#very away for GIGO (garbage in garbage out)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Garbage In, Garbage Out: machine learning has not repealed the iron law of computer science

Pete Warden writes convincingly about computer scientists' focus on improving machine learning algorithms, to the exclusion of improving the training data that the algorithms interpret, and how that focus has slowed the progress of machine learning.

The problem is as old as data-processing itself: garbage in, garbage out. Assembling the large, well-labeled datasets needed to train machine learning systems is a tedious job (indeed, the whole point and promise of machine learning is to teach computers to do this work, which humans are generally not good at and do not enjoy). The shortcuts we take to produce datasets come with steep costs that are not well-understood by the industry.

For example, in order to teach a model to recognize attractive travel photos, Jetpac paid low-waged Southeast Asian workers to label pictures. These workers had a very different idea of a nice holiday than the wealthy people who would use the service they were helping to create: for them, conference reception photos of people in suits drinking wine in air-conditioned international hotels were an aspirational ideal -- I imagine that for some of these people, the beach and sea connoted grueling work fishing or clearing brush, rather than relaxing on a sun-lounger.

Warden says that people who are trying to improve vision systems for drones and other robots run into problems using the industry standard Imagenet dataset, because those images were taken by humans, not drones, and humans take pictures in ways that are significanty different from the way that machines do -- different lenses, framing, subjects, vantage-points, etc.

Warden's advice is for machine learning researchers to sit with their training data: sift through it, hand-code it, review it and review it again. Do the hard, boring work of making sure that PNGs aren't labeled as JPGs, retrieve the audio samples that were classified as "other" and listen to them to see why the classifier barfed on them.

It's an important lesson for product design, but even more important when considering machine learning's increasing role in adversarial uses like predictive policing, sentencing recommendations, parole decisions, lending decisions, hiring decisions, etc. These datasets are just as noisy and faulty and unfit for purpose as the datasets Warden cites, but their garbage out problem ruins peoples' lives or gets them killed.

Here's an example that stuck with me, from a conversation with Patrick Ball, whose NGO did a study of predictive policing. The police are more likely to discover and arrest perpetrators of domestic violence who live in row-houses, semi-detached homes and apartment buildings, because the most common way for domestic violence to come to police attention is when a neighbor phones in a complaint. Abusers who live in detached homes get away with it more than their counterparts in homes with a party wall.

Train a machine learning system with police data, and it will overpolice people in homes with shared walls (who tend to be poorer), and underpolice people in detached homes (who tend to be richer). No one benefits from that situation.

https://boingboing.net/2018/05/29/gigo-gigo-gigo.html

[christiancomputerstudent]

The Christian Life

God’s love and revelation

God’s love is unconditional you can not earn God’s love, God’s love is unlimited you can not put god in a box, he is unlimited so we need a unlimited view of him and allow him to work in ours lives

God is for us and has our best interest at heart and wants to bless us, even if we mess up God still loves us and will not let us down, we need a daily revelation of who, God is and what he thinks of us

We need to change my view of God and how he views.  We need to ask God and read the word to find out what God thinks of me daily

The Father heart of god and his holiness

God wants us to come to him as we are, but he loves us so much he does not want us to remain the way we were, so he changes us into the people he wants us to be.

God does not want us to carry the baggage of the past around with us and want to heal us of it. 

God sent us his son to die on the cross to take away our sin and pay the price for that sin death, because he loved us.  He wanted to save us from our shelves and our destructive patterns and make us right with him.

We need to allow God to take away Our baggage and allow him to heal us

The cross images and victory

Jesus paid a price for my sin because he was the only one that could do it. We have been brought from slavery of death and sin, this means we are free.

The price for that freedom was high and a sacrifice, the only one that could pay it was God so he sent himself, the only response, to it is gratitude and accepts what he has done as a gift to us.

He has restored our relationship with god and he restores our identity and purpose for being.  Jesus turns victims into victors and Jesus wants us to help people. Jesus has wiped the slate clean, does not keep a record of our sins and gives us a new identity; we don’t need to hold onto shame.

In the light of this we need to get rid of negative things people have said to us / or things we ARE ashamed of, by writing them down praying over them and throwing them away.

The Nature and the correct handing of God’s word

Sometimes our life is like the computer term GIGO which means Garbage in, Garbage out, in other words if we plant bad things i.e., things that harm us spiritually, we produce fruit that should not be there.

We need the plant good seed into our lives i.e. the word and what God thinks of us, we need to spend time with God, we can sometimes be too busy running around for God that we forget the spend time with God.

Gods words do not return void if God says it will happen.

God’s word can harm people if used wrongly, we need to learn to use it correctly and we should always use God’s word in love.

In the light of this we need build in down time our lives where we can spend time with God, we can use the wasted times in times in our lives to do this i.e. travelling by bus productively by reading the word, praying and spending time with God

Correct handling, purpose of Gods word

God word has the power to direct us, and empower us, set us free and tell us the truth about us, but used incorrectly it can harm people we should always use God’s word to build people up and use it with love and grace to help people and set them free.

