Stacked focus stacking is actually the wrong name for it, who knew

I always thought focus stacking was just taking a bunch of shots and hoping the software figures it out. Then I read a post from a macro photographer in Denver that said the trick is controlling where each shot's focus point lands, not just blasting off 40 frames. She showed a bee's eye at f/11 where the antennae were sharp but the eye was soft, and that made me realize I was overlapping too much. Now I only take 12 shots with specific focus steps, and my handshake blur finally cleared up. Anyone else spend months doing it the dumb way before reading the actual manual?

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dylan26523d ago

My buddy went through the exact same thing with his mushroom shots last fall. He was firing off like 50 frames per stack and still getting soft caps, drove him nuts for weeks. Turns out he had his focus step way too tight so every frame was almost the same shot, just with a tiny shift. Once he spread the steps out and dropped down to maybe 15 frames, his stacks got sharp front to back and his keeper rate went way up. He still kicks himself for not reading about focus steps sooner.

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