FloraStack

Focus stacking, for everyone.

FloraStack merges the sharp parts of every frame into one image. It's open source, it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and your photos never leave your computer.

Download

Version 0.1.0,
in early development

Works best on a computer. Stacking needs a lot of memory, so open this page on a desktop or laptop to download it. Read the guide

The FloraStack desktop app on its Retouch tab. The list of 15 frames is on the left, a soft single frame of a cricket is in the middle, the sharp pyramid result is beside it, and the brush settings are on the right.
A stack of 15 frames of a cricket: one frame on the left, the pyramid result on the right.

Plate 1. The Retouch tab

  1. 1 Frames

    All 15, each with its match score and any warnings.

  2. 2 Source

    The frame you paint from.

  3. 3 Pyramid

    The stacked result.

  4. 4 Retouch

    Brushes and layers, with full undo.

The same wasp in the frame the focus scale has selected.
Plate 2. The frames, lined up so the wasp holds still.

Sharp detail moves through the stack.

Frame 1 of 23

Antennae
Head
Wing
Abdomen
Hind foot

Fine detail measured in each frame, scaled to each part's sharpest frame.

  1. Shoot. Take a series of frames, moving the focus a little each time.
  2. Align. FloraStack matches shift, scale, rotation and brightness, and flags frames that moved.
  3. Stack. It merges the sharp parts, with a quarter-size preview in seconds.
  4. Retouch. Paint from any frame onto the result, in layers, with full undo.

Key to the methods

  1. 1aYou want a fast resultWeighted average
  2. 1bYou want the finest resultgo to 2
  3. 2aHair, bristles, overlapping detailPyramid
  4. 2bSmooth subject, exact tonesDepth map

Not sure? FloraStack can run the pyramid and the depth map together, so you can compare them.

A close crop of the wasp's head and thorax, showing the fine texture of the eye.
Plate 3. A crop of frame 4, straight from the camera.

Field marks

Camera RAW
Developed linearly for the whole stack.
Output
TIFF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, OpenEXR and DNG, with their metadata.
Long stacks
Slabbing handles hundreds of frames, and memory depends on the image size, not the frame count.
Clean-up
Sensor dust and hot pixels painted out, and stacks shot out of order sorted.
Retouching
Non-destructive, from any frame, with brushes that match brightness and color.
Capture
Batches, watch folders and tethered capture.
Measurement
Depth and confidence maps, calibrated depth, scale bars, 3D reliefs and stereo pairs.
Automation
A command-line tool, MCP and Python bindings over the same engine.

Free, under MIT or Apache-2.0.

Works best on a computer. Open this page on a desktop or laptop to download FloraStack.

Download 0.1.0

All packages for 0.1.0, including Flatpak, deb, rpm, the command-line tool and Python wheels. Windows packages aren't signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn you: choose More info, then Run anyway. The macOS app isn't notarized yet: the first time, right-click it and choose Open, or use Open Anyway in System Settings, under Privacy & Security.