Keeping abreast of trends and technologies can be tiring. Even more so when the terms/keywords used by conversion experts are going over your head. This post aims to help you by bringing all popular CRO terms — basic as well as advanced — at one place. To make the list comprehensive, the terms have been compiled from a wide range of conversion optimization disciplines such as A/B testing, Website Design, Online Ads, SEO, and more. (Note: The following terms have been defined in context of CRO) You can click one of the letters below to directly reach the letter you want. A A/B TESTING (SPLIT TESTING): It is an experiment where two versions of a web page are compared to see which one produces more conversions.
Graphical representation of an A/B test Here is a that tells you all about ‘Why to A/B test?’ and ‘What to A/B test?’ ABOVE THE FOLD: It is the portion of a web page that is visible without scrolling. It is advisable to display a website’s offering and differentiators above the fold. Related Post: AFFILIATE: It is a website that promotes another company’s products or services on its space, and earns commission from it. This practice is known as Affiliate Marketing. ALT TEXT:It is an HTML tag, where description of an image (or any other multimedia) can be inserted.
For instance, when a visitor chooses ‘don’t display images’ for a website, the alt-text of an image is shown in place of the image. ANCHOR TEXT: It is the clickable text on a hyperlink. Best practices for SEO advise that anchor text should be closely related to the web page it links to. AUTHORITY SITE: The websites that search engines consider to be of high-quality, are called authority sites. AOV: It is an acronym for Average Order Value. As the name suggests, it is the average value (typically in dollars) of all orders processed by an eCommerce store.
DVR Viewer & Software Downloads. The following are the most up to date DVR viewer and other surveillance system software downloads. CCTV Camera Pros specializes in supplying DVR security systems that include Windows and Mac viewer software, as well as mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android.
B BACKLINK: It is also known as an inbound link. Suppose website A contains a hyperlink that directs to website B. For website B, that hyperlink is a backlink. A website having backlinks from authority sites will rank better in search engine results. BANNERS: They are rectangular segments (of various dimensions) on a website that are generally used to display ads.
These are some of the typical banner sizes used across the web: BANNER BLINDNESS:It is a phenomenon where website visitors consciously or subconsciously ignore banner ads or any other banner-like graphic on a website. BASELINE:Baseline conversion rate is the existing conversion rate of a website, which an A/B test attempts to improve. BAYESIAN: Bayesian is a probability concept which interprets probability as a degree of belief. In A/B testing, bayesian probability offers an absolute level of a test result’s validity.
BEHAVIORAL TARGETING: It is an advertising strategy where websites present their visitors with ads that are specifically related to their interests and preferences. Websites do this by tracking a visitor’s shopping and browsing history. BELOW THE FOLD: It is the portion of a website that is not above the fold.
BOUNCE:When a visitor arrives on a website and leaves without viewing other pages on the website, it is called a bounce. BOUNCE RATE: It is the percentage of visitors that end up bouncing from a website. It is often used as a measure to check a website’s effectiveness. A website’s higher bounce rate reflects its lack of ability to engage visitors.
BREADCRUMB NAVIGATION: It is a set of navigation links on a web page that tells the exact location of the web page in a website. This is how, an eCommerce store, uses breadcrumb navigation on its website.
C CALL TO ACTION (CTA):A Call to Action is an instruction given to website visitors that provokes an immediate response. Any action that a website wants its visitors to perform is carried out using a CTA button. A CTA button is the doorway to conversions. And hence, it is one of the hottest website elements that is A/B tested. Related Post: CANONICAL URL:If there are multiple URLs through which a web page can be reached (like and ), search engine picks up the preferred URL defined by the. This preferred URL is know as a canonical URL.
Want to read more on it? You can start with this fine from Moz.
CART ABANDONMENT:Cart abandonment occurs when eCommerce website visitors initiate the purchase process of a product but don’t buy it at the end. It is one of the biggest pain areas for eCommerce players. However, cart abandonment can be alleviated using certain onsite practices. One of those practices is ‘Website Checkout Optimization’.
This illustrates how to do it. CHURN RATE (ATTRITION RATE):It is the percentage of customers of a service that discontinue to use the service in a specific interval of time. A high churn rate often indicates that a company’s services are not satisfactory. CLICKBAIT:It refers to the sensationalized low-quality content on the internet, whose main purpose is to attract visitors and generate revenue from ad clicks.
Below is an example of clickbait content. CLICK TO CALL: It is a CTA button on a mobile website/application that allows visitors to directly call a phone number. CLICKMAP: Clickmap shows the number of clicks for each link on a website. CLICKSTREAM:It is the list of links that a visitor clicked on, during their stay on a website. Clickstream is used to determine the interests and site preferences of a visitor. CLICKTHROUGH RATE (CTR): It is the percentage of clicks on a button or a link, out of the total number of visitors who saw it. CTR is used to determine the success rate of a campaign or a web page.
CLICKTHROUGH PAGE: It is a web page that is placed before a website’s main action-page (like a shopping cart page for an eCommerce website). Its purpose is to prepare visitors for a conversion on the next page. CLOAKING: Content cloaking is the act of showing different content to search engine bots and actual human visitors. CONFIDENCE LEVEL: It is the probability that a variation in an A/B test won not because of chance. CONFIDENCE INTERVAL: The range in which the result of an A/B test lies is known as confidence level. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: It is a web-based application that allows people to easily (without any coding involved) add/update text and multimedia content on a website.
CONTENT MARKETING:It’s the practice of creating and popularizing text and multimedia content for a business to attract and retain customers. CONTROL PAGE: It is the website’s existing page that is pitted against its variation(s) in an A/B test. CONVERSION: It is the action that marketers want a website visitor to take. Newsletter signups, account registrations, and product enquiries are generally considered as micro-conversions. A monetary transaction is generally considered as a macro-conversion. CONVERSION RATE: It is the percentage of visitors who have completed a conversion. CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION (CRO): It is the practice of continually improving a website’s ability to effect conversions.
COOKIES:Cookies are small files that are stored within a web browser of a computer. Cookies have information related to a user’s visit to specific websites. Cookies are used to track users’ browsing history and site preferences. COST PER ACQUISITION:It is the total cost of converting a website visitor into a paying customer. COST PER CLICK (CPC):It is a payment model for online ad campaigns. CPC is the amount that an ad owner pays every time when a visitor clicks on their ad. CPM:It can be extended to Cost per Thousand Impressions.
CPM is the amount that an ad owner pays when the ad is displayed for a thousand times. CRAWLERS (SPIDERS): A web crawler is an internet bot that browses the entire world wide web and indexes websites into a directory.
CRM System: CRM is an acronym for Customer Relationship Management. A CRM System is an enterprise software that contains the history of company’s interaction with all its customers via multiple channels.
CROSS-SELL: It is the act of selling complementary products to existing customers. It is a popular practice among marketers because selling to an existing customer is a lot easier than selling to a new prospect.
Related Post: D DIRECTIONAL CUES: Visual elements of a website that are used to direct visitors’ attention to a specific area on the website (a CTA or an information box) are known as directional cues. Related Post: DYNAMIC CONTENT: When a website serves distinct content to different visitors (based on their demographic attributes), the content is referred to as dynamic content.
E EMAIL MARKETING: It is a practice where businesses use email as a medium to nurture their and retain their customers. Sending personalized and value-packed emails help push conversions.
EXIT POPUP: It is a popup that well, pops up on the screens of website visitors as soon as they show an intent to leave the website. Exit popups generally carry some sort of incentive for visitors, encouraging them to engage more with the website. This is an exit popup that VWO used for one of its campaign: (Click on the image if you want learn these principles) EXIT SURVEY:It is a small set of questions that ask visitors about their website experience, when they try to leave the website. EYE FLOW:It is the study of visitors’ eye movement while browsing a website.
Eye flow helps to track areas that visitors view or discard the most. F FORM TESTING: When forms on a website are A/B tested, it is referred to as form testing. FRICTION: Friction is caused by elements of a website that confuse or distract visitors, resulting in a loss of conversions.
Friction-causing website elements can be complex navigation links, cluttered boxes, CTAs with lack of visual contrast, etc. FUNNEL: Conversion funnel is a marketing model that illustrates all steps taken by a customer towards purchasing a product from a website. FUNNEL TESTING:Funnel testing involves executing A/B tests across all web pages of a website funnel. Related Resource: G GAMIFICATION: It is the practice of introducing game-style offers to potential/existent customers. The idea is to encourage them to complete more transactions — in a fun and engaging way. For example, is a gamification strategy.
GEO-FENCING: It is the practice of targeting users based on their location. It involves using GPS/map technology to create a virtual boundary around a physical location, and sending targeted messages to users when they enter the area. GROWTH HACKING: It is the use of low-cost and innovative marketing techniques combined with search engine optimization, website analytics, content marketing, and A/B testing to increase a business’ popularity and conversions.
H HEATMAP: Heatmap is a graphical representation of most-clicked areas of a website. A typical heatmap looks like this: Related Resource: HERO IMAGE: It is the most prominent banner or image present on a website. Hero image is usually the first visual of a website that visitors encounter.
I IMPRESSIONS: The number of times an ad is displayed to online visitors is counted as impressions. INTERRUPTION: It is a practice of providing attention-grabbing content to website visitors that purposely breaks their usual website navigation experience.
Exit popups can be considered as a form of interruption. L LANDING PAGE: It is the web page that visitors are directed to when they click on an ad (or a link from a campaign). A landing page can be a lead generation page or a clickthrough page. The possibility of a conversion depends heavily on the quality of a landing page. Related Resource: LATENT CONVERSION: When visitors complete a conversion on their follow-up visit to a webpage (and not on the first visit itself), it is known as a latent conversion.
LEADS:They are potential customers for a business who have already shown interest by providing their contact information — permitting the company to contact them. LIFETIME VALUE: It is the total profit that a business is expected to earn from a customer over their entire future relationship with the company. LINK BUILDING: It the process of earning more backlinks to a website. LIVE CHAT: It is a real-time chat-based customer support service that websites provide to their visitors.
LONG TAIL KEYWORDS: These are search phrases that usually include more than three words. Long tail keywords describe a search query comprehensively. M META TAG: It is an HTML tag that allows webmasters to insert text description of a web page. The meta description for web pages appear with their links in search engine results. The image below illustrates how meta description of a link is included in search engine results: MICROSITE: It is a small website — usually different from a company’s main website — that has succinct content and is related to a specific campaign.
MULTIVARIATE TESTING:When multiple variations of a webpage are tested — for more than one element — to determine the version offering the highest conversions, it is known as multivariate testing. Related Post: N NULL HYPOTHESIS:The hypothesis that an A/B test tries to disprove is called null hypothesis.
The null hypothesis states that the conversion rates of control and variation(s) are the same. O ORGANIC:The traffic coming to a website through non-paid search engines results is called organic traffic.
OUTBOUND LINKS:The hyperlinks that a website uses to direct visitors to other websites, are called outbound links. P PERSONALIZATION: It is the practice of customizing web pages (or any other digital content) to individual visitors’ interests or preferences.
PROXIMITY:It is a web designing practice that directs a webmaster to group similar or related website elements together, and place unrelated or dissimilar elements apart. R RESPONSIVE WEBSITE DESIGN (RWD): A website with responsive design adapts its layout to that of the viewing environment (mobile, desktop or tablet) to provide an optimum viewing experience to visitors. Below is a basic graphical representation of a responsive website. RETARGETING:When website visitors are shown ads/banners about the things they earlier browsed but didn’t convert, it is known as retargeting. Retargeting is used to push those visitors for a conversion who have already shown some interest in the website.
REVENUE PER VISITOR (RPV):It is the average revenue that a website earns from each of its visitors. RPV is considered as the most appropriate metric that is used to measure an eCommerce store’s performance. S SAMPLE SIZE:Sample size in A/B testing is the set of visitors that determine the conversion rate of different variations of a website. SCARCITY:It is a psychological tactic that marketers use to push visitors towards a conversion.
Scarcity takes advantage of the human fear of ‘shortage’. “Only 5 items left” and “Sale only till 8 PM” are some instances where scarcity marketing is used. SERPs: It is an acronym for Search engine Result Pages.
The ultimate goal of SEO strategies is to make websites appear on the top of a SERP. Below is an example of an SERP: SITEMAP: It is a list of all web pages within a website, displayed in a hierarchical manner.
SOCIAL PROOF: Customer testimonials, product reviews and trust badges make up the social proof of a website. A few social proof elements have been highlighted in the screenshot below: Visitors trust a website more when they are presented with social proof.
Related Post: SPLIT TESTING:It is an umbrella term that covers both A/B testing and Split URL testing. Related Resource: SPLIT-URL TESTING: It involves testing multiple versions of a webpage that are hosted on different URLs.
Split URL testing is best suited when there are major design changes on the web page. STANDARD ERROR: The degree to which the result of an A/B test can be apart from the actual figure is called standard error. STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Statistical significance determines the validity of an A/B test. Related Resource: T TEST HYPOTHESIS: It is a tentative assumption that changing a specific element(s) of a website will lead to higher number of conversions. Establishing a test hypothesis is the first step towards executing an A/B test. TITLE TAG:It is an HTML tag — a part of meta tags — that defines the title of a web page. A web page’s title tag is displayed above its meta description in SERPs.
TRUST BADGES: Trust badges are small logos or icons that convince visitors about the safety and credibility of the website. These are a few popular trust badges across the internet: Related Post: TEST DURATION:It is the specific time period over which an A/B test is run. It is imperative to determine the minimum test duration of an A/B test for reaching a conclusive result. Related Resource: U UNIQUE VISITORS: It is the number of distinct visitors of a website out of its total traffic. Unique visitors are tracked using cookies.
UPSELL: It is a practice of offering a higher value (and usually more expensive) product/service to an existing customer. Upselling USABILITY:It refers to the ease of use of a website. The usability of a website can be tested by hired experts, who thoroughly analyze the website and provide suggestions for improvement.
Related Post: USER GENERATED CONTENT (UGC): It is content in the form of text, images and videos that is submitted by users to a website as a part of some campaign. This was one of the UGC campaigns run by Universal: Here is an interesting post on by Hubspot.
USER INTENT: It is the end goal that a user wants to fulfill through submitting queries on search engines. Understanding the user intent is imperative for ranking well in search engines. This is how the from keywords to user intent. USER TESTING: When the usability of a website is tested with the help of real people, it is called user testing. User testing can be done in the following ways:. By inviting potential users to use your website, and observing the problem areas in usability.
By evaluating a website based on the behavior of real visitors — using tools like clickmaps and heatmaps. (The users are not aware that their website usage is being tracked for analysis.) V VARIABLE (VARIATION): In A/B testing, variable is the challenger web page that is pitted against the control. W WEBMASTER: The person who is responsible for maintaining a website is called a webmaster.
WHITESPACE: It is a design strategy which involves using blank spaces for directing attention towards a valuable website element such as a CTA. What can be a better example of the use of whitespace design than this: WIDGETS:They are small application boxes that typically fit in one of the side banner areas of a website. The use of widgets vary in a range of functions like providing navigation links, submission of forms, and more.
