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ImageFocusCombine[{image1,image2,…}]

combines differently focused images imagei of the same scene to obtain a single well-focused image.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Options  
PerformanceGoal  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page

ImageFocusCombine

ImageFocusCombine[{image1,image2,…}]

combines differently focused images imagei of the same scene to obtain a single well-focused image.

Details and Options

  • ImageFocusCombine is also known as focus stacking or Z-stacking. It is typically used for combining multiple images of the same scene taken at different focus distances and creates an image with a higher depth of field (DOF).
  • ImageFocusCombine assumes all imagei are aligned.
  • ImageFocusCombine takes a PerformanceGoal option. Possible settings include:
  • "Quality"optimize for quality of final results
    "Speed"optimize for speed of getting results

Examples

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Basic Examples  (1)

Combine images of a scene with two different regions in focus:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[{[image], [image]}]

Scope  (1)

Combine a stack of images with different focal planes:

Wolfram Language code: stack = {[image], [image], [image], [image]};
Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[stack]

Options  (2)

PerformanceGoal  (2)

Use PerformanceGoal->"Quality" to emphasize quality of the result:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[{[image], [image]}, PerformanceGoal -> "Quality"]//AbsoluteTiming

Use PerformanceGoal->"Speed" to emphasize speed of computation:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[{[image], [image]}, PerformanceGoal -> "Speed"]//AbsoluteTiming

Applications  (1)

Inverse tilt-shift effect on three images with three different regions in focus:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[{[image], [image], [image]}]

Compare with the starting image:

Properties & Relations  (1)

Areas in focus are defined by the location of high frequencies in the image:

Wolfram Language code: image = [image];

Combine the image with a high-frequency, rich, random image:

Wolfram Language code: random = RandomImage[1, ImageDimensions@image];ImageFocusCombine[{image, random}]

Combine the image with a lowpass-filtered, random image:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[{image, GaussianFilter[random, 4]}]

Possible Issues  (2)

ImageFocusCombine does not correct for misalignment:

Wolfram Language code: images = {[image], [image], [image], [image]};
Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[images]

Use ImageAlign to align the images before combining them:

Wolfram Language code: alignedimages = ImageAlign[images];
Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[ImagePad[#, -7]& /@ alignedimages]

In some cases the misalignment is too large and cannot be corrected automatically:

Wolfram Language code: images = RemoveAlphaChannel /@ ImageAlign[{[image], [image], [image]}];

This usually results in a ghosting effect:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[images]
Wolfram Language code: ImageDifference@@@{images[[{1, 2}]], images[[{1, 3}]]}

Manually remove the most misaligned images from the stack to mitigate the ghosting effect:

Wolfram Language code: ImageFocusCombine[images[[{1, 2}]]]
Wolfram Research (2015), ImageFocusCombine, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageFocusCombine.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2015), ImageFocusCombine, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageFocusCombine.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2015. "ImageFocusCombine." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageFocusCombine.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2015). ImageFocusCombine. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageFocusCombine.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_imagefocuscombine, author="Wolfram Research", title="{ImageFocusCombine}", year="2015", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageFocusCombine.html}", note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_imagefocuscombine, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={ImageFocusCombine}, year={2015}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/ImageFocusCombine.html}, note=[Accessed: 12-June-2026]}