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Once you purchase a quick lens with a brilliant aperture, like f/1.8, you go loopy making pictures with a super-shallow depth of discipline. You {photograph} flowers the place just one stamen is in focus, and also you shoot folks with tremendous blurry backgrounds, and it’s numerous enjoyable utilizing the skinny slice of focus.
Nevertheless, there are numerous occasions when that skinny slice simply doesn’t reduce it. Generally you simply want all the things in focus, and even in the event you cease all the way down to the lens’s smallest aperture you continue to could not be capable to get all the things in sharp focus. That’s the place focus stacking is available in.
What’s focus stacking?
Focus stacking is the method of constructing a number of footage of a scene whereas altering the main focus between pictures after which combining them in software program to get a pointy picture of the entire scene. It’s typically utilized in close-up images as a result of if you focus near a topic the depth of discipline could be very shallow even in the event you use a small aperture.
That is an exaggerated instance, however it demonstrates the purpose. My children and I made footage of their toy vehicles. That is what the picture seems to be like when it’s shot at f/1.2 with a really shallow slice of focus.
It’s cool, however it’s not what you see if you have a look at a toy automobile.
Shoot & shift, shoot & shift
Focus stacking requires a totally secure platform — if there’s any motion, the pictures received’t line up effectively. I used a Platypod Extremely (B&H | Amazon) with Vanguard Veo ball head (B&H | Amazon) to carry my digicam regular. I added the rubber pad that comes with the multi-accessory package as a result of the desk was so easy that the Platypod moved round every time I fired the shutter. The pad made the entire thing rock regular and immovable.
To make this image all in focus, it is best to deal with the closest a part of the automobile, then swap your digicam to guide focus. Shoot an image, then flip the main focus ring on the lens somewhat bit to focus farther away and shoot once more. Hold doing that till you’ve photographed the entire thing at each distance. This takes persistence, however it’s a enjoyable software to maintain in your package.
Lumix permits you to cheat
I ought to admit that I cheated to make the image above. Lumix cameras have a function referred to as Publish Focus which shoots the main focus stack for you routinely and even combines all of the pictures routinely within the digicam. The pictures above are all straight from my GH5 digicam (B&H | Amazon), and it’s fairly good.
The digicam routinely senses which areas of the body have to be centered on and shoots an image at each spot. It makes use of the 6K video capabilities to get it completed, and it’s cool. Then you possibly can select to both mix all the pictures collectively or select a handful of them to mix. It doesn’t at all times look this good — it might have some hinky spots of blurry focus, however it’s a tremendous software and actually enjoyable to make use of. I’ll present you ways easy it’s to do in Photoshop down under.
Behind the scenes
For these footage, the vehicles and digicam are sitting on the kitchen desk. I positioned a softbox with a steady mild (B&H | Amazon) immediately over the vehicles. Shifting the sunshine up and down makes it kind of contrasty. When it’s down very near the desk, the background behind the vehicles that isn’t lit turns into black, which is a enjoyable impact.
What’s extra, that is the sort of factor children can take part in. Since I used a steady mild as a substitute of a speedlight or different flash, my daughter might see precisely what the image appeared like earlier than capturing which helped her pose the vehicles in precisely the best spots.
Stack in Photoshop
Stacking the pictures collectively in Photoshop is admittedly easy as a result of Photoshop automates the method. There are different instruments on the market that do focus stacking higher than Photoshop, however I’ve Photoshop in order that’s what I’m utilizing. To get began, open all of the pictures out of your stack as layers in a single Photoshop doc.
Subsequent, choose all of the layers and go to the Edit menu and select Auto-Mix Layers. The choose the Stack Photographs possibility and press OK. Now simply wait a couple of minutes. Photoshop will mix all of it collectively. If you might want to make changes, you should utilize a black and white paintbrush to work on mixing the Adjustment Layers somewhat higher.
Right here’s the end result from Photoshop.
I’m not an knowledgeable at focus stacking, however I do dabble in it. I believe in the event you give it a attempt you’ll discover numerous occasions when it will be a great tool. My private problem is to make use of it for stuff that’s not close-up. I might use this to {photograph} a panorama utilizing a wider and sharper aperture after which mix the pictures to get deep focus. I’ll let you understand how it goes.
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