Stacking & Stitching - for ultra-high resolution macro images

This video was made possible by the generous patronage of Dave Hodgson and Jean Gran. Thanks also to new Patreon supporters - Roy England, Russ Sprouse, and Stephen Sloan.
To learn how to become a Patreon supporter, please check out my Patreon page…
/ allanwallsphotography
A big thank you to Alison Pollack, Roy Marriott, and James Wolfe for supporting my work through their donations! To join this fine group of people, go to…
www.allanwalls...
In today’s video I take you through the process of building a very high definition macro photograph, from start to finish. We take a look at the four phases of the stack & stitch workflow:
1. Shooting the subject (and setting up the shoot)
2. Stacking the individual frames in completed blocks
3. Stitching the blocks together into a single image
4. Sanitizing the final output (the final clean-up trip to Photoshop)
There are a few new concepts to consider in this workflow, the most important of which is mapping out your shooting sequence to make certain no part of your subject gets left behind. I explain how cleaning and pinning are different for this kind of shoot, and give some really important tips on how to set up your subject platform to prevent running out of travel during the shoot.
I touch briefly on stacking and slabbing in Zerene Stacker, as this has been covered in much detail elsewhere. The stitching process is done with Photoshop’s Photomerge utility, and I show you how to set up the merge for best results.
The all important final step of finishing the stitched image using Photoshop will be covered in a separate video. In that (long) video I will be showing you my own systematic post-processing steps and show you how to design your own workflow for finalizing these gigantic images.
Let me know if you have any questions.
All the best,
Allan
P.S. If you might be interested in some one-on-one (in-person or remote) photography tutoring or mentorship, I still have a couple of slots available. Email me at [e-mail] for more information.

[@danev1969]

Allan, I have done a lot of landscape panorama stitching, and in fact have been able to produce 12' + murals as far back as 15 years ago using 3 MP cameras. More recently, using my 24 MP Sony, very large prints of Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon (etc.) become relatively doable. And of course, with this pandemic keeping us entertained in the house with macro imaging, this would be the next step in the art. I'm not sure if I still have that much OCD left in me, but you present to us a great challenge... Thanks.

[@robertstorost629]

Hi Allan. Thanks for being so thorough. After watching your videos I have the confidence to do these things that you show us. I believe I will try this at some point. You are correct about the wife though, I don't see her fully appreciating a 6-foot stink bug on the wall! However, over the years I have collected a ton of thin polished slabs of various minerals. They are fairly small and very inexpensive and roughly fill the frame at about 1 to 1. The thing is they have simply amazing abstract patterns. I have a small piece of Morrisonite that I would put up against any abstract painter. Some of them like brecchiated Imperial Jasper have scenes in them that are reminiscent of Salvador Dali. I think I will get my feet wet with one of these specimens because they are very flat and only need a few Focus steps. That way I can learn a workflow before I take on an insect. And it better be a spectacular insect as well to justify the time investment LOL. Regards, Robert

[@mikeboyle3122]

What an enlightening video! Not sure that I would ever have the need or patience for this technique but I was completely unaware that this could be done at the macro level. Thanks for all your efforts Allan.

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

Thanks Mike - You're right! Unless you have a gig like Levon Biss', this stuff is a wee bit impractical (but I love it!).

[@alasfour2000]

More respect for you Allan

[@HasanGez]

Absoultely satisfying... thank you very much...

[@langdons2848]

A 5mm bettle blown up to 12 feet sounds utterly terrifying! But thank you for the exanation.

[@huntersmoon9724]

Brilliant. Thank you.

[@caltari]

No wonder you don't have any time to answer my simple question. This Stacking and Stitching is intense. I got the Nikon PB-6 Bellow and Nikon 50mm 2.8 enlarging lens mounted reversed based on your recommendation and am blown away with the magnification and image quality. Looking forward to getting my Wemacro from China and have loads of fun with my new exciting hobby. Mahalo

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

Sorry for missing your question - I'm answering them as fast as I can! I love that bellows/50mm combo - so flexible!

[@CarlS100]

This is so helpful! Thank you, Allan.

[@rodrigoalarcon-cielock4254]

Thank you very much Allan, nicely done.

[@barryt09]

Hi Allan - easy to see why you haven't had much relaxation time lately! Another great video, I especially like the mapping section which makes a lot of sense. I don't think it is likely that I will try this any time soon as I still have to master everything else I have learned from you. It will be interesting when I try some microscope objective shots on a Bryophyte component which presents different issues altogether. Thanks again! :)

[@wassim2364]

Thank you s.m.👍☕️

[@TheRyanjMain]

Amazing! Thank you

[@moinquin]

I was making gigapanorama of bettle : 4500+ photos and 60h total work time (shoot,stack,retouch). Lots of work but final effect is so good

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

It is a little bit addictive - the end results can be jaw-dropping!

[@mondujar279]

Great video Alan. I was hoping you would address this subject soon. It’s a fascinating concept and I have already tried stitching one image a few weeks ago, and successfully. Mine was only 4 stacks though. I was wondering how to approach larger stacks and your methodology makes a lot of sense. Of course, why would anyone want to go this route, 9 foot prints of insects 🦟 not being that popular! For me it’s as much about the ability to zoom into tiny details and still be able to see clearly even on the computer screen. I’m determined to try this with a good specimen, I have a blue carpenter bee waiting in the wings...