Jesus is our role model and we should always use God’s word as Jesus used the Word and we need the Holy Spirit to do this.

God words don’t return void if God says it will happen, we need to trust God that the words placed on our lives will come true.  God has a plan and a purpose for my life I need to trust God that he will lead me into it.

we need to build the word in me daily and spend time with God.

Faith

You can be a Christian a long time and not know fully who Jesus is, we need a intimate relationship with him to know who he is,

We need to go deeper and have a more intimate relationship with him, how we view God determines how we view our world and our identity.

We need to have passion to know who is and please him, worship is not just singing songs on a Sunday, worship should be our whole life, and it’s not about me its all about him.

We should be in God's amazing story not him in ours

We need to trust who God is, if God says it will happen, God words don’t return void, also God knows us and knows what we need.

we need to trust God, and praise God in faith that things, we are praying for will come about

Releasing power of faith

God has a plan for our lives, God knows what he wants us to do, God knows our destiny and the way to go, God prepares us for the thing he wants us to do.

To grow in faith we need to operate faith by doing what he wants us to do.

When I pray about situations I need to be specific.

Living in faith can lead to God giving us dreams and visions, God can give us specific words in our lives that impact our lives, we need to keep these words and stand on them.

we need to find out what God wants us to do and do it

New covenant blessing and living in the power

We had messed up, we could not meet God’s perfect target for us to live by, so God sent his son Jesus to willingly die in our place and pay the price, because only he could meet the target and he loved us.

God wants us to spend quality time with him, God want us to be in his Amazing Story, he wants us to do life with him and do amazing thing for god. We should not rule our selves out from God using us.

God gives us the Holy Spirit to empower us for the work he wants us to do in our lives, and he gives the Holy Spirit freely and without limit.  The same God who made the earth and the heavens is inside you.

God wants to bless us and God wants the very best for us, God knows what we need, god does not want us to live in mediocre lives.

we should allow God to use us more, and find out what he wants me to do, and spend more time with him.

Worship

Worship should connect you to God, and it should change you and restore us, Worship is powerful, when we worship things happen.

Worship is not something we do it’s who we are we should be worshippers it’s in our DNA, it involves all of us, not just singing songs on Sunday morning, we should be Extravagant with our worship, we should give our all for God.

Worship comes out of a loving relationship with God and is our hearts response to a loving God, worship or service comes from our heart not because we have to do it but we want to do it, because we love him and he loves us, and we should fall in love with him daily, we need to worship in the secret place, Worship is all about God, When we worship its not for us, its not for anyone else it’s all for God, God is the audience of one and all we do is for god, You can not earn God’s love he loves us anyway and loves to be with us.  

God does not need our gifts and talents, he wants you.

When things go wrong we should praise God, even when it’s hard to worship, god meets us in worship.  we should fall in love with daily, and give him all of us, the only way is to spend time with him

Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is person, not a it, he is not gas, or a object he is a him, he has a personality and can be hurt or grieved, he also speaks.  The Holy Spirit is like Jesus living inside us and helps us live life and to pray.

Holy Spirit guides us, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and never forces us to do something we don’t want to do and The Holy Spirit never goes against the Gods word or will.

Holy Spirit helps us to understand we are loved and accepted by God and confirms we are Gods children and belong to God

Holy Spirit transforms us into the people God wants us to be and helps us do the things he wants us do.

We need to receive the Holy Spirit daily, Holy Spirit Glorifies Jesus and points to him

[suppersanchez]

Some Anti-Theist Religious Bits & Pieces: Round Thirteen

Of all of those Big Questions central to philosophical principles that surround existence, the universe and the whole lot, the geographical regions of theology and religions and the character of deities hold to fascinate. Opinions proliferate in books, articles, videos, conversations in bars and pubs, and in fact anywhere and everywhere  or extra humans are in proximity. There's the seasoned side; there's the anti-side. There are not too many fence-sitters. I'm nevertheless inside the anti-camp as the subsequent bits and portions illustrate.

Regarding Religion  Engagement Rings Perth *You do not need a god to have that means and cause on your life.

*There is one trait that the multi-lots of differing non secular notion structures / theologies have exhibited and that is the electricity of the human creativeness to boldly go and believe imaginary standards never imagined earlier than. The world might be a less colourful and exciting region without our numerous mythologies.

*I assume there ought to be obligatory religious and Biblical education in colleges when you consider that that ought to make certain a constant circulation of atheists growing up and getting into the network!

*Religions often do appropriate so as to masks the evil they do, but can now do with impunity.

*The Catholic Church: AIDS is terrible but the use of condoms is worse due to the fact God does no longer approve of 'delivery manage' for any motive. It is seemingly taught in Africa by means of Catholics that the usage of condoms makes "Baby Jesus cry". Weird.

*Then too we had the Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books. It wasn't just the Nazis that burned books. Now you've got to be surely insecure and uncertain of your theology and the way to defend it if you have to cover in the back of a reduced curtain that outcomes with the aid of the censoring of divergent reviews. It's just some other nail in Christianity's coffin.

