I've been "Focus Stacking" for a couple of years now using two programs from Helicon, Helicon Remote and Helicon Focus. I use Remote to take the stacks via a 10' USB 3x connection to my laptop which transfers RAW (CR2) files to my laptop and opens Helicon Focus to do its thing. It's quite powerful and packed with features, but it's fairly expensive, so I wouldn't expect anything less.
With that being said, back to the topic. Since I seldom use all of DPP4, I just found the Depth Compositing tool and gave it a go. I started with some stacks taken with the EOS 7D mark II, which didn't work because only certain Canon cameras are supported. When all else fails, read the DPP4 maunual. It turns out that my EOS 5D mark IV is supported, so I loaded a 19 shot stack taken with that camera and an EF 100mm f/2.8L macro lens. One gripe I have with DPP4 is that you can't embed your RAW recipe in a saved RAW file, at least i can't find a way to do it, and if I needed adjustments in my stacks, it was either reshoot or adjust in DPP4 and convert to tiff in DPP4 and rerun the stack as tiff's in Helicon as opposed to simply editing my RAW files, saving them, then using Helicon Focus to stack the edited RAW files. With this feature now in DPP4, I can edit one RAW image then copy the recipe and paste it to the others, then process the stack with edited RAW files 🙂
I'm impressed with the outcome, but the "touchup" tool is a little clunky. You don't get a lot of options through the process, but I am happy so far and will only use Helicon Remote to get the initial shots. I'm assuming that other Canon users who have "in camera" stacking as an option will like it also.
The attached image was taken with an EOS 5D mark IV and EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM lens, stacked in DPP4, converted and saved as tff, then resized and converted to jpg for posting (just to save space). the tiff's are stunning.
@steve_z wrote:re: Supported cameras
I am reading page 117 of the DPP 4.12 manual and using verson 4.12.20.3 that I just downloaded. The manual says that JPEGS are suppoted for "All cameras compatible with DPP". I tried the Depth Compositing Tool with JPEGS shot on an 80D (which is compatible with DPP). I got an error message "Cannot start depth compositing tool. Not available for the focused image."
The JPEGS were all shot using the same manual settings in a sequence of shots just changing the focal distance on an object. This seemed to satisfy the Shooting conditions noted on page 117 of the manual: " The camera, lens, shutter speed, aperture value, focal length, image format, and image size must be the same." I tried changing the focal distance both by keeping the camera fixed and focusing with the lens and by moving the lens/camera closer in sequence of images.
Does anyone know if the manual is in error or what else could be going on?
Thanks for the headsup, Steve. I didn't notice it woud use other file types. I just went straight for the Raw files.
I just did a down n dirty three shot jpg stack (converted from Raw to jpg in DPP) shot with a 7D mark II and EF 100mm f/2.8 IS USM lens using DPP4 v.4.12.60.0 to stack. It worked fine. What lens were you using? Is it possible you have EXIF info turned off in the conversion dialog? Also, are you manually adjusting focus with the focus ring or using the EOS utility or some other remote shooting app?
Please note that I used Helicon Remote to get the Raw shots.
Cropped to 1280x801.
@amaitra wrote:Does this work at all with TIFF files generated by DPP from RAW on 6D?
DPP cannot import TIFF created by Hugin either.
According to the manual, yes (see attached) it will use the files, but since the 6D does not have built in focus bracketing, you would need to find another way to get the stacks to process in DPP4. I've only used it with two cameras, the 7D2 and 5D4 with Raw (5D4 only), Tiff, and JPeG.