[@tiziocaio8657]

Hello, what kind of xyz table/rail did you used? I'm new to this technic and i wondered what should i use to move the subject to create the stich. Thank you

[@alanrecktenwald4239]

may I suggest you mount your XYR unit at a 90 degree from your lab table. The dials are marked such that you can plot position with the dials left to right and down eliminating the need to look for reference points

[@MarcelloBranca]

Wow

[@mariomifsud1302]

Amazing work and well explanation.

[@donaldwalrobichaud8654]

Nh Xwb ,

[@frl8031]

Excellent advice, thanks!

[@BudPerrott]

Excellent as always. Which video demonstrates using your diffusion tube? The mapping and use of a card is brilliant! I noticed several frames were brighter than the majority of images. Did you need to correct exposure etc. on those frames? Why does this occur? Does removing the front standard from the bellows rail and fixing it on its own pedestal solve any parallax issues and do you need a special tool to remove the front standard? I have a PB 4 Nikon bellows. Thank you for such an in depth explanation.

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

I use the diffusion tube in many videos, but I'll have to go back and look for the one where I show how I make and mount them. The mapping is essential because it is inevitable you will cut a corner if you don't follow a plan, and this is an all day photograph. The issue with the inconstant light is a sad reflection on the state of my flash collection. I use my speedlights so much and so continuously, they fail after a year or two and when they do, I replace them with individual lights, whatever I can afford. The result is I have an unmatched set that are optically keyed off one another and this causes slight floating asynchronicity so that sometime the the flashes all fire in the same 1/20000 of a second and sometimes not. Fortunately, my stacking program, Zerene can correct for a stop or two of variability. I am hoping the new flash setup will fix this issue for good. By the way, avoid the temptation to correct the exposure in LR. That messes with the Zerene app and makes the problem worse. If you tweak the exposure of one frame, synch it to all frames. I have pretty much stopped doing any adjustments at all pre-stack as there is some bad juju going on in the DNG-TIFF conversion when you do. You can remove the front standard of the PB6 without a tool, but there is no rotating post to mount it on. You could build something, but it would be very demanding to control the angles accurately. I am taking a different approach. I have designed a specimen mount that moves the subject and corrects for parallax while the camera sits tight except for the movement on the stack axis. There are a lot of problems to solve, like how to prevent misalignment when stacking subjects that are larger than the entrance pupil of the lens. That is the origin of the parallax and it is the one thing a stacking program cannot correct for - a shifting outline.

[@BudPerrott]

@@AllanWallsPhotography Thanks for the in depth quick response. Are you considering using the Stackshot to move the insect with camera and optics fixed? Novel approach! I have had great success using “Match Total Exposure” found in the Develop module under Settings. Better than Sync. Only controls exposure. Having a blast learning macro. Thank you so much!

[@derekgillespie1333]

Excellent video. I was interested in your lighting setup this time with individual tracing paper diffusers over each flash head rather than your usual “cone” diffuser over the specimen. How have the two compared in light quality you’re getting?

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

Hi Derek, In this case I was trying to leave some room to demonstrate the setup. I still prefer the diffusion tube for many of my shots, but it depends on the subject, magnification, etc. I was not very happy with the diffusion method I selected here, but by the time I realized it was causing a few hotspots I was already well into the process and I try never to adjust the lighting during a complex shot like this. I am actually reshooting this same subject with a diffusion tube this afternoon!

[@richardhanson995]

Thanks Allan for this amazing video. You did this with an APS-C sensor? You moved you subject. Do you have any issues with parallax? Have you tried rotating your camera vertically and horizontally around the entrance pupil of your lens instead of moving your subject?

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

Hi Richard - yes, I did use an APS-C body for this project. This subject was almost too large for the method that I used, and parallax was an issue (requiring some creative editing in post), but not too much of one. I agree that another option is to reposition the camera around the EP, something I have done many times in the past, but my current setup doesn't give me rotational component that I need. But even doing that can cause issues with stitching, due to the changing perspective of the individual stacks. Great questions! Thanks!

[@richardhanson995]

@@AllanWallsPhotography Thanks Allan for your reply. I am just getting started in photography and I am learning a great deal from your channel. My first bit of kit was a Sony 90mm macro lens that I purchased two weeks ago. This is going to be so much fun. Best Regards, Richard

[@johnkantar3082]

Wow, i do gigapan photography in the same method of city scape but each image only needs 3 images for stacking and the pano might be 20 across by 5 down with 33% overlap this is next level.just interested how do you cope with focus breathing at this level.thanks John (Australia) after watching to the end i feel you defiantly need to use AutoPano giga for stitching.

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

Hi John, fortunately the latest beta release of Zerene has solutions built in for issues with scale and alignment - makes the process a lot cleaner. I have used AutoPano Giga and it certainly has its strengths, as do ICE and PTGui, but for stitching the small number of stacks in this example, photomerge worked pretty well. I wouldn't use it for >20 stacks, though.

[@marosilorant873]

Hey Allan, How do you determine the inner size of the cardboard frame in relation to the whole printed sheet? How do you know that 45 frames with overlap is about right? is it just eyeballing by what is on the back screen of the camera and then compensate the inaccuracy with that 25% overlap? I really hope you'll answer this 🙌🏻

[@davidhefner5668]

6000 photos. I think I read somewhere the camera's shutter begins to where out around 150,000.

[@teleking58]

This is the same technique as Levon Bass I think but he always uses a black background.

[@AllanWallsPhotography]

That man must have the patience of a saint - but his images are second to none!

[@jaykane5022]

You're the fucking man Allen! I'll have to share some of my cannabis photos with you 🤗 take care bud!

[@atahassanzadeh4878]

🔎😊😊🙏🙏🔍🔎