*There's no greater evidence for casual and disorganised non secular perception (like being religious without being a member of any formal spiritual cult / company / church) than formally organised religion. It's all only a form of "woo".

*When it involves religion, "live and let live" True Believers are very plenty in the minority. (Via Greta Christina).

*Any faith is only a running speculation approximately how life, the Universe and the whole thing, however specifically the arena, works. As such, that faith is problem to scrutiny and rebuttal and being challenged and corrected as would some other operating speculation from every other topical area or of concern count number of difficulty to humans, from the sciences via to political systems.

*We don't tend to head looking for the brand of faith we need among all of the distinctive and broadly differing brands of religion on provide after which choosing the most appropriate the way we do for the multi brands of packets of biscuits on provide at the grocery store or for a specific logo or style label of dress at the girls fashion store and garb branch. Instead we keep ingesting / sporting the same logo over and over and again because that was just the way we have been raised. Likewise, we have a tendency to keep the faith that changed into shoved down our throats whilst we have been kids. This is in component because of culture (if it changed into appropriate sufficient for Mum & Dad its appropriate sufficient for me) as well as own family / social strain. Of path in a few societies the stress borders on actual physical threats and punishments in case you stray from the generic fold.

*Thanks to Christianity and its all-loving, all-simply, all-merciful God, over 50,000 innocent human beings had been tortured and finished - they had been called "witches" however have been no more real witches than those who turned the thumb-screws, tightened the rack, and lite the bonfires surrounding the stake. By the way, this exercise is still taking place in lots of far off areas in underdeveloped nations. God (and His servants right here on earth) need to hold their heads in disgrace for Exodus 22: 18 "Thou shall now not go through a witch to live".

Regarding Religion vs. Science

*According to Leviticus eleven: 6 and Deuteronomy 14: 7, hares (i.E. - rabbits) cheweth the cud. This of direction is zoological nonsense. Chalk up but every other Biblical oops.

*The universal fashion over all of recorded records is that natural explanations have supplanted, generally exceeded in explanatory power, supernatural (i.E. - non secular) motives. I'd wager this is a fashion a good way to keep on maintaining on.

Regarding Faith & Belief

*Saying which you simply realize some thing (without evidence to lower back up your knowledge) is just now not a pathway to truth.

*If you are saying your religion trumps evidence then you definately are totally proof against both self-correction and proof against dissent.

*Religious perception is belief within the unverifiable. There's no proof to be found in the spiritual pudding. Any evidence to be located comes after you've kicked-the-bucket and by means of then it's too little, too overdue to inform every person.

*The idea of deciding what is authentic based on what you want to be true is absurd in the intense. Reality is what fact is and your beliefs to the contrary are irrelevant. So any notion machine that encourages humans to ignore truth is a horrific notion machine and that covers Christianity right down via and which include New Age "Woo".

*The high teaching of monotheistic religious notion in an invisible magic man inside the sky is an obvious instance regarded to computer programmers of GIGO - Garbage In; Garbage Out.

*Christian: You should appreciate my ideals.

Atheist: No! I might also admire you as being an sincere and likable person however that does not imply I should admire what you accept as true with in.

*You have a proper for your personal spiritual beliefs till such time as you move the line and your non secular beliefs enter the public area and begin to harm others.

*It's hypocritical in the acute for you to bucket the non secular ideals of others whilst the ones ideals don't conform on your beliefs and then assume your non secular ideals to get a loose skip.

Regarding Prayer & Miracles

*For the Catholic Church to declare a few event as a bona-fide miracle (i.E. Fatima, October 1917), nicely it is corresponding to a real believer in Bigfoot or the Yeti asserting that a photograph of an eroded 'primate' footprint inside the snow is absolute proof of same. True believers will obviously recommend activities that mirror evidence for his or her authentic belief.

Regarding Morality

*The idea that religious religion robotically makes you an amazing and ethical individual is absurd in the extreme. Prisons in America, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and many others. Are complete of Christians. Prisons in Muslin international locations are full of prisoners of the Islamic religion. And then too, what about all of those humans of the fabric and the collar - like Catholic (and different) monks and different clergy who use their positions of authority to one) mentally abuse little kids with terrifying threats of everlasting punishment in Hell and a pair of) who physically abuse children in their care, particularly accomplishing sexual abuse. And that is just scratching the floor of the evils dedicated via those professing spiritual faith.

Regarding the End Times

*Faith is a crock! Evidence? There have been heaps of precise prophetic forecasts made by way of the faithful for the End Times; End of Days; the Second Coming; the Rapture; Armageddon; the Apocalypse, and so on. There were multi-tens of millions of faithful believers who have believed those prophets. All such prophecies have failed. None have ever come to bypass. Score: the truth of truly real fact 1; faith zero.

*We're still ready!

