I focused at six different regions of my frame, starting at the bottom edge and moving systematically towards the top. Ideally, I would have used f8 for better sharpness and the need for fewer stacked frames, but f5.6 allowed me to use a faster shutter speed to better freeze the swaying flowers. I needed a higher ISO of 800, and I opened my 12-24mm f4 lens at 12mm to an aperture value of f5.6. To make it even more challenging, there was a slight breeze. I also wanted soft light after the sun had gone down. The process then becomes to dial in your composition, lock those exposure settings in, and focusing at different points throughout the scene and then merging together for a master file with complete depth and a high level of sharpness.įield Example #1: In the images above, I wanted my composition, from the flowers directly in front of me all the way to the mountain in the back, to be in focus. Focus stacking allows one to use apertures which are the sweet spot for sharpness (often about 2 stop down from wide open), but lack the depth in any one frame. To make matters worse, small aperture values introduce diffraction which ultimately softens fine, intricate details. That brings us to the question: why focus stack? First, you may encounter a scene where your lens’ smallest aperture still does not give nearly the depth to allow for front to back focus. And what may be sufficient for one person is not sufficient for another. ![]() Focus and sharpness are drastically different, especially as a lot of us are professional pixel peepers. But depth of field is often defined as “an area of an image with sufficient focus”. In a nutshell, maximum “depth of field” is traditionally achieved with small aperture values such as f16, f22, and beyond if the lens allows. Either way, it is a technique which helps one overcome the limitations of modern optics. ![]() You may or may not have heard the term “focus stacking” when it comes to digital photography.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |