Focus stacking with HDRMerge

[Beep6581]

I've been playing around with focus stacking through HDRMerge. The benefit is you end up with a single, perfect raw file, where everything is in focus and the whole dynamic range is stored. http://i.imgur.com/8Q38UhQ.jpg

I'm fully aware that this would be a monumental job to code, but here are some ideas in case you're thinking about it :) (maybe its possible to borrow code that already does this, and plug it into HDRMerge, like enfuse?)

• Automatic alignment should not only look for yaw/pitch/roll but also optimize the field-of-view which usually changes when changing focus. Enfuse does this.
• The interface should allow manual correction of alignment. Don't know if manual correction of field-of-view is possible, but at least y/p/r.
• The preview should be demosaiced.
• It should be possible to preview the end result with a click.
• The brush should have a soft edge.

[jcelaya]

Mmmmmm, sounds really good until you say that I should optimize the field-of-view. That means interpolating, which means demosaicing, which means we don't have a raw image anymore. How bad can this get? The rest doesn't sound terribly difficult.

[Beep6581]

Aww pity! From my experience this is a must-have. Let me show you a quick example using MacroFusion (a GUI for enfuse): http://i.imgur.com/rdZMg4o.jpg http://i.imgur.com/jetFeFy.jpg

This is admittedly not the best example as I didn't zoom - I can't zoom with that reversed prime lens - yet I had to get closer to change the in-focus part, and the difference without/with field-of-view optimization is clear.