*Sorry Michele Bachmann and all associated "End Times" fanatics, however another day has come and gone and another time, God's a no-show. And Jesus, of Second Coming reputation, seems to be a bit tardy as properly. Did they forget to set the alarm clocks? Did they omit the bus? Maybe their Holy Chariot had a flat! Michele Bachmann and corporation might consider that the stop is nigh (and has been for pretty some massive time) and the Rapture is coming near near (and has been for pretty a few extensive time as nicely), but I suppose it is pretty secure for you to plot and pay for your subsequent vacation and increase that nest egg in your long years in retirement.

Regarding the Soul / Afterlife

*This may also come as a surprise to many but there was no belief in an afterlife in ancient Israeli Jewish groups. The most effective real reference to an afterlife inside the Old Testament is at Daniel 12: 2. That's it. There are not any other hits for "existence eternal" or "eternal existence"; "lifestyles everlasting" or "everlasting life"; or "afterlife" or "life after demise" or even "resurrection". So there's no location given for an afterlife in the Old Testament due to the fact with the only exception there may be no concept of an afterlife in the Old Testament and Daniel 12: 2 noted no afterlife area. Now it's pretty sudden given the prominence the afterlife receives within the New Testament. Perhaps the afterlife became just an after-concept on God's element as in "gee, it'd be fantastic to have a few constant deliver of recent faces and enterprise to speak to me right here upstairs on my heavenly throne".

*As lengthy as religions can cling the afterlife carrot in front of the superb unwashed (and additionally in view of the no longer so extraordinary washed), you may in no way take away the institution (in particular when it employs loads of hundreds of people and generates billions in profits).

Regarding Heaven & Hell

*Regarding reviews of those who've had a glimpse of heaven, the ones who have said Near Death Experiences (NDEs), why no sightings of extraterrestrials in heaven? Is it because there aren't any extraterrestrial beings? Is it because extraterrestrial beings don't visit heaven? Is it due to the fact aliens have their very own heaven?

*Faithful Christians go to Heaven. Faithful Muslims additionally go to Heaven. But the Heaven that devoted Muslims visit might be no longer similar to the Heaven trustworthy Christians go to. That would be awkward and fairly complex. (thru Jason Boyett)

*Actually no one (as in mortal human True Believers) have ever ascended as much as or otherwise long past up to Heaven according to John three: thirteen. I'm now not certain how that jives with the story of Elijah (2 Kings 2: 1 & 2 Kings 2: 11).

*By the manner, nowhere within the Bible will you find Satan's / the Devil's / Lucifer's anatomy defined as traditionally pictured. No cloven hooves, no forked / pointy tail, no horns, and no goatee. As for attire, no pitchfork / trident and no pink skin-in shape.

Regarding the Bible

*Why is it that the Bible condemns homosexuality (guys lying with guys) but says bugger-all approximately lesbianism (women mendacity with girls)? In reality the Bible says absolutely zilch about lesbianism.

*If, as many theists and Christian apologists claim, that Biblical passages need to be expertly and efficiently interpreted within their appropriate context, then how best can that holy e book clearly be?

*And exactly what number of had been killed in the plague as associated in Numbers sixteen: forty nine (14,seven-hundred) versus Numbers 25: nine (24,000)?

*Now right here's an exciting paradox. In Exodus 2: 1 we've a wedding. In Exodus 2: 2, that marriage produces a son who will become known in due path as Moses. The narrative then proceeds with the famous story of the setting of the infant into a boat fabricated from bulrushes floated down the Nile to be discovered by means of Pharaoh's daughter, and so on. So, therefore, it's miles reasonable to suppose that Moses turned into the firstborn of the earlier than-mentioned marriage. But almost without delay in Exodus 2: 4, there's a passage that the child Moses had a sister who was looking all of this narrative. Like in which did she come from all of a surprising and all of a sudden? So changed into Moses the eldest baby or not? The sister of Moses became best diagnosed through name for the primary time as Miriam in Exodus 15: 20, after which simplest diagnosed because the sister of Aaron, however Aaron of route was the brother of Moses (identified as such in Exodus four: 14). All up, there's some thing screwy someplace with the foundation of Moses. By the manner, that starting place tale of a infant being installed a basket and floated downstream is yet any other example of an instantaneous thieve; pure plagiarism within the Bible. Take for instance the starting place story in the back of King Sargon of Assyria. An precise origins copy but Sargon came first chronologically.

*One little bit of Biblical mythology is the "smart men" who visited Mom and Pop and Baby Jesus. We all of route KNOW that it changed into THREE sensible men. Except that the Bible would not surely say everywhere that there were THREE smart men, just "smart guys". At least it's plural. So THREE wise men is only an assumption based totally at the three gifts that had been added for Baby Jesus (which,, reality be recognized, have been wildly inappropriate for a child). Even the "smart guys" tale most effective seems in Matthew 2: 1-12. That's it!

*Also, the Bible by no means surely mentions the sort of fruit that Adam and Eve snacked on. It's just assumed - based totally on zero proof - to be an apple. I'm now not sure why God would not make clear all of this confusion since it become His Garden, and His Tree, and His Fruit.

*Then once more, did Judas Iscariot hang himself (reference Matthew 27: five) or did he die with the aid of falling down in his area, bursting apart on the seams along with his bowels gushing out - consider the chest burster inside the film "Alien" in case you need an photograph - (reference Acts 1: 18).

