Template:POTD/2012-12-06
Focus stacking is a digital image processing technique which combines the in-focus portions of multiple exposures to give a resulting image with a greater proportion in sharp focus than any of the individual source images. It is used often in macro photography and optical microscopy, such as in this example of bright field microscopy. At the top left are the three source image slices of a diatom microfossil in diatomaceous earth at three focal depths. Opposite those are the contributions of each focal slice to the final image (black represents no contribution, white represents full contribution). At the bottom is the resulting focus-stacked image, with almost the entire image in focus.Photos: Richard Wheeler