David As always ... you put it simply and clearly so you can make a start on a project. I do a lot of macro work. I find focus bracketing is OK for down to 0.5X with subjects with small depth of field. To about X2 I use a Cognisys auto rail with macro lens. Large depth of field and beyond X2 is definitely auto rail. I'd suggest lighting is a difficult area when you get close because the subject can literally cook and bulky gear gets into the view. I'd use a delay timer to start the process and delay in between shots to allow the gear to stabilise. Wobble is a problem with any gear and not just shutters. Forget Photoshop ... too slow ... use a dedicated focus stacking program. I rate Helicon as best ... the pro version can be loaded from lightroom as it takes raw into Helicon ... does the business quickly and puts a DNG RAW back in to Lightroom for you to finish off.
Hi David I do a lot of macro and use focus stacking all the time. Great to watch this video which just confirmed what I am already doing. Merging the images in different ways and the combining them again can work well but takes a bit of playing around with. Thanks.
A big part of why I upgraded to the Canon R5MII (with RF100mm) was the addition of firing the Speedlite at each focus step point during the focus bracketing operation for macro insect photography. Yes, there are ways to get around the lack of that feature in the earlier R5 model and other camera bodies that don't fire the flash at each bracket step but what's the fun it that😀. The other big feature that got me to upgrade was RAW pre-capture buffer for my wildlife photography. That feature almost feels like cheating because I can easily get those wildlife shots that felt impossible without it😬.
How do you get an insect to stay still while firing a flash multiple times at it? Also, have you considered the harm you may be doing to the creature with that bright light, especially multiple times? Of course, disregard if you are only shooting dead insects as props.
For what it's worth, I tested the Canon R5II's focus stacking in-camera versus having my editing software do it (I use Affinity). I thought the in-camera stack was pretty good until I saw what the editing software could do - worlds better than in-camera. Now I'll only use in-camera stacking if I want a rough draft or preview of the stack for some reason, but for my final product I'll always use the editing software. Maybe one of these years I'll spring for dedicated stacking software, but for now what I've been getting from the editing software is as good as I can imagine wanting it to be.
Having the control and processing power from a computer is almost always going to be better than doing things in camera. As you say, it's a great option for comps though!
The Canon focus stacking might be the thing that retains me as a customer instead of heading off to OM land, with cameras that also does a high performance ProCapture. The price and compactness of the lenses makes something like an OM-1 mark ii very attractive to me. Especially for travel. Currently, I'm up to my neck in Canon gear. You might also mention flash for macro work. But you have to increase the ISO to make it work. Roman UnpronouncablePolishName has a really great video about macro photography for ordinary people in a competitor's TH-cam channel.
Cool pointers! I'm grabbing a Phase One this weekend and have a high-end watch client here in Beverly Hills to test this exacte scenario. The Pete M video was a bit over my head, but I feel pretty good to produce images at volume
Hi David, Thanks for the video. Lots of good info. I usually use Helicon Focus for my focus stacking but occasionally I'll do it in Photoshop. When I use Photoshop, I find that I get better results if I run Auto-Align Layers before running Auto-Blend. Thanks again.
Wow, I didn’t realise it was so complicated with Canon. I use Olympus/OM System cameras and they have built-in focus bracketing and focus stacking, which do a fantastic job, even handheld, although using a tripod and cable release give better results, especially when taking more than 10-15 shots. And because of the smaller M4/3 sensor, 1:1 fills up more of the 20Mb frame without having to crop. And the shorter focal lengths of their macro lenses also allows for more depth of field with single shots. For compositing the shots, I find that the very affordable Affinity Photo’s built-in focus stacking function is simple, quick and very accurate, and works with both RAW files and processed formats such as JPEG and TIFF. Much easier than the Photoshop method, and a match for a dedicated program such as Helicon at a fraction of the cost.
I've been curious if focus breathing has any bearing on blending. So far I'm OK with my modest stacking of under 10 layers for consumer products that average 2 to 10 inches deep. I just move the focus cross hairs to key product features I want to have clean, eg. a logo, a zipper tag, a battery terminal, etc. and manually focus peak those things with magnify assist turned on. It's enough. Is the blending process (PS) adjusting for layers being at different scales of the subject? Maybe I'm way off track on focus breathing effects; it wouldn't be the first time. I have a rail for the alternate approach but I have not tried it yet.
Another great video! I currently have a Canon 5dsr and 100mm Canon macro lens, and have been doing manual focus and multiple images and then stacking them with software. It is a very tedious process, however. I am thinking of upgrading to a mirrorless Canon which does focus bracketing, but I use flash quite a bit for my macro shots, and am concerned if that is going to be an issue. It seems the camera does focus bracketing very quickly and my Canon dedicated macro flash may not be able to keep up. Any suggestions are appreciated.
If you only use the focused "slices," the larger parts closer to the lens shouldn't matter. Dedicated software does a good job combining them. However, the rail may not be ideal, especially when the background is far away, as the field of view changes with movement.
Oh my God, $3400 for a slider that moves itself and triggers the camera has got to be one of the biggest jokes all year -including the entire election. That thing is $100 in parts at the high end (maybe $150 if those linear rails are really good), a $30 Arduino, and 1 hour with Chat gpt to write the code. Still a great video.
David
As always ... you put it simply and clearly so you can make a start on a project. I do a lot of macro work. I find focus bracketing is OK for down to 0.5X with subjects with small depth of field. To about X2 I use a Cognisys auto rail with macro lens. Large depth of field and beyond X2 is definitely auto rail. I'd suggest lighting is a difficult area when you get close because the subject can literally cook and bulky gear gets into the view. I'd use a delay timer to start the process and delay in between shots to allow the gear to stabilise. Wobble is a problem with any gear and not just shutters. Forget Photoshop ... too slow ... use a dedicated focus stacking program. I rate Helicon as best ... the pro version can be loaded from lightroom as it takes raw into Helicon ... does the business quickly and puts a DNG RAW back in to Lightroom for you to finish off.
