick and perfect-result focus stacking.
What I have tried, in order of declining result photo quality: [Zerene], [Helicon Focus], [ChimpStackr], [Enfuse]. This much better.
It consists of two scripts that make up the complete process of focus stacking:
* **pyfocusstackfo.py** - Organizes files from a camera into folders: 1 folder = 1 photo
* **photoshop_script_subfolders.js** - Does a focus stacking in Adobe Photoshop for multiple folders at a time

The workflow excellent for ease, robust, fast and well-expected results.

I have tried: [Zerene], [Helicon Focus], [ChimpStackr], [Enfuse]. First two can compete when you tweak the settings. The one above is better without tweaking.

[Helicon Focus]: https://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft-products/helicon-focus/
[Zerene]: https://www.zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker
Expand All @@ -17,30 +19,32 @@ What I have tried, in order of declining result photo quality: [Zerene], [Helico

## Prepare files with .py script

Click for view full size ⬇️
Click for full size ⬇️

<a href="docs/explanation.png"><img width="95%" src="docs/explanation.png"/></a>

More info below.

## Do focus stacking with .js script

⬇️
Workflow below was tested with Photoshop **CC 2020 21.2.0**.
Click for full size ⬇️

<a href="docs/photoshop_guide.png"><img width="95%" src="docs/photoshop_guide.png"/></a>


## My experience

I shoot nature and can have **thousand of photos from single walk**, whith 5-10 photos in each stack, meaning ~100 focus stacks once. With this scripts, it takes an hour to get result. Hope Adobe will pay me sometimes.
I shoot nature and can have **thousand of photos from single walk**, with 5-10 photos in each stack, meaning ~100 focus stacks once. With this scripts, it takes an hour to get result for everything about everything.

Photoshop stacking function works so well that you won't see the difference even with blurred or damaged photos inside of "stacking" photos. I tried some experiments with cleaning of *unsuccessful* photos, but saw no differences: with Photoshop, result at most depends on *successfull* photos. This ability especially important for me as I offen shoot without tripod and half of my photos are garbage.
Photoshop *Auto-Align* and *Auto-Blend* functions works so well that you won't see a difference even with defocused, corrupted, rotated photos among the good stacking photos. I tried some experiments with cleaning these unsuccessful photos before stacking, but I didn't see the difference: with Photoshop, result at most depends on *successfull* photos. This ability especially important to me as I offen shoot without a tripod and half of my photos are garbage .

I can't say this about any other software for focus stacking: one bad photo in most cases will broke the result.
This is not the case with other focus stacking software: one bad photo in most cases will ruin the whole result.

I use [CameraPixels](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/camerapixels-lite/id1125808205) iOS app on my iPhone SE 1st Gen in focus stacking mode. It takes photos with intervals 0-1 seconds. So, having `MAX_TIME_DELTA = 2 sec`, I get desired result almost always.
Sometimes, of course, there could be photos taken close to each other — but thanks to `MIN_STACK_LEN` setting, they probably will not fall into "stack".
I use [CameraPixels](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/camerapixels-lite/id1125808205) iOS app on my iPhone SE 1st Gen in focus stacking mode. It takes photos with intervals 0.5-1 seconds. So, having `MAX_TIME_DELTA = 2 sec` in `pyfocusstackfo.py`, I get files accumulated by folders right almost always 👍.
Sometimes, of course, there could be non-focus-stacking photos taken close to each other — but thanks to `MIN_STACK_LEN` setting, they probably will not fall into "stack".

Some of the last images: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].
Some of the last images, just for fun: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].

[1]: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/187942621
[2]: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/187239060
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -81,25 +85,24 @@ Be aware of:

[Discussion]: https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/automate-focus-stacking-script-action-help-needed/m-p/10483237


## Contributions

Please feel free to contribute, create pull requests, comment and further.

## Feedback and PyPi.org

If you find any of this scripts helpful, please leave feedback.
In case you will happy to see `pyfocusstack.py` as **python package**, please write to me: If there will be at least single person who find this helpful, I reformat the code and add it to **PyPi** 🙃.

## Build with

**[Adobe Photoshop]** - «Leading AI photo & Design software» since 1990 **|** *proprietary*
**[JavaScript]** - Scripting language widely used in web pages and web applications **|** *Licence depends on implementation*
**[JavaScript]** - Scripting language widely used in web pages and web applications since 1995 **|** *Licence depends on implementation*
**[pyexif]** - Python wrapping for the exiftool library since 2011 **|** *Apache 2*
**[Python]** - Language to work quickly and integrate systems more effectively since 1991 **|** *GPL compatible*


[Adobe Photoshop]: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
[pyexif]: https://pypi.org/project/pyexif/
[Python]: https://www.python.org/
[JavaScript]: https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-262/
[JavaScript]: https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-262/

## Contributions

Please feel free to contribute, create pull requests, comment and further.

## Feedback and PyPi.org

If you find any of this scripts helpful, please leave feedback.
In case you will happy to see `pyfocusstack.py` as **python package**, please write to me: If there will be at least single person who find this helpful, I reformat the code and add it to **PyPi** 🙃.

0 comments on commit 7f738dd

Please sign in to comment.