Focus Stacking Made Easy: Why Luminar Neo Is My Go-To Plugin

One of my favorite features of OM System / Olympus cameras is Focus Stacking. The best part of this feature is that the image stabilization in these cameras allows you to get great focus stacking results while handholding the camera.

Lately though, I’ve been seeing ghosting in the stacked image generated by the camera. The stacking process completes without error, but there is ghosting in parts of the image (See image below). I tried several differentials and apertures and I’m still getting the problem in the camera stacked image. I could continue to tweak the settings in the field, but I found another solution that works when you get your images back home.

Using Luminar Neo as a Plugin for Lightroom for Focus Stacking

Olympus / OM System cameras give you the individual pre-stacked images as well as the resulting stacked image when you import your photographs. Luminar Neo can be used as a plug-in to round trip out of Adobe Lightroom to focus stack your images, and I’ve found the results to be terrific.

How to Focus Stack with Luminar Neo

In Adobe Lightroom, select the images that you want as input to the stacking process. Pick images that are in focus to cover the entire area you want to be in focus in the final stacked image. I find that 4-6 photographs typically are enough depending on the subject, aperture, and differential setting.
Right click then select Export – Focus Stacking in Luminar Neo.
Luminar Neo will launch displaying its stacking Dialog. There are not many options to choose from. Just click the Stack Button.
Luminar Neo will display the stacked image. If you like the results, click Apply for the image to be returned to Adobe Lightroom. It’s that easy.

Tip: Before selecting the images, I scroll through them and use the Pick Flag (p shortcut key) to choose the photographs that I want to stack. Then I Command Click (Option Click on a PC) to select the images for the stacking process.

I’ve tried focus stacking in Luminar Neo on multiple subjects and I’ve been really happy with the results.

Focus Stacking vs. Focus Bracketing in Olympus / OM System Cameras

Even though I’ve been using Luminar Neo to focus stack my images, I’m continuing to use Focus Stacking in camera instead of Focus Bracketing.

Focus stacking in Olympus / OM System cameras will give you a stacked image along with all the photographs taken for the stack. It has a limitation of 15 exposures. Focus bracketing doesn’t stack the photographs in camera, but you can have up to 999 exposures.

Since I hand hold the camera most of the time for Focus Stacking, a successful in camera stacking process gives me a good indication of whether I was still enough for a good focus stacked image.

If you have Luminar Neo, give their focus stacking feature a try, it’s fast, easy, and works well. If you don’t have Luminar Neo, you may want to give the software a try. This is one of several features the company has added since the original release, and they continue to add additional features.

Written by Martin Belan

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