DEBUNKING The WORST Focus Stacking MYTHS | How to Master Sharp Photos in Landscape Photography 

Couldn't agree more. Hyperfocal bollocks.

And I'll make the point in this video you are shooting something that is not moving. If that cactus is moving in the wind, it's not gonna look good it's that simple and you failed to mention that you failed to mention that shooting seascapes is very difficult with stacking because the ocean moves so if you've got a split second between each frame, especially at a one exposure it's not gonna work

I am a retired commercial photographer. This was a very fine presentation and fits totally into my experiences, including what a wide-angle lens is good at and what it is not good at.

I love all the amateurs with Dunning Krueger effect.

Using focus stacking to create a close to long focus composition often results in an unnatural composition where the eye gets lost in the busy texture of the whole image. There is no point of interest that directs the eye. Having a reasonable depth of field is not necessary an issue that has to be avoided at all cost.

You should try F32…now that is a REALLY sharp aperture! Hahaha. Hyperfocal distance definition literally has the words “acceptably sharp” in it. Just look up the word acceptable to see how sharp that means! Thanks for the video

Does focus stacking still work if the lens has to extend and retract to achieve focus?

If you get really low, yeah hyper focal will not work. I use a GFX system which is even more challenging for this and if you are getting a low shot you will definitely need to stack. However I still think hyper focal can be used in a lot of situations where you don't need to stack I don't necessarily think the mountains in the background need to be Pin sharp - I actually think it gives it a slightly AI, look that I don't particularly like. I think it's horses for courses there will be times when you need to stack, and there will be teams when you don't need to stack. It is really down to the distance of something in the foreground and what you have in the foreground.. There is one exception, GFX cameras, and if you haven't used one, you will be able to shoot at F11 16 even FA with no diffraction if you use good lenses, but that's the exception to the rule, if you are using a crop sensor camera or a full frame camera you actually often have to stack more than you do with the GFX, which is odd, because when I got into GFX, I was told the opposite. I do shoot a lot of single shot very sharp images but here's the kicker. I'm quite happy to accept that the mountain way Off in the background might be a little bit soft I'm okay with that. I call it fall o and it actually looks really nice and this is actually how the human I will see it when you are standing there what we're trying to do, Off and I think is create images that don't look real, and I don't see the point in that. And yes I'm a professional photographer and I sell hundreds of images and I teach landscape photography and like I said, I think there is a place for using stacking and I also think there is a place for hyper focal method. It's working out which one you need to do be. The other thing is unless you've got a decent computer with decent speed. Stacking is a pain in the butt because it will take a long time. And sometimes just crashes and doesn't work. You need at least 16 MB of ram in your computer and then it will work fine, there's a whole bunch of other considerations with stacking and hyper focal method that you didn't mention as well but I'm not gonna go into them as they are quite technical. Thanks for the video mate and I do enjoy your channel.

If its a epic photo. I will focus stack and get everything together in one. If its not but i needed to stack, would probably just throw it away

Where is this location? I went to the peralta trailhead and I still couldn’t find me it. It’s supposed to be in the Easter superstitions. Can someone help? I’d love the exact location of this mountain peak

Great explanation too bad social media accepts sub par results

This is a very helpful and well done video. The final image is just gorgeous. It's taken a couple of years, but I have come to understand in order to create "next level" images you must be willing to focus stack. Happy New Year to you and Chris.

Any lens has one distance that is truly sharp. Depth of field has been through history referred as many things like zone of sharpness and acceptably sharp. and within the circle of confusion. These terms often get abbreviated and I think this adds to the misunderstanding. In film days we used F22 because that was the best option then, unless you had a view camera and could use the tilt and shift functions to get the plane of focus where you wanted. NOW we have better tools that are very user friendly to help us achieve our vision. Very good explanation..

When you focus stack those multiple pics, how do you deal with the cloud in the sky? I mean, the cloud moves and ends up being different in every pics.. When I try to focus stack them together using Photoshop, the sky always gets messed up. TIA.

Great video! Good to see someone talking about focus stacking in more than a simplistic manner. I understand your point about hyperfocal distance being hard to determine. What hyperfocal distance has really shown me, is that if you are close to your foreground it makes a lot more sense to take three or so shots for the foreground and a mid ground shot, rather than the traditional foreground mid ground and background shot. Great video!

