Extra depth of field with focus stacking

Thursday 13 December 2018, 12:29 by Michelle Peeters | 16,113 views | 7 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Even with more expensive cameras, you sometimes run up against the limits of what is possible in terms of sharpness. Focus stacking is a technique that lets you create the image you had in mind after all. In this article, an explanation of how it works in Photoshop.

Sooner or later, you will run into impossible situations as a photographer. Camera technology simply has its limits. Combining several different photos can be the solution.

Focus stacking is a way to increase the sharpness in your photos. It does require you to work carefully, though.

If you only take one image (left), you won't get everything you want sharp. With focus stacking (right), everything is sharp from front to back

Especially for macro photography

Sharpness is an important issue in photography anyway, and sometimes you want even more sharpness in your images than the laws of physics allow.

Macro photographers in particular run into this limitation (insufficient depth of field), because they enlarge their subjects considerably and are often very close to them.

The area of sharpness is therefore often very small, or even too small. No matter how small the insects you photograph are, you still want them to be completely sharp. Flowers also look better when they are completely sharp in the image, rather than having just a few stamens in focus.

A smaller aperture (higher f-number) is often not the solution, because you are frequently so close to your subject. And of course you don't want to lose your beautiful, calm and blurred background.

The problem doesn't only occur with macro photography. Even in landscape photos, sharpness at the back of the image decreases with a small aperture. Many photographers stick to the sweet spot (an aperture of around f/11), because sharpness starts to decrease at an even smaller aperture (higher number) due to diffraction.

Stacking

With focus stacking, you take a number of photos in which the focus shifts each time. You combine the photos into one image in which your subject is sharp from top to bottom.

It would be impossible to take such an image in one go while still making it look believable. If you apply focus stacking properly, you won't be able to see it, which is of course exactly what you want as a photographer.

Working accurately

If you want a natural-looking end result, you will have to work very precisely. All the photos you take must be properly sharp. A tripod is therefore essential to prevent movement, and also because the different images must have exactly the same composition.

Otherwise, Photoshop will run into problems when the images are placed on top of each other. You will also need to use the self-timer or a remote control.

Focus manually and very precisely. This also prevents any movement caused by the autofocus motor. Finally, make sure the exposure is the same in all the photos. So use the same shutter speed, aperture and ISO setting for every shot.

The progress and final result with the different layers still included

Conclusion

I am very enthusiastic about this technique. I hadn't tried it before, and really I should have tested it on photos of a macro subject (a heavily enlarged insect or something similar), rather than on an antique camera that I photographed with a macro lens.

That will definitely happen in the short term, though!

Want to know more about focus stacking?

Would you like to know more about focus stacking? In the Macro Photography course, nature photographer Johannes Klapwijk also shows you how to apply it to your photos.

With a free trial membership, you can watch the complete course, or just the video about focus stacking, straight away.

Want to know more about Photoshop editing?

At Photofacts Academy, our online learning environment for photographers, we have several courses about Adobe Photoshop.

- Photoshop for Beginners (Johan Elzenga)
- Photoshop for Photographers (Piet van den Eynde)
- Photoshop for Advanced Users (Marit Hilarius)
- Photoshop Effects (Elja Trum)
And many more...

You can take these courses for two weeks with a free trial membership.

Dit artikel is voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 13 december 2018.
De eerste publicatiedatum is maandag 27 augustus 2018, 20:02.

You might also like

• 

  Review: StackLab for focus stacking

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  To stack or not to stack

  by Erik Nevels

• 

  The term system camera is being used incorrectly

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  How does focus stacking work?

  by Michelle Peeters

• 

  Which is better? Stacking or noise reduction?

  by Nando Harmsen

• 

  Not enough depth of field in your landscape? Use focus stacking.

  by Nando Harmsen

7 comments

Have your say

Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.
Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.