Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Beginner's Questions => Topic started by: Neil Williams on January 05, 2018, 07:18:04 am

Title: Focus stacking
Post by: Neil Williams on January 05, 2018, 07:18:04 am
Guys
I have seen some amazing pictures taken of still life and landscapes where people have used focus stacking to achieve crisp sharp pictures throughout the frame.............How do they do that??
I enjoy still life (flowers etc etc) with my 8x10 and use f64 to get as much as I can in focus, now that I have a digital back I would like to try my hand at this focus stacking........

Neil
Title: Re: Focus stacking
Post by: Hening Bettermann on January 05, 2018, 04:49:03 pm
Hi Neill
Some seem to do it in Photoshop, but I believe those who stack on a regular basis use Helicon Focus - like myself - or Zerene Stacker.
Good light!
Title: Re: Focus stacking
Post by: Wayne Fox on January 09, 2018, 09:58:59 pm
technique is pretty simple, use a tripod, focus on your near point, then gradually move focus to infinity (or far point of there is no infinity).  Don't actually try to focus the other points, just move focus slightly manually in what you think would be small enough increments.  To many increments/slices are better than too few.  If doing macro or very close objects you may find you need a lot of extremely small shifts to get everything in focus.

Usually I use a fairly shallow depth of field, around f/8.  if I'm focus stacking I might as well avoid diffraction and shoot a few more focus points instead of shooting f/16.

As far as assembling, you can do it in photoshop, but Helicon Focus or Zerene Stacker are much more flexible and do a much better job.

There are dozens of youtube videos that go through the process.  ( i think I even did one once). Search there and you'll probably find some useful ones.

Title: Re: Focus stacking
Post by: Kevin Raber on January 09, 2018, 11:29:20 pm
I wrote an article on this topic a while back.  Basic guide to focus stacking (http://https://luminous-landscape.com/focus-stacking-a-basic-guide/) .