*Here's a Biblical paradox to ponder. You frequently get Hell-related references to "consuming fireplace" or "devouring fireplace" but also to "eternal burning" or "eternal fire". You even get both in a single verse - Isaiah 33: 14. Now how can something be each eternal and ingesting? If you eat a pitcher of beer, it would not ultimate for all time now, does it?

*The Bible receives it incorrect - once more. Isaiah 7: 14 is regularly cited as being the spot-on prophecy that a virgin will conceive and endure a son as a signal from God - reward the Lord! The "oops" component is they were given the call incorrect - the son will be named Immanuel, no longer Jesus. The name "Jesus" never, ever appears inside the Old Testament.

*If sinners get "everlasting punishment" (Matthew 25: forty six) in Hell, and if Satan too is forged down into his very own fiery furnace for eternity (Revelation 20: 10), then who's walking the show down below (and I don't mean Australia both) for the relaxation of eternity? It might appear that Hell is leaderless, now missing an administrator.

[bubblybrittracer-blog]

Sodastream Reviews Sodastream Pure Starter Kit

Sodastream Reviews can’t say enough of this. Ever have that craving for sparkling drinks, (soda, seltzer…) well in 5 seconds at the most, you can make your own. BUY THE PURE MODEL! Please, it looks beautiful in your kitchen, and the sparkling drinks taste so good, and so much fresher than store-bought.

The unit works flawlessly and looks elegant. What I didn’t anticipate was that carbonated tap water still tastes like tap water (GIGO = Garbage In Garbage Out). I live in south Orange County CA and the tap water here is pretty awful. I did a little searching and bought a PUR in-refrigerator filter and voila! PUR + SodaStream = superbly tasting carbonated water.

I did some cost-benefit calculations and, based on my previous store purchases, determined it would take me 8 months to make up the cost of the unit, and after that would cost about 25 cents a liter, including replacing the PUR filters.

Sodastream Reviews – Product Features

Color: Black/Silver

Enjoy freshly made, great tasting sparkling water/seltzer in less than 30 seconds with no mess

Starter kit includes SodaStream Pure soda maker in black/silver with brushed stainless-steel exterior, one carbonator (good for making up to 60L of soda), and one BPA-free plastic bottle

Requires no electricity or batteries–great for using in RVs and boats

Reusable carbonating bottles last for three years with hermetically sealed caps to keep drinks fresh and fizzy

This item is not for sale in Catalina Island

 Sodastream Reviews – Why you should get this

The bottom line is I haven’t found any negatives to this machine other than having to exchange the tanks, but I look at it as I would have to go to the store to buy Soda, so this really isn’t a negative.

The machine works great, is very easy to use, is very cost effective, the flavors are very good, not much difference to the store brands and it’s healthier for you. Plus, I didn’t even talk about that you don’t create more waste by throwing empty soda bottles and soda cans away! Looking back at this purchase, it was a no brainer well worth the risk and a good investment!!!

I’ve been using it about a month now, and I am still amazed at how great it is. I literally make my own liter bottles of sparkling water. If I want a flavor, I’ll add a little fresh lemon or lime juice to the bottle after carbonating the water. It’s just perfect. I picked up a spare CO2 bottle at Crate & Barrel. Simple.

[joya34blanco]

How to Photograph the Images Needed For Focus Stacking

This tutorial will help make it much easier for you to take the photographs needed for focus stacking. This is the best and the easiest way to achieve the results you want. There are a few details along the way, but the bonus is that there are also other photographic situations where you will be able to apply the same technique.

What is focus stacking and why is it needed?

When your camera is really close to the subject, depth of field will be very shallow. For example, if you are using a 100mm lens, at a distance of 50cm (nearly 10 inches from your subject) with an aperture as small as f/16, the area which is acceptably sharp is just 1.9 cm (about 3/4 of an inch). Reduce the distance to subject to only 25cm (less than 5 inches) and the depth of field reduces to only 0.36 cm (1/6th of an inch).

The only way to conquer this issue in order to get a greater depth of acceptable sharpness in a final photograph is with computational photography. That means using software to blend together a number of photographs which have been taken with different points of focus. This computational process is called focus stacking.

Input

The recommendation made in this article is an application of the old computer acronym of GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. If you input rubbish, the output will be rubbish. To achieve the best results with focus stacking, you need to produce the photographs which are technically the most suitable for the focus stacking process.

Processing

A while back, I decided that I wanted to make some images that would look good in a home or workplace, which would reflect the Filipino environment. With various adjustments, the five photographs shown in color above were combined to produce the image below (and a lot more like it!).

If you like the idea of producing something like this, with sharp focus through the whole frame, it needs a little attention to start. This soon becomes quite easy, and you may find that it is actually a lot of fun. Find your own subject, then follow along with this method for producing your focus stacking images.

The actual processing of the images is a sequence of steps, and I would be happy to go through my approach for you at another time. Although there are other specialist programs for producing a focus stacked image, you will most likely use Photoshop. Of course, there are tutorials on how to do this here on dPS; A Beginner’s Guide to Focus Stacking.