Hi David I do a lot of macro and use focus stacking all the time. Great to watch this video which just confirmed what I am already doing. Merging the images in different ways and the combining them again can work well but takes a bit of playing around with. Thanks.
A big part of why I upgraded to the Canon R5MII (with RF100mm) was the addition of firing the Speedlite at each focus step point during the focus bracketing operation for macro insect photography. Yes, there are ways to get around the lack of that feature in the earlier R5 model and other camera bodies that don't fire the flash at each bracket step but what's the fun it that😀. The other big feature that got me to upgrade was RAW pre-capture buffer for my wildlife photography. That feature almost feels like cheating because I can easily get those wildlife shots that felt impossible without it😬.
How do you get an insect to stay still while firing a flash multiple times at it? Also, have you considered the harm you may be doing to the creature with that bright light, especially multiple times? Of course, disregard if you are only shooting dead insects as props.
That is one expensive watch! I love Focus Stacking for both landscapes and macro. Need to do more!
For what it's worth, I tested the Canon R5II's focus stacking in-camera versus having my editing software do it (I use Affinity). I thought the in-camera stack was pretty good until I saw what the editing software could do - worlds better than in-camera. Now I'll only use in-camera stacking if I want a rough draft or preview of the stack for some reason, but for my final product I'll always use the editing software. Maybe one of these years I'll spring for dedicated stacking software, but for now what I've been getting from the editing software is as good as I can imagine wanting it to be.
Having the control and processing power from a computer is almost always going to be better than doing things in camera. As you say, it's a great option for comps though!
The Canon focus stacking might be the thing that retains me as a customer instead of heading off to OM land, with cameras that also does a high performance ProCapture. The price and compactness of the lenses makes something like an OM-1 mark ii very attractive to me. Especially for travel.
Currently, I'm up to my neck in Canon gear.
You might also mention flash for macro work. But you have to increase the ISO to make it work.
Roman UnpronouncablePolishName has a really great video about macro photography for ordinary people in a competitor's TH-cam channel.
Cool pointers! I'm grabbing a Phase One this weekend and have a high-end watch client here in Beverly Hills to test this exacte scenario. The Pete M video was a bit over my head, but I feel pretty good to produce images at volume
Thanks for sharing.
Hi David, Thanks for the video. Lots of good info. I usually use Helicon Focus for my focus stacking but occasionally I'll do it in Photoshop. When I use Photoshop, I find that I get better results if I run Auto-Align Layers before running Auto-Blend. Thanks again.
Wow, I didn’t realise it was so complicated with Canon. I use Olympus/OM System cameras and they have built-in focus bracketing and focus stacking, which do a fantastic job, even handheld, although using a tripod and cable release give better results, especially when taking more than 10-15 shots. And because of the smaller M4/3 sensor, 1:1 fills up more of the 20Mb frame without having to crop. And the shorter focal lengths of their macro lenses also allows for more depth of field with single shots. For compositing the shots, I find that the very affordable Affinity Photo’s built-in focus stacking function is simple, quick and very accurate, and works with both RAW files and processed formats such as JPEG and TIFF. Much easier than the Photoshop method, and a match for a dedicated program such as Helicon at a fraction of the cost.
Not complicated at all. It'll do it all for you in-camera. I just prefer the control of shooting RAW files and compositing in post. :)
My canons all feature in-camera focus bracketing. It's in the shooting menu, I think tab #6.
Good and informative video as always, thanks.
Our pleasure! Hope you learned a lot from the video.
Bergman is the best! Great video !!
C'mon Kurtus!
I would use a large format camera with the Nikon macro lens. I never used focus stacking as I never had a need for it.
I've been curious if focus breathing has any bearing on blending. So far I'm OK with my modest stacking of under 10 layers for consumer products that average 2 to 10 inches deep. I just move the focus cross hairs to key product features I want to have clean, eg. a logo, a zipper tag, a battery terminal, etc. and manually focus peak those things with magnify assist turned on. It's enough. Is the blending process (PS) adjusting for layers being at different scales of the subject? Maybe I'm way off track on focus breathing effects; it wouldn't be the first time. I have a rail for the alternate approach but I have not tried it yet.
Lens choice does matter. And some subjects will work better with a rail vs changing focus. Nice to have options and use the best tool for the job!
Another great video! I currently have a Canon 5dsr and 100mm Canon macro lens, and have been doing manual focus and multiple images and then stacking them with software. It is a very tedious process, however. I am thinking of upgrading to a mirrorless Canon which does focus bracketing, but I use flash quite a bit for my macro shots, and am concerned if that is going to be an issue. It seems the camera does focus bracketing very quickly and my Canon dedicated macro flash may not be able to keep up. Any suggestions are appreciated.
You can slow down the shooting interval when using flash so that it's fully recharged before each shot. :)
Does not camera distance change the image size?
If you only use the focused "slices," the larger parts closer to the lens shouldn't matter. Dedicated software does a good job combining them. However, the rail may not be ideal, especially when the background is far away, as the field of view changes with movement.
Might you be privileged with asking Canon what their bracketing equation is?
I can ask! :)
Oh my God, $3400 for a slider that moves itself and triggers the camera has got to be one of the biggest jokes all year -including the entire election.
That thing is $100 in parts at the high end (maybe $150 if those linear rails are really good), a $30 Arduino, and 1 hour with Chat gpt to write the code.
Still a great video.