


With an ultra-wide-angle lens (17mm or wider) where you have elements in the foreground that are very close to your lens, like rocks or flowers, and elements in the midground and background such as waterfalls or mountains.These are the main scenarios where focus blending your images (remember, it’s the same thing as focus stacking) is useful: If you find any blurry elements, you want to be in focus, then you should focus stack.įocus stack your images if you need everything to be tack sharp As with any powerful tool, it’s important to know when to use it and when not to.Ī good rule of thumb for figuring out if you should focus blend your images is to choose your composition, take a test shot with your final settings, and review the image. Still, you don’t need to use it every time you capture images. When to use focus stackingįocus stacking in photography is a very useful technique. The only drawback is that you will need to spend a few more minutes in post-processing to focus blend the images, but as you’ll see later in the article, the actual process is very easy. It allows you to keep your aperture at lower values, around the sweet spot of your lens, and still get tack-sharp images all the way through. Exposure would also be affected, and you’d have to readjust most of your settings.įocus stacking is the best solution for all these scenarios. Why is focus stacking useful?Īs I mentioned before, certain situations can present a larger depth of field than your aperture, focal length, or distance to your subject can handle.įocusing on the hyperfocal distance can help to maximize your depth of field, but this trick is ineffective when there is a subject just a few inches away from your camera.įocus stacking is useful in landscape photographyĪnother option is closing your aperture, which will increase your depth of field however, diffractionmight become an issue. When you focus stack, you blend images taken at different focus points, whereas focal stacking means blending images taken at different focal lengths. NOTE: Don’t mistake focus stacking for focal stacking. For the sake of simplicity and clarity, in this article, we will use these terms interchangeably. Focus bracketing consists of taking multiple photos at different focal planes (focus points), while focus stacking is the act of blending those photographs to create a single image that’s sharp throughout.Īlthough the two are technically different techniques, both terms are generally used to refer to the whole process of focus stacking.

Something that is worth mentioning is the difference between focus stacking and focus bracketing. If you want to better understand the different factors that can affect the focus of your image (aperture, focal length, distance from the subject), I recommend checking our depth of field in photography guide. In those cases you can rely on focus stacking your images to effectively increase your depth of field, maximizing the focus in your image with no limitations.įocus stacking works best when the subject you are photographing isn’t moving, which makes it very useful for a variety of photography genres such as landscape, macro, and product photography.

In certain situations, your aperture, focal length, or distance from the subject can limit the areas in focus in your image.
PHOTOSTACK PHOTOSHOP SOFTWARE
PHOTOSTACK PHOTOSHOP HOW TO
In this step-by-step focus stacking guide, you’ll learn what focus stacking is, how to apply this technique on location, and how to use the best focus stacking software. I felt the same way too, but once I learned how to focus stack my images, I was able to add more depth and increase the sharpness in my photographs.
PHOTOSTACK PHOTOSHOP PRO
Focus stacking is a technique that opens up a whole new world of possibilities for your photography.įor many photographers, learning how to focus stack images may seem intimidating and, like something only pro photographers can do.