The Method – Part One – It is a Surprise

At this point in most focus stacking tutorials, you will see somebody holding a set of focusing rails. Forget it! No further expense is required here. They might then talk to you about focusing manually. Forget that too! No need for any delicate touch with this method. You do not even need a cable release. This is absolutely all you need.

In the past, I had not even bothered to install Canon’s software offerings. Yes, the surprise news might just be that it is Canon EOS Utility which will serve you best for shooting focus stacking images.

As far as I have been able to determine, Nikon users will find that Nikon Capture includes a Camera Control component. I do not have the facility to put that to the test, but I imagine it works just as well. If you shoot Nikon and give this a try, do tell us how it worked for you in the comments section below.

The magic trick – the secret sauce – the silver bullet, for making images for focus stacking is the Canon EOS Utility program. It allows total remote control of the settings of your camera when shooting tethered to your computer.

Plug and play!

Once you have your shot set up, you can control everything from your computer. If that happens to be an adjacent laptop, that will work the best. However, the photographs which follow below were produced with everything controlled from a computer in another room, fully 10 meters, more than 30 feet away from the set.

The Method – Part Two – The Mechanics

This type of photography, which I think of as “constructed photography”, does take a little while to set up. Follow these steps:

Put your camera on a tripod.

Compose your shot.

You need to make two measurements.

Measure from the focal plane of the camera (the mark indicated above) to the front of the object which you are photographing (A), as shown above.

The circle with a line through it indicates the focus plane – this is where your lens focuses the image onto the sensor.

Measure the depth of the object, from the point which is nearest to the camera, to the point farthest away. I have found that a steel rule or tape measure works well enough for these tasks.

Standard issue.

Now take a test shot.

Use a small aperture, like f/10, then check the exposure. I tend to look at the LCD screen which gives the RGB histograms. This allows you to judge the exposure, exposing to the right if you like, but also to check that none of the individual colour channels is overloaded. That is prone to happen in photographs which have one subject filling the major part of the screen. At this stage, exposure is not critical, you are only trying to achieve a guide shot.

Make a note of the settings which have given a reasonable exposure.

Cover the viewfinder to prevent possible light leakage.

Switch off image stabilization, it is always the best practice to do so when your camera is on a tripod.

It is not essential, but you might choose to put your camera into manual focus.

Manual focus, stabilizer off.

Again, not essential, but you might choose to put your camera in Manual shooting mode.

Switch to Manual Mode

Now the magic begins, the bit which makes me smile at how brilliant and easy it is.

The Method – Part Three – Computing

Connect your camera to your personal computer using Wi-Fi, a USB or Ethernet cable, whatever works best for your setup. I like cables, so I use a USB cord.

Run the EOS Utility software. Your camera should be discovered quite easily.

The EOS Utility dashboard.

Choose “Remote shooting” and the screen below will appear.

You are in control

From the comfort of your computer, you can release the shutter, the ultimate cable release, and do pretty much whatever else you like. As advised, you can switch off autofocus, and switch to Manual Mode without even touching the camera. In fact, adjustments can be made to all the usual camera settings for shooting. Most importantly for this exercise, you can switch to Live View shooting. Do so, and you will see a screen like this.

The Remote Live View window. This is where the fine focusing happens.

The first thing to do is to fine tune the exposure. Controlling your camera from EOS Utility soon becomes quite easy, and intuitive. You can actually learn a lot about exposure by experimenting with the exposure triangle of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture all from your computer, with the benefit of Live View in grand scale.

One extra benefit of shooting in Live View is that you will have locked the mirror up, and removed any chance of vibrations from that source.

You can click on the screen arrows, even use the scroll wheel on your mouse to make adjustments.

Take a shot and it will soon appear on your screen. This is not an article on ETTR (Exposing To The Right), but there is a good one here; Exposing to the Right. You can now adjust the exposure to try and get as much data onto your sensor as possible (the premise of ETTR). Take your time and take as many shots as you like. Check the histogram, check what you can see on the screen, and get the exposure exactly to your liking.

I do tend to prefer a shorter exposure. In the interests of sharpness, if I can get a compromise between ISO, and aperture which gives me an exposure of less than 1-second, I believe that is a good step in the direction of sharper photographs.

For this particular exercise, there are all sorts of detailed decisions, but the most important part of this screen is the Focus Adjustment and the Zoom View.

Double clicking on the area highlighted, shown towards the bottom of the screen capture of the Remote Zoom View window (shown above), will bring you to this window below.

Zoom View – allow you to easily get the nearest point of the image sharp as possible.

You now have turbocharged, hyper control of your focus. Not until you take the plunge and try this method, and find out that you can focus to the width of a hair, will you realize how brilliant it is. There is even the facility to zoom in further still.

I believe you will find the focus adjustment intuitive. There are three different levels for adjusting focus in either direction, “<<< / << / <” and “> / >> / >>>”. This is very useful in a way that no focus rails or manual adjustment could ever be. The bonus is that you will have no physical contact with the camera whatsoever.

The Method – Part Four – Finally

Martin Bailey is a photographer who goes into admirable detail. He is of the opinion that if you start photographing to the rear of the object, and work forward, Photoshop handles the process better. I do not see the evidence so clearly but, experience tells me, he is very likely right.

Another piece of advice would be to shoot a little wider, do not frame as tightly as you might usually. It gives you a little more room for maneuvering if you need to make adjustments.

You now need a Depth of Field (DoF) calculator. There’s a wide choice, there are many that are readily available for your computer, phone, and for use online. I happen to use, Simple DoF (iOS only, see Android options here), as shown in the screenshots. Let’s apply it to a situation.

The depth of field required for this scene is about 20cm (8 inches) To determine what you need, measure from the part of the object nearest the camera to the point furthest away. Divide that by the Depth of Field of 3.39cm (let’s call it 3.4cm), which tells us we will need 5.88 images. That means that we will need to take six evenly spaced images from the back to the front, in order to get every part of the image in focus. Here they are!

Focused at the rear, on the plastic case of the ruler.

Moving forward, picking a point about 3cms (just over an inch) closer each time.

Focused between 6 and 7 inches.

Shot 4.

Coming forward.

Focus closer 3cm, about an 1 inch, each time.

Finally, focused sharply on the front edge of the ruler.

You can go to whatever lengths of precision you like. Experience allows me to trust my judgment of distance, and I am happy to err on the side of taking too many shots. If I reached the front edge of the saucer and found that I had taken eight shots I would be perfectly happy with that. As it happens, it seems that I took seven.

Here is the image produced from all the above by following the focus stacking processing routine in Photoshop.

The final focus stacked image.

You should always be looking for ways to improve. As I have said, better results from less effort is a good thing.

Next

I think that to be certain of producing the highest quality product, the next time I do a project like this, I would refine my technique a little further.

I would actually put a rule next to the object but, unlike this time, do so temporarily. In this specific example, I would decide to take 3cm as my Depth of Field. I would then focus a shot on the 0cm mark of the ruler. I would then use the focus controls in EOS Utility to nudge the focus to 3cm and see how many clicks of the “>”, “>>” or “>>>” buttons it took to move the point of focus 3cm. It might, for example, be three clicks of the “>>>” button. Again, sticking with this example, I would then know that I needed to take seven shots. I would then take a shot focused on the back edge, click “>>>” three times, take another shot, click “>>>” three times again … and so on. As I said at the start, what could be easier?

Summary

This leaf was 10cm, that is 4 inches from front to rear. I do not think there is a way to produce this final image without using the technique of focus stacking. What you have read above is the best, and the easiest way to produce the shots.

Waving goodbye?

I am all for spontaneous, shooting on the run, shots. However, if you want to shoot in a more controlled way, I think you might find the control offered by Canon EOS Utility to be a lot of fun. I do!

Once you have been introduced to it and learn some of the power of the software, you may well find yourself using it for other projects. This last week, I have used Canon’s EOS Utility to produce some product shots. The proof is in using it, and I hope you can see that it is something you can try if you want to do focus stacking.

The post How to Photograph the Images Needed For Focus Stacking by Richard Messsenger appeared first on Digital Photography School.

from Digital Photography School https://digital-photography-school.com/photograph-images-needed-focus-stacking/

[rismatikaa]

