Once you’ve covered your whole subject you should have all the shots necessary to create your stack. When actually taking the photos, make sure you’re in manual focus and carefully turn the focus ring while taking images. So long as you keep those points in mind, you should be fine. As time goes on, you’ll become more familiar with the number of images it will take. When you begin using this technique take more shots than you think you need.This is especially so if you’re working with cheap lights. If not, one or two shots may be a little underexposed and you’ll end up having to do the stack again. When working with strobes leave a little time between each exposure for the lights to fully recycle.You’d be amazed by how much impact someone walking past can have. When you’re shooting very small subjects (think jewellery) I would even try to stop people walking nearby your set.
As much as is possible, stop the camera moving. For the most part, it’s easy but there a few things I’d advise everyone do: Focus stacking at this point becomes essential.īefore we get into the comparison, I want to briefly chat about how to shoot a focus stack. Fact is, even using a narrow aperture like f16 or f22, forgetting about diffraction, still won’t get you anywhere near close to having the whole of a ring in focus for example. You may be thinking, “why can’t I just stop down? Use f16 or f22?”. As such, your depth of field is razor thin. Due to their size, your often very close to the object, using macro lenses. The problem of having too shallow a depth of field is especially apparent when photographing small objects. Consumers want to see what they’re buying, so clients want their products sharp. Can you imagine a billboard poster in which a large proportion of the product on sale was blurry? No, not really. When creating imagery for a client, most of the time they want to see their product in focus from the front to the back.
Hence, this concept may sound a little odd at first. In many types of photography, especially portraits, photographers often desire to do the opposite, have a shallow depth of field with a beautiful blurry background. If you’re already familiar with focus stacking and are just looking to hear the comparison between Photoshop and Helicon Focus, skip this section.įocus stacking is the process of combining multiple exposures to increase your depth of field. 99% of the time however, focus stacking is essential. On occasion you can get away without it, sometimes you may even want a slightly more shallow depth of field. Focus stacking is an integral part of any still life photographer’s workflow.
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