Focus Stacking on a Budget of Absolutely Nothing

Support me on Patreon:   / andyhutchinson   Focus stacking gives you front-to-back sharpness that a single frame can't deliver, but the software to do it properly used to mean paying through the nose. Not any more. In this video I put two completely free options through their paces: Affinity's Focus Merge and Shine Stacker, an open-source app built by a physicist for photographing fossils in amber. I cover how to capture your frames, how both apps handle the merge, and where each one shines. Affinity is simple and effective. Shine Stacker is more complex but rivals the commercial heavyweights. LINKS Affinity: https://affinity.serif.com Shine Stacker: https://github.com/lucalista/shinesta... Shine Stacker Docs: https://shinestacker.readthedocs.io/e... 📝 For more in-depth articles and insights, check out my Substack: https://ahutchinson.substack.com 🌐 Connect with me across platforms: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/andyhutchins... Pixelfed: https://pixelfed.social/andyhutchinson Flickr: https://flickr.com/photos/repomonkey/ Blog: https://andyhutchinson.com.au All of my videos:    • All videos   Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:22 Housekeeping 01:41 The Tools for the Job 02:33 How to Focus Stack 05:19 Shine Stacker 11:36 Affinity 14:38 Focus Stacking for Everyone 16:11 Outro