6 Best Focus Stacking Software For Windows And Mac

Sometimes, not even the top-of-the-shelf DSLRs can capture an image just like what your eyes would perceive. For instance, the mountains you are trying to capture may still look soft or blurry even at f/20. Here you can short images with multiple exposures and post-process them in a focus stacking software. Before we get into the list of best focus-stacking software, let’s briefly understand what this technique is.

What is Focus Stacking?

At the outset, we’d like to say that “Focus Stacking” can be a great technique for a photographer. It is photographing the same scene many times using identical settings on your camera. However, the focus areas are different. Now, most photographers who use this technique use a tripod to shoot their scenes. Also, it is advisable to keep the lighting conditions as constant as possible.

During the post-processing, focus stacking software is used mostly in unison with lighting software. And, depending on the number of images and the size of the source images, the processing may take some time.

In this post, we have enlisted some of the best focus-stacking software.

6 Best Focus Stacking Software

1. Helicon Focus

It is undoubtedly one of the best focus stacking software. It comes with everything you need for focus stacking. It processes images with 16-bit precision in order to preserve all hues and details. It also ensures that the right colors are rendered. The center panel lets you preview source images and the final view once you are done.

It is the right panel that has the main tools with the help of which you can perform stacking. To combine images you can choose from three methods – weighted average, pyramid, and depth map.

Features

• Quickly and smartly combine the stack of images into a fully focused image.
• Easy and efficient RAW development
• Advanced resampling algorithms.

Pricing:30-day Fully functional trial. After that, the pricing starts at $30 for one year license and $115 for a lifetime license.

Available For – Windows and Mac

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2. Adobe Photoshop

If you are into photo editing, chances are that you are already using Adobe Photoshop and swear by this tool. It is also one of the best focus stacking software. The tools within Photoshop smartly merge the different focal points.  The software uses “Auto-Blend layers” and “Auto-Align” feature for focus stacking. While you are focus-stacking using Photoshop you can also control the depth of blue and customize layers.

Features

• Auto-Blend and Auto-Align features.
• Real-time preview of effects.
• Impressive layers panel.

Pricing: 7-day free trial. After that pricing starts at $20.99/ month

Available For  – Windows and Mac

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3. Affinity Photos

As far as focus stacking or image stacking is considered, Affinity Photo offers several tools. In fact, some of them specifically cater to specific photography types such as HDR Merge or Astrophotography. Now, the tool that you’d be using to stack images here is called “Focus Merge”. It helps stack images that have the same composition but different focus settings. It is straightforward and simple to use.

Features

• Functionality for auto and manual image stacking.
• Source panel that shows source images.
• Ability to clone the pixels from the source image that is the best.

Pricing: 30-day free trial. The lifetime license sells at $69.99

Available For – Windows and Mac

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4. Zerene Stacker

As you can infer from the name, Zerene Stacker is a focus-stacking software that can help you with “focus stacking” when it comes to photography types such as macro photography, closeups, or landscapes. It works well with any method you have chosen for your photography such as moving the camera, turning the lens focus ring by hand, moving the subject, and many others. The photos post-processed using Zerene Stacker have been featured in National Geographic, Discover Magazine, and many others.

Features

• Unlimited stack depth from 2 – 1000’s frames.
• Best quality interpolation methods up to Lanczos 8.
• Availability of Lightroom plugin.

Pricing: 30-day free trial. Then, the pricing starts at $39 (Student Edition)

Available For – Windows and Mac

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5. ON1 Photo RAW 2023

Ever since 2019, focus stacking has been a great feature of ON1 Photo RAW. You can easily blend multiple photos that have different focuses in order to increase the depth of field. Although the option is not instantly visible, it can be seen on the right-hand pane. To perform focus stacking, head to the grid view, select all photos and click on the “Focus” option from the right. You can now select or deselect the exposures that you don’t want.

Features

• Several built-in photo effects.
• Fast RAW photo processing.
• AI RAW photo editing.

Pricing :14-day free trial, then, $179.99/ year

Available For  – Windows and Mac

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6. Picolay

Another great focus stacking software that you can give a go is Picolay. It is a lightweight tool that can ease up the focus stacking process. It utilizes various 2D color maps, true stereo images, and 3D projections. One of the best aspects of this software is that it optimizes every parameter of the chosen image.

Features

• Variety of image editing options.
• Generate 3D images from stacked images.
• Blur out details not wanted. 

Pricing: Free

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Available – Windows

Wrapping Up

As a photographer, no matter what type of photography you do, you can now add focus stacking to your repertoire. And, all of the above software comes with tons of learning content, so even if you have just forayed into photography, you can learn the ropes from the best in the business. Do let us know which of the above software is your favorite and do share your experience in the comments section below. You can also find us on  Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.