Focus stacking is the process of taking many photos of a subject, each with a slightly different focus point and then merging the photos together with special computer software. The resulting final merged image will have a much greater depth of focus than any single image.
This process is especially useful in macro photography where the depth of focus for a single image will be very shallow, even more so when shooting extreme macro, where the depth of focus can be at best, fractions of a millimetre.
In future posts of this tutorial series I’ll describe how I prepare my subjects, the equipment that I use, how I shoot the stack, how I use my stacking software, how I use my editing software and a summary of the whole process.
I am going to categorize macro photography into two types. Those where photos are taken outdoors with the subject in its natural habitat and those shot indoors in a studio environment.
Most of my macro images are shot in the studio and that will be the scope of this tutorial series. It will detail the equipment and techniques that I use to shoot my flower and insect macro images. I will also try and give information regarding alternatives to the equipment and techniques that I use.
Here is an example of a macro image where 59 photos of the same fly’s head have been merged together using the focus stacking method.
Click on the main image to view at higher resolution
Below are some of the separate images used to create the focus stacked image above. In the first image you can see that only the fly’s hairs closest to the camera lens are in focus, while in the last image only the hairs on the top and back of the fly’s head are in focus.
Thanks for taking a look at my photography
@brianhphotos.