I watched the video and loved it, but I had to watch several times because now I am obsessing over your geared head. It is all I see now. I am trying to understand the efficiency. Is a ball head that bad? It is driving me nuts. Why? Why? So I came up with an idea. Get rid of the tripod altogether. Enter I my newest purchase: Canon EF 70-200 F4 IS. I am just going to handhold a lightweight IS telephoto for a tester. Tripod haters unite - LOL!

here, here! Well said

Great infor thank you! Also, where can I find infor regarding your workshops. I didn't see anything on the website

A very well followed YT landscaper once did a video where he made the decision to focus stack. Except he stayed at f/16, his typical setting for unstacked landscapes. I asked the question in his feed, since he decided to stack, why not open up to the sweet spot of his lens, say f/8, and go from there. Who cares if you’re stacking two, four or seven shots once the decision is made. He didn’t answer. I agree with your thoughts and appreciate your tips on stretching perspective.

Solid advice. Lots of noise in comments haha

Completely agree brother. If I ever have an image where I still can't get everything in focus at F11, then I'll usually open back up to F8 and focus stack. The degradation of quality on anything above F16 with my lenses is very obvious. Great video mate :)

Wow! Now I know how to use a wide angle lens correctly. Thanks! Came here after reading the comments about f22 on your shorts video. I was also surprised to read those comments.

Hmm, I couldnt get super close foregound sharp with f22 but comparing to f13 the background did not loose any sharpness at all. Sony A7C + Tamron 28-75mm.

You got a subscribe from me on the basis of your no-bullshit approach to hyperfocal distance and f/22 ;) I wish most of the hyperfocal crowd would read up on how it's still calculated on an outdated value of 'acceptably' sharp. In the advanced section in PhotoPills you can adjust the Circle of Confusion setting down a fair whack to get more realistic values... but I still hardly ever use them.

Thanks, that stretchiness is one of the appeals of the super-wide angles. You know there's laser tape measures now, just point and measure without leaving the tripod😉

Im with your wife in this one, nice photo, and a Merry Christmas 🎄 to you and your wife...

Good and very educational video! Keep up the good work!

Interesting and informative Mike, thanks for taking the time to explain. Three Sisters Summit is always a great background and tough hike. See ya in the next one.

A great explanation of how Fstop works. Thanks

Hi mate , another great informative video. All the best to you both in 2023 , Kevin

Super simple clear and great advice, thanks!

I'm in Club Focus Stack, but I lean towards Chris' position re the gear head. 👎🏿😂 What happened to your AF near the end of the video?

Great explanation! Spot on thank you for the clearly explained info,

Thanks for the great video! I love shooting wide angle. I have used focus stacking many times, and it was nice to see another perspective.

I love this location. Great shots and video Mike!

f22? Great for the pinhole photography enthusiast I suppose. A few more comments. A component of the diffraction limit calculation has to do with absolute aperture size, and that’s a different f-stop setting for different sensor sizes. For FF sensors, sure, f8 is optimal. I shoot micro-4/3, f4 is where it’s at. Another excellent alternative to focus stacking is to use tilt/shift lens. Camera movements is a staple of landscape large format phtography. The only downside for small format digital is that it has traditonally required specialty tilt/shift lenses. This is changing somewhat with the coming availability of t/s adapters.

"Just use f/22" or the unexpected virtue of ignorance

Excellent and very accurate info that was well presented! Thanks!

Thank you so much for this clear explanation of wide angle lenses and focus stacking! Answers many questions for me. 👍

A good informative video! Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Very good video discussing f-stop vs depth of field. Was glad to see you give a brief nod to large format, since that is is so very different. I have a 150-600 lens with the sweet spot for f-stop is at f11, but as you mentioned the 14-30 is closer to f8. It varies by lens build as much as anything.

Very helpful indeed . Thank you . Have a great New Year.

Sorry with as much info out there about how to focus stack I am shocked that you got the comments that you did

I go over f11 and although it's not filthy dirty and is cleaned reasonably regularly, my images are full of dust spots which just makes editing even longer. All of my landscape images are f8 with 3 or 4 focus points depending on the scenes main subject of interest, are they perfect probably not but from normal viewing distance you can't tell

f22 lol 🤣🤣🤣 great video

Great stuff as always!!!

If you’re going to emphasize the foreground that much, maybe just get a macro lens. I always laugh when people criticize using a wide angle for “trying to fit everything into the frame” and then proceed to use their wide angle lens. Trouble is, they have so much guilt about using it, they’ll belly crawl through the dirt and shoot through a bunch of wildflowers to obscure the mountain that’s right in front of them, thinking somehow that makes for a more interesting composition. Maybe the first time someone did it, but now it’s a tired cliche.

As you say Mike, not everyone is into focus stacking but with modern mirrorless cameras like your Z7 and Chris' (and my) R5 and modern software it's so easy to do - if you don't have wind! I'm happy to shoot at f/16 on Canon L lenses as the sharpness of the latest mirrorless lenses is a real step up. Hope you both had a great Christmas Day.