Focus Stacking Without the Phone App Guesswork

Phone camera apps default to three focus points, but at macro magnifications the depth of field is a fraction of a millimeter — a five centimeter object needs hundreds of slices, not three. This episode breaks down what focus stacking software actually computes, why the rule of three (every detail sharp in at least three frames) matters more than the app's tap count, and how to separate capture from processing. We survey the open source landscape — focus-stack, ChimpStackr, shinestacker, OpenFocus, stackaroni — and explain why the cloud story is containers, not SaaS. Plus: what tolerances a real macro rig needs, and why automated focus bracketing beats manual tapping every time. Episode #485373 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/485373