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Canