Focus Stacking Online vs OpenFocus

Focus Stacking Online combines photographs of one scene taken at different focus distances, blending the sharp portions into a single image. The maker describes it as free to use in a browser, without installing software. The workflow is to add pictures, choose an alignment method and a reference picture, stack the images, then download the result. Standard and Beta alignment methods are listed; the maker says Beta can perform better in some cases. A reference picture can be selected according to how much of the subject is in focus. The service is described as working on home laptops and smartphones. Focus stacking is presented as useful for producing sharper images, particularly in macro photography, where depth of field can be shallow. The maker recommends keeping the camera fixed because camera shake and scene variation can make stacking harder. A stack may contain two images or more than 100. The homepage also describes a recent stacks gallery and a feature for sharing to social media. FAQ and Contact us links are provided.

OpenFocus aligns and fuses multi-focus image sequences to create images with focus throughout. It offers ECC and Homography alignment and several fusion methods: Guided Filter, DCT, DTCWT, GFG-FGF and the StackMFF V4 AI model. A wipe view lets users compare source frames with results, and the software can generate depth maps showing focus position per pixel. It supports folder-based batch processing and a headless command-line interface for scripting and CI. Listed inputs include JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, MP4 and numbered image folders; the manual also describes decoding additional video formats. Outputs include those image formats, image-sequence folders and GIF animations. Research functions include metadata-calibrated scale bars and multi-page TIFF stacks that preserve 16-bit depth. The interface supports English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, with automatic system-language detection. OpenFocus is free under the MIT License, though included algorithms may have separate license terms. Its Windows and macOS app builds are unsigned and may trigger SmartScreen or Gatekeeper warnings on first launch.