

You will need focus stacking only for those cases in which you can’t have the whole scene in focus with a single shot: wildflowers in the foreground with a wide lens or a close-up of an insect are just a couple of examples. Me instead, since it’s a time consuming technique, I prefer to do a focus stack just when it’s strictly necessary.
#Does helicon focus process hdr photos how to#
I get this question so many times during classes and workshops once you learn how to play with the focus stacking, you want to use it for every shot you take. Oh, and let’s not even mention the diffraction and loss of quality you would get by shooting with such close apertures.Īnd that’s exactly why you should do focus stacking: to capture a lot more depth of field than what is possible to catch with a single exposure. You can even try to close down till f/22 or more (if the lens allows), but you still won’t have everything in focus. The answer is no, I’m still fine in some particular situations, generally in landscape photography when you have some really close subjects in the foreground or in macro photography when you try to get the whole subject in focus, stepping down the aperture of your lens won’t be enough in order to get the depth of field you need to have everything in focus.

The logic question that might come into your mind now is: why on Earth should I bother doing all this process, instead of just stopping down the aperture a little bit more? Has Leonardo gone crazy?

In simpler words, it will help you gain a lot more depth of field by taking different shots with individual focus points and then merge them together in post-production. As the name suggests, the aim of the focus stacking technique is to merge a certain amount of shots into a final single photo where all the different focus points are stacked together.