In fact, you can see widgets on the right side of your desktop screen right now. Use this glossary to move one step closer towards becoming a CRO expert. If you have any other terms to add to the list, please post it on the comments section below.
Focus stacking is a photography term used to describe the process of combining photographs to obtain images with a much larger depth of field that would be possible in a single photo. Focus stacking as a photography technique is especially useful for macro photography of small objects, because regardless of the f/stop used, the unavoidably small depth of field shooting small objects means that much of your subject will actually be unsharp and out of focus. Stacking overcomes this by combining the sharpest parts of several images focused at different points and combining them into one very sharp composite image.
Starting out with focus stacking isn't hard, can be done at any time and doesn't need to be expensive. All you need to start focus stacking is a digital camera, a stage, a flash, your tripod, the right software for stacking and a good sprinkling of patience. Focus Stacking Walkthrough 1 ➤ 2 ➤ 3 ➤ 4 ➤ 5 ➤ Focus stacking is done by amateurs, professionals and part-timers, has applications in entomology, science and astronomy and there's even a. Focus stacking, also known as macro stacking, focal plane merging, z-stacking and focus blending, can be done inside on the kitchen table during winter and is fun to learn, opening new worlds and opportunities for photography. Like anything, there's a workflow and certain amount of preparation that's done before shooting a focus stack. Learn Focus Stacking! As of March 2017 I'm now doing If you want to try out Stackshot, WeMacro or MJKZZ stages, or want to learn Zerene and/or Helicon Focus, and spend some time getting to grips with the whole stacking process from a to z, you could do a lot worse than to spend a day doing macro, learning insect praparation techniques and learning to stack.
Focus Stacking Tips Regardless of the software or hardware you're using to create a focus stack, there are certain standout factors that will affect the quality of your final focus stack. One thing to observe is that for many not so great stacks, all the factors need to be explored and relying just on buying a more expensive lens is no guarantee of success if all the other factors are not in good shape. Sharpness - Focus stacking is not a magic bullet that converts 10 unsharp images into one sharp image. For a successful stack, you need sharp images to begin with. So combining shots made with flash freezing the images sharply are more likely to be successful than shots which use handheld long exposures creating pixel blurry shots.
Obviously handheld exposures are perfectly capable of creating sharp images if there is enough light, but do be aware that doing everything you can to maximise initial sharpness can influence the quality of the final focus stack greatly. That said, stacked images can be surprisingly unsharp and some moderate high pass sharpening is usually required. Lens - The less abberation and distortion your lens has, the better the chance you give to your stacking software to align the images correctly.
But what is of particular importance to focus stackers is not only the absolute quality and resolution of the lens for the single image to be stacked, but also its properties and how it performs throughout the stack, which manifest itself as perspective and magnification changes between frames as the camera focuses at different focus points to create a stack sequence. Topend stackers look for lenses that minimise such changes in perspective between frames, as a complete undistorted field of view over the target without any perspective or magnification changes between frames will make it easier for stacking software to render a good stack. On DSLRs and full frame cameras, and make for a good value for money lens to stack with. Focus Stacking Software There are two main commercial vendors of focus stacking software:. Both give superb results in the right hands, although in my opinion, the focus stacking software of choice does tend to be for photographers interested in quality rather than speed. Zerene has the edge because of third party advanced retouching (slabbing) utilities available, seems to construct marginally superior 'out of the box' stacks and handles alignment more thoroughly.
Plenty of other software can also be used for stacking but I've found the results to be in a class below Zerene and Helicon; you certainly won't find many (or even any) stack user-set variables such as depth maps etc on non-specialised software. Subject - Some subjects simply stack better than others because of the complexity that you are asking the stack to merge into one. Objects with many thin low contrast overlapping elements such as hairs or branches are high complexity subjects that are often tricky to stack on a first pass and or substack slabbing, whereas smoother, planar objects such as small pebbles, shells and electronics components do tend to be easier to stack successfully. Focus Stacking Hardware A special mention should be given at this point to the various electronic focus stack rails, as this is probably the single most expensive accessory that people have their eye on when diving into stacking. There are increasingly more companies producing these, and there is a useful on my blog.
