Focus Stacking Online vs PlaneFuse

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.

PlaneFuse is free focus-stacking software for macro, product, and landscape photography. It combines frames captured at different focus distances using PMax, DMap, weighted average, or Slab methods. Alignment options include translation, similarity, and perspective; it can reject poorly aligned frames and thin redundant brackets. For RAW stacks, it fuses frames from the same camera and sensor mode in scene-linear RGB and exports a re-editable Linear DNG. The process requires irreversible demosaicing. Its local browser workspace has deep zoom, source and result comparisons, a live histogram, and a reorderable job queue. Non-destructive retouching can work with source frames or results; exports include TIFF, PNG, JPEG, Linear DNG, and depth maps. NVIDIA CUDA and Apple MPS acceleration are supported, with CPU fallback and tiled processing if GPU memory runs out. PlaneFuse also offers command-line and local HTTP and WebSocket interfaces for scripting and batch work. Processing stays on the computer without uploading photos. The software is free for personal and commercial use; initial setup requires Node.js and uv.