FYI ! 😄

Ga seberapa penting sih, cuma bagi info aja. Hihihi.. Sorry kalau nyampah. 😁😁😜 Maaf juga klo ada kta kata kurang sopan. 🙏🙏 AFAIK = As Far As I Know AFK = Away From Keyboard AKA = Also Known As ASAP = As Soon As Possible ATM = According To Me ATTN = Attention BAK = Back At the Keyboard BBIAB = Be Back In A Bit BBL = Be Back Later BBS = Be Back Soon BFN = Bye For Now BIF = Basis In Fact BION = Believe It Or Not BL = Belly Laughing BRB = Be Right Back BTA = But Then Again BTT = Back To Topic BTW = By The Way CMIIW = Correct Me If I’m Wrong CU = see you CUA = Common User Access CUL = see you Later CWYL = Chat With Ya Later CYO = See You Online DBA = Doing Business As DIKU? = Do I Know You? DITYID? = Did I Tell You I’m Distressed? DIY = Do It Yourself DTRT = Do The Right Thing EMFBI = Excuse Me For Butting In EOM = End Of Message EOS = End Of Show EOT = End Of Thread FTF = Face To Face FAQ = Frequently Asked Question(s) FISH = First In, Still Here FOMCL = Falling Off My Chair Laughing FUD = Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt FWIW = For What It’s Worth FYA = For Your Amusement FYEO = For Your Eyes Only FYI = For Your Information GA = Go Ahead GAL = Get A Life GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out GIWIST = Gee, I Wish I’d Said That GMTA = Great Minds Think Alike GOL = Giggling Out Loud GRD = Grinning, Running & Ducking GTG = Got to Go GWS = Get Well Soon GTRM = Going To Read Mail HHOK = Ha Ha, Only Kidding HHOS = Ha Ha, Only Serious HNG = Horny Net Geek HTD = Have To Disagree HTH = Hope This Helps HTHBE = Hope This Has Been Enlightening IAC = In Any Case IAG = I’m A Genius IAE = In Any Event IANAL = I Am Not A Lawyer IC = I see ICAM = I Couldn’t Agree More ID = I Disagree IDK = I Don't Know IHA = I Hate Acronyms IIRC = If I Remember Correctly ILY or ILU = I Love You IMAO = In My Arrogant Opinion IMCO = In My Considered Opinion IMHO = In My Humble Opinion IMNSHO = In My Not So Humble Opinion IMO = In My Opinion IOW = In Other Words IPN = I’m Posting Naked IRL = In Real Life IRT = In Real Time ITA = I Totally Agree ITD = I Totally Disagree ITRW = In The Real World IOW = In Other Words JAT = Just A Thought JFU = Just For You JIC = Just In Case JK = Just Kidding (or Joke) JMHO = Just My Humble Opinion JMO = Just My Opinion KWIM? = Know What I Mean? L8R = Later LBAY = Laughing Back At You LD = Later Dude LDR = Long=Distance Relationship LLTA = Lots and Lots of Thunderous Applause LMAO = Lauging My Ass Off LOL = Laughing Out Loud or Lots Of Luck LOLBAY = Laughing Out Loud Back At You LTM = Laugh To Myself LTNS = Long Time No See M/F? = Male or Female? MEGO = My Eyes Glazed Over MHOTY = My Hat’s Off To You MINK = Multiple Income No Kids MMHA2U = My Most Humble Apologies to you MOOS or MOTOS = Member Of The Opposite Sex MOSS or MOTSS = Member Of The Same Sex MOTD = Message Of The Day MOTO = Member Of The Opposant MUD = Multi=User Dungeon (or Dimension) NBIF = No Basis In Fact NBIR = No Basis In Reality NW = No Way NP = No Problem NRN = No Reply Necessary OIC = Oh, I see OLL = On=Line Love OMG = Oh My God OOT = Out Of Topic OOTB = Out Of The Box OPM = Other People’s Money OTF = On The Floor OTOH = On The Other Hand OTOOH = On The Other, Other Hand OTP = On The Phone OTTH = On The Third Hand OTTOMH = Off The Top Of My Head OTW = On the Way PANS = Pretty Awesome New Stuff PC = Politically Correct or Personal Computer PDA = Public Display of Affection PDQ = Pretty Darn Quick PEBCAK = Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard PI or PIC = Politically Incorrect PITA = Pain In The Ass PMFJI = Pardon Me For Jumping In PMJI = Pardon My Jumping In POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service (or Pretty Old Tired Stuff) POV = Point Of View PPL = Peed Pants Laughing or People RL = Real Life ROAR = laughing as loud as a lion ROFL = Rolling On Floor Laughing RP = Romantic Partner RPG = Role Playing Games RSN = Real Soon Now RTM = Read The Manual or Message RW = Real World RYO = Roll Your Own SHMILY = See How Much I Love You SINK = Single Income No Kids SITD = Still In The Dark SO = Significant Other SOL = Smiling Out Loud SOMY? = Sick Of Me Yet? SOS = Someone On Shoulder STD = Sick To Death STS = Sorry To Say TAF = That’s All Folks TAFN = That’s All For Now TANSTAAFL = There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch TBH = To Be Honest TCN = Take Care Now TFH = Thread From Hell TFI = The Fact Is TFM = Thanks From Me TFMT = Thanks From Me Too TFS = Thank For Sharing TGIF = Thank God It’s Friday TGTBT = Too Good To Be True TFRM = Thanks For Remind Me THX = Thanks TIA = Thanks In Advance TIC = Tongue In Cheek TIG = This Is Great TIIC = The Idiots In Charge TLA = Three=Letter Acronym TPTB = The Powers That Be TTFN = Ta Ta For Now TTYL = Talk To You Later TQ or TX or TXS or THX = Thanks (or Thank You) TYSM = Thank You So Much TYVM = Thank You Very Much UAPITA or YAPITA = You’re A Pain In The Ass USTM or YSTM = You Should Thanks Me VWP = Very Well Put W4W = Word for Word WAGS = What A Great Story WAI = What An Inspiration! WB = Welcome Back WDALYIC? = Who Died And Left You In Charge? WFM = Works For Me WIBNI = Wouldn’t It Be Nice If WP = Well Put WT? = What/Who The? WTH? = What The Hell? WTG = Way To Go WTGP? = Want To Go Private? WTS = With That Said WU? = What’s Up? WUF? = Where are you From? WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get XOXO = kisses and hugs XX = kisses YAAG = You Are A Genius YABR = You Are Being Replaced YGBSM = You’ve Gotta Be Shittin’ Me YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary YRR = You ‘R’ Right YVMW = You’re Very Much Welcome