How to Focus Stack in Photography - QUICK and EASY! 

Good to know! Thanks.

😂😂😅

The auto merge feature never works well for me!

You’re welcome 😊

No problem

Awesome!

Definitely better to underexpose landscapes. Portraits are probably better overexposed!

It's situational and sometimes sensor based. 0.0 is a good basis, but in situations where your shadows or highlights are going to clip it's better to expose for one or the other. This is dependent on the dynamic range strengths of your camera. DSLRs tended to clip their highlights easily so underexposing was considered best practices. Mirrorless cameras tend to have good all around dynamic range so overexposing slightly has come into vogue since the highlights will likely still be preserved while giving a better idea of what a final edit will look like with shadows already lifted. This is for RAW, btw. If you're shooting JPEG or video it's probably best to expose your highlights properly and recover shadows as much as possible.

That’s a long conversation, but “perfect exposure” isn’t always what’s better for the photograph.

Just expose for the highlights (the brightest thing in the image) because if you overexpose those, they are much more difficult to get back compared to shadow detail.

@@MichaelRoninTVnot all highlights is a requirement for exposure… context, place and space has to be accounted for

What do you mean?

I think he meant focus bracketing,that HDR thing ​@@AustinJamesJackson

Focus breathing isn’t too big of a deal if you use the auto align feature in Photoshop. When I can’t just mask a third at a time, I’ll use the brush tool and spend more time to make things look perfect.

It all depends on the dynamic range in the scene. Some scenes are more challenging than others.

Nd filter

Unfortunately not at this time.

Even at f/16, the whole shot won’t be in focus if you have things close and far away. Focus stacking is the only way to go.

Thanks!

Thanks so much!

Of course. You can do that in like an old version of GIMP from like 20 years ago and in a lot of other software.

Yeah, any software with layer support!

Yes!

You could, but the results will vary.

Slik CF-634 and Slik CF-833!

@@AustinJamesJackson thanks mate

Glad you like them!

The monitor still flips to vertical when you image review, but on the shooting screen it doesn’t flip.

I’m not sure, you’d have to check.

I am still using CS6 and yes it does auto align, and then I apply auto blend (found under the Edit menu). I'll stack anywhere from 3 to 8 or more images. I manually select my focus points like he shows here. The next evolution is for indoor at home photography to get yourself software for tethering (because your computer is where all the stacks are going to end up anyway. Then you can use focusing magnification on the camera and see it each super large on your monitor to nail it with certainty, not auto focus.

@@charlieross-BRM thnx

👍

f22 might not be the most sharp aperture of your lens. f8 may be sharper on a particular lens, so it would make sense to focus stack at that aperture opposed to f22. Also to add to that you can get diffraction at higher apertures like f22.

@@jeffreysproule That's true, I never thought of it like that. Thanks!

The replies are correct! I have another short I posted recently discussing it as well.

Here's a link to the ball head: amzn.to/3Rpqsn8

The automatic setting doesn't work as well as doing it manually.

F/11 is easier to blend. At f5.6, blending the sharpest spots in the images is a lot harder.

I’m not sure what that is?

No, that and Helicon are better. PS has option for focus stacking. This guy does it with manually created masks and will have areas with inaccuracies.

Huh?

@AustinJamesJackson i followed the instructions and my laptop exploded. The battery or GPU i think

Then you’d have to use Olympus 🤨

@@AustinJamesJackson Yes, first Nikon full format, then "Olympus" OM!/OM1II. I have never regretted the change.

On a smartphone screen, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. You have to zoom in a lot to see the before and after for something like this.

@@AustinJamesJackson it's better than nothing but I'm willing to bet you guys do it deliberately so we have to rewatch the entire short.

​@@AustinJamesJackson Okay reason, lame excuse, IF ONLY there was a way to zoom a video in post...

​@@samurai4663 ohh wow hater is here. Your watching from RU-vid, try to do it you will notice the difference outside of social media, okay hater.

@@Danielle_Visuals why should I try to do it myself, I just asked for a before and after picture at the end, who hurt ur feelings today that you're this butthurt?

Maybe for studio shots, but in the field for landscapes, this is exactly how I do it. I don’t want to spend hours blending 10+ images when I can get the job done with 2 or 3.

@@AustinJamesJackson With the newest cameras from Nikon, there is a built in feature for this. It calculates the images and steps needed and after I press the release button it doesn’t need a second to take all the images, if the shutter speed allows it. In PS you simply align them automatically and overblend them. Of course you can do it your way, but in terms of image quality I can tell you there is a difference.

There are other programs with similar features too!

You can do without it but it will make things easier.

I’m not aware of a free program that allows you to do this.

@@AustinJamesJackson OK, thanks :)

Just go off and take photographs: don’t get caught in the hyper frenzy of pushing 40 buttons, clicking 30 menu items and stressing out:

For a scene like this, that wouldn’t work.

Then you’ll have an image that isn’t sharp anywhere 😂

Why​@@AustinJamesJackson

How is this ruining creativity? It’s being more creative to overcome limitations of the camera to create even more intriguing images.

👍

That won’t do what this video is showing.

Not sure what you mean?

Then you’d have to shoot Panasonic tho 🥲

Or Olympus as well😅, with a fraction of the cost with a m4/3 sensor, tired of this trend where people believe they need another soulless Sony full frame

Good balance between sharpness and depth of field!

​@@AustinJamesJackson I c but it depends on the focal length, focus distance and the number of focus points really, doesn't it?

@@AustinJamesJackson also most of my lenses start experiencing diffraction at f11, so i usually avoid it if possible.

F8. 💡

F8 - use timer

True!

Then you’d have to shoot on LUMIX though… 😂

​@@AustinJamesJacksonwin win!! 😂

I only show Photoshop because it’s what most photographers are doing. You can do this in many other editing software like ON1, Luminar, or DxO.

Sure!

Good point

Not everyone can afford to buy a new camera.

@@AustinJamesJackson The G95 has stacking built in camera and it is less than most other cameras on the market. It costs $1000 Canadian, or about $750 USD and it comes with a 12-60 lens. I won't buy a Canon FF camera for instance because most of them don't have IBIS, despite charging way more than my G95 that has IBIS.

Sony is very boring cameras. LUMIX has so many more built in cool fun features even in their lower end models. Sony just refuses to put in theirs. I shoot with Sony but have been using my LUMIX G92 Way more as of late It’s put the fun back into my photography

OR ONE CAN BUY WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT.

Sony camera do that in camera

Why’s that? 😂

Please explain

Haha. I talk fast to fit more information in a shorter period of time. If you go too slow, people don’t watch because it takes too long to get to the point. Better to go too fast because you can easily pause. The speed is perfect for many, but if you need it a little slower you are more than welcome to watch it again!