Stacking

Select frames in the filmstrip, then press S or click Stack selected images [S] →. Macro Studio stacks them and shows the result in the Editor.

What focus stacking does

At macro distances, only a thin slice of the subject is in focus. Focus stacking combines frames shot at different focus distances into one image that’s sharp all the way through.

Macro Studio lines up the frames first, correcting for focus breathing (the size change between frames), camera movement and rotation. Then it takes the sharpest detail from each frame and blends it into one image.

There’s no method to choose and no sliders to tune. (Earlier versions had a choice of Pyramid or Depth Map. That’s gone.)

Graphics card

Stacking uses your graphics card automatically, and prefers a discrete card if you have one. Without a usable graphics card, or on an Intel Mac, it runs on the processor: same picture, a little slower.

If a stack comes out corrupted, turn on Disable GPU acceleration to check whether the graphics driver is to blame. Leave it off otherwise.

The result

The result appears in the Editor’s history strip, which holds your last 25 results. Nothing is written to disk until you click Save…. See Saving.

To stay in the Library while a stack runs, turn on Stay in the Library after starting a stack in Preferences. The EDITOR tab then shows the progress, and pulses when the result is ready.

Every stack gets a Look, from Natural to Enhanced. New installs use Enhanced at 60%. You can change it for each result, or set the default for new stacks.

Stacking needs scratch space on disk while it runs. If there isn’t enough, Macro Studio tells you before it starts, and says how much to free. You can move it to another drive with Scratch folder for stacking in Preferences. See System requirements for how much you need.

The reduced-memory notice

When free memory is short, an amber notice can appear during a stack. It starts Running in reduced-memory mode and says how much memory to free.

This isn’t an error. The stack will finish, just more slowly. Close other apps and stack again to get full speed back. The notice clears itself after about 20 seconds, or click it to dismiss it.

If it shows on nearly every stack, click Don’t show again on the notice. Or turn off Show performance notices in Preferences, where you can also turn it back on.

When a frame is hurting the stack

StackCheck (beta) points out frames that seem to have made the result worse, with a button to stack again without them. It’s on in a new installation. In an older one, turn it on in Preferences → General.

To stack a folder that holds several brackets, use Autostack.