Macro photography: Small aperture or focus stacking?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ม.ค. 2025
- For this week, I answer one macro question I am asked a lot: small aperture or focus stacking? I hope this video is helpful. Let me know what you think below.
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I agree Emilie social media platforms basically destroy our photos with their compression, it does help somewhat if you compress your photos yourself before posting…
I been practicing photography for 30 years and I’m amazed at the amount of misinformation people put out. Like only shoot at ISO 100 or you’ll have excessive noise, or the only good light is early morning or the golden hour… it’s not true
I tend to use focus stacking whenever I use my macro lens, and - as you point out - conditions permit it. I may not always use all the images for a stack, but it gives me a decent margin for error. I also try to use as wide an aperture as I can so I can get a fast(er) shutter speed if I'm not using flash. I loved your photos in this clip, the little frog in particular. I hope you have a wonderful time in France.
I’ve experimented with focus stacking on my E-M1 mkIII. Now that wildflowers are blooming I’m looking forward to practicing.
Thank you, Emily. I always follow and try your advices. Thanks to your recommendation of using a flash, a diffuser and a close aperture I have got better results. To use focus bracketing, you need some weather conditions which are very difficult to see in nature. But, if you enjoy them, then the results of focus bracketing, I think, are better. Mercie
Nice video...and indeed was rather reluctant to use a smaller aperture. Certainly with MFT were diffraction creeps in early...
But having nothing is much worse indeed. So thank you.
I never focus stack or bracket my macro shots. However, I rarely go smaller than f/11. I'm one of those fools who zoom in to 100 %, or even 200 %, and f/13 is usually where I start seeing diffraction artefacts. Also, f/11 will anyway give the same depth of field as f/22 on a full frame camera.
You are spot on Emilie i photograph Diecast model Cars and Flowers. My go to aperture is F/22 using a Tripod, and I'm not concerned about shallow depth of field as i want all of the Model car to be in focus. The doors, the Wheels, the Window and the Bonet i want them all to be in focus. I like this topic and I'm an enthusiast photographer. Thanks for this video. 😊
Thank you Emilie 😊
Thank you Emilie! I really need to focus on learning macro techniques with my OM-1. I can’t wait to hear more about your France workshop.
Thank you. I am so excited about leading this new workshop in my hometown. Hope all is well. Macro on the OM-1 is so much fun! You will love it.
Thank you for sharing , i do enjoy your videos content 😊
Wishing you a lovely staying in France .
Cheers !
Thank you so much! Have a great Sunday
Emilie, thank you I enjoyed your video, now regarding small apertures or very small apertures - hmmm can we see the difference - especially on small subjects? Is it worth using the lens beyond measured optimal optical performance - however slight? I respectfully would say your images at 3 min to 3min 20sec are perfectly good illustrative images but they are not in full focus, I would not have guessed you had used such small apertures - so is it worthwhile, in my view I would suggest not. I doubt if we could really appreciate the difference between f16 as opposed to f22-f32 at a relatively high magnifications.
Hi Emilie. Useful and informative video clip. My rule of thumb like you - is the subject moving ?? If no then focus stacking. If yes then f11 - f22 providing there is enough light. Flash or LED. All good fun 🤔😏😊🥰
Hey Emilie.
Thank you so much for sharing your techniques and experience with us. I love your videos, and I just subscribed to your channel ! take care!
Thank you so much for taking the time to write. Glad my videos are helpful. Have a great weekend.
Probably more of a focus bracket for me with something like Milkweed flower pods to get 3 different stage flower pods next to each other on one plant in focus. Probably still used a pretty small aperture. I want to get a focus rail for focus stacking eventually. You probably get a deeper depth of field with micro 4/3'ds anyway? Like to get one of them flash diffusers also but hoping to upgrade to mirrorless in 2024 & because they are camera/lens specific,,,,
Great video. Makes sense. Do you have the link for the flash diffuser by chance?
I do have an affiliated link to order the AK diffuser: akdiffuser.com/?wpam_id=39
@@EmilieT Thanks.
Thanks for a really informative video, Emilie. With the single shot at a small aperture, the transition between sharp focus and blur is more progressive, as you might expect, but whatever gets you the shot is better than no shot at all. Also, what are your thoughts on using a continuous LED light? Perhaps this would disturb some bugs, but may work better with flowers?
Great question about LED. I know some people who use that set up and are happy. I have not tried it. Only for refraction as I need a small light to only illuminate my background subject.
@@EmilieTThanks, Émilie.
❤love the video nice job
Thank you Calvin!
Hey Emilie, thank you for all these great tips! Do you mind sharing if you're using the AK Mini Diffuser that's meant for the 60mm or is that the one specifically made for the 90mm? Asking because it looks so small. If it's the mini for the 60mm, did you notice any downside to using the small one instead of putting something possibly larger on your camera? Cheers
I actually use both diffusers, the one for the 60 and the one for the 90 with my 90mm lens. They both work well.
Is it possible to use hand held focus stacking with flash? I'm sure the answer depends in part on the recharge time of the flash, but do you have any experience using focus stacking or bracketing with your Olympus flash? I know it's easy with static subjects using a tripod, but what about hand-held focus stacking with flash. Is it even possible?
Great question! The spider I posted was 14 shots focused stacked in camera and handheld with a flash and a diffuser. So yes it is absolutely possible if your subject doesn't move and you handheld your camera as steady as possible.
@@EmilieT I bet you used a 900R flash for that. I think I might save up for one of those. Most flashes won't support that kind of fast charging. I tried it with an FL36 and the flash just laughed at me.
@@jonbarnard7186 I handhold when I focus stack . I use a V860 iii flash a lot cheaper than an OM flash it has a rechargeable battery and lasts for ages .
@@jonbarnard7186 I actually used the 700FL from OM SYSTEM, smaller but works great too :)
The Godox 350o (so the 350 "o") with the OM1is used by a lot of macro photographers . It has a rechargeable battery so it has quick recycle times. And no problem to shoot for several hours.
Coucou Emilie, de retour au pays ? peut tu stp faire une vidéo comment faire le focus stacking sur l'om j'ai le E-M5 markIII mais je pense, que les réglges sont les mêmes pour tous les appareil OM
En te remerçiant pas avance
Bon séjour en France et prends soin de toi
Oui pour quelques semaines. Je vais faire une video sur le focus stacking sur l'OM en Juin/juillet quand j'aurai plus de sujets et je pense aussi faire des marches virtuelles macro aussi. A bientôt.
I was wondering if you cropped in on the small aperture images? Would this help with diffraction?
Great question. I tend not to crop, especially if I used the 90mm macro as I am more free with the composition. If I post on Instagram then I will transform my image to a square but that is about it most of the time.
thanks interesting subject to have a chat about. Hoping to branch into macro photography more than I have done hopefully you explain what flash to use and how to go about setting it up in a another video. Thanks again.
Bonjour , le français est vraiment un parent pauvre chez om systeme et olympus ce serait vraiment un plus si vous pouviez réaliser vos vidéos dans les 2 langues à la façon d' Eric Gibaut qui lui le fait en 3 langues ! Merci . Il n' en reste pas moins que vos vidéos sont très intéressantes .A bientôt
Merci Jean Claude. J'espere vraiment avoir plus de temps pour faire des videos. Avec mon nouveau travail et les voyages ce n'est pas facile. Mais je vais faire de mon mieux dans le future.