Is the class leader, with most functionality, and is the other end of the spectrum - few options but phenomenal value for money. There are others: in Spain, in Germany and last but not least, the various MJKZZ stages and its very interesting. Overlap - Focus stacking is all about overlapping shots with sharp sections to create an all-in-one sharp image. Whilst there maybe a temptation to maximise the band of sharpness on each shot to be stacked by using a small aperture such as f/64, do be aware that can and does occur.
I tend to use a lens at the lens' best performing f/stop and adjust increments to suit that, rather than adjusting increments to minimise exposures needed. Free Focus Stacking Stuff Free focus stacking software is also available: is used by many science institutions, is also used and there is also. There is also the older and variants. Light - There is no law saying that you have to use diffused lighting for focus stacking but in my experience will give your stack a bigger chance of succeeding as intended.
To simplify matters - if you can keep the dynamic range of your shot down a bit rather than playing right at the peripheries with harsh, contrasty lighting, you'll give your stacking software a better chance to find common information out of each frame to construct a decent stack. Focus stack studio shot of a sawfly using and a. This is a stack of 213 photos, finished off with CS4, NoiseNinja & Topaz Detail. Focus Stack Workflow Good prevents a lot of work in post.
Before starting your studio speciment stack, and and have it ready to be moved into position. Switch on any equipment that needs to be on for a while before settling at the correct colour temperature.
Shooting The Focus Stack Use the focus stack step calculator below to set a safe step size, and make sure that your batteries are fresh. And, work the stage to the ends and as a very last step, actually mount the specimen that you actually wish to photograph. F/stop used on lens (ie 8 for f/8): Magnification you are at (ie 6 for 6:1): APSC - ie Pentax, Nikon DSLR APS - ie Canon DSLR FF - ie Canon, Nikon FF DSLR Micro 4/ 3 Safe step size: Effective aperture: Processing Your Focus Stack Zerene Stacker software, the discerning software choice for extreme macro focus stacking. Zerene Stacker is available as a free trial and can be.
Process and using, bring in the substacks and perform any necessary retouching. Focus Stack Post Processing, carefully sharpen.
Focus stacks are rarely supremely sharp or beautiful before postprocessing work is done and this stage is usually an important part of the overall macro focus stack process. Focus Stacking on a Budget For a low-cost focus stacking setup that gets you up to 5:1 or so, you really don't need expensive equipment.
It is better to start with flash rather than continuous lighting because you'll avoid the unsharpness that long exposures and continuous lighting can give you. Flash freezes the subject. If you already have a camera, all you need to diffuse the on-board flash is a sheet of tissue paper which. To move the camera and make your own dial for greater sensitivity. As a specimen holder, either use a or an old lens (which can be twisted to make an up/down platform), blu tack and a pin. Then stack using ImageJ, which is free!
Allow Time for Stacking Allow plenty of time for stacking. Focus stacking is not a speedy process, and most stacks tend to take several hours from start to finish. There are two especially time-consuming stages: shooting the stack itself (ie 100 images at 1 every minute) and rendering the stack in the stacking software. Regardless of your stacking software, making a stack is a very slow, memory-intensive task, and your computer will more than likely have most of its process memory consumed by your stacking software when running, so there is not much scope to run other memory intensive applications such as Photoshop at the same time. It will help to switch the optional preview of the stack as it is being made off, and also to limit the amount of perspective and rotation correction you make your stacking software do. My preferred workflow is to take the pictures for an actual stack in the evening, and then make the stacking software do its thing overnight whilst I'm sleeping.
Download Free Focus Rwd Conversion Kit For Mac Download
Focus Stacking Method There are two methods that can be used to focus stack: vary the plane of focus by moving camera (or subject) backwards and forwards, or vary the plane of focus by refocusing a lens at different focus planes. The latter is no good for lenses without electronic focus, and cannot be used by all brands or cameras; it is limited to the brands and lenses that Helicon Focus can adjust the focus for; this excludes for example mpe65, reversed enlarger lenses, JML21 and microscope objectives. The former method, moving either the camera or object, also has the added benefit that it can do much more magnification, down to 10:1 on its own or 50:1 on a geared-down microscope focus block.
Common Focus Stacking Problems Your first stacks will be your worst. They may very well exhibit one of these very common stacking problems, which we have all had at some point. There is nothing to be alarmed about if you get these and it is always best to concentrate on getting your equipment train and workflow in good order first before expecting excellent results. Stacking is a slow process and learning to avoid issues is just a small part of this. Focus Breathing Focus breathing aka is the change in perspective as you focus on different parts of a subject, from (relatively) distand to (relatively) close. It means you'll probably end up with less defined detail at the edges of the frame, but if you're using software with scale and perspective correction (ie Zerene) it shouldn't be a problem. Unsharp Unsharp stacks are commonly caused by vibration during the stack when using long exposures and continuous lighting, but can also be due to a poor optic, high ISO or use of too high a f/stop.
Solution: Use flash instead, low ISO, try another optic and add some gentle post processing sharpening. High f/stop use. Dark Lines (aka stackingworms) Dark lines are caused by dirt on the sensor, compounded into a line because of the stacking process.
Solution: test for sensor dust by shooting a high f/stop frame, then use a good sensor cleaner to remove. Photoshop cloning or Zerene retouching from one frame can rescue these in case of emergency. Light Lines (aka stackingworms) Not uncommon, this is a 'dead' or 'hot' pixel, compounded into a line because of the stacking process. They often appear with long exposures (several seconds), and do increase with increasing sensor temperature.
Usually they're too small to notice because they're just a single pixel. Solution: There maybe a pixel remapping mode on your camera. If not, just retouch from a single frame.
Credit to the fine fellows at the German language stacking forum, both coloured and black lines now have an appropriate name: STACKINGWORMS Splodge Your stacking software constructs a weird out-of-focus colour splodge and halo. Caused by the stacking software getting confused by out of focus colour values and adding them into the in-focus composite. Helicon Focus is more prone to this than Zerene Stacker.
If using photoshop, caused by photoshop selecting big blocky areas instead of tracking closely to the actual structure of the subject. Solution: in Zerene Stacker, experiment with different dmap settings - change threshold values. Helicon Focus also allows parameter adjustment but the effects are not as improvative as Zerene. Transparent Hairs Semi transparent hairs are a common artifact that happen when you use a wide aperture lens that can look round foreground objects to see a focused background. If there is higher contrast detail in the background than in the foreground, then the stacking algorithm will show the background through the foreground.
Solution: Break the focus stack up into smaller parts and use. Focus Banding Bands of sharp and unsharp areas over the image, a common issue when starting out focus stacking for the first time. This is because your stacking steps are too big so you are not just stacking sharp areas. Solution: Use more steps to cover the same object in your stack (ie smaller distances between each step). Do are doing great work here - thank you!Nikon has announced and just started shipping the D850. They say it does focus stacking (they call it focus shifting). They say the minimum focus step distance is the lens focal length divided by 30.
That means the Nikon 105mm macro lens will produce minimum focus steps of 3.5mm. For anyone that does macro stacking they will know this is not useful. I think it needs to be more like 0.06 - 0.5mm - that will at least get you 1x-3x magnification factors. Anyway, I was hoping you guys could get hold of a D850 and confirm if it would of any use for macro stacking (maybe the marketing guys got it all wrong.and the engineers researched the field and know exactly what they are doing). In camera focus stacking capture would be a GREAT feature in a camera that has an electronic shutter - it would be fast with no vibration.and higher resolution than the video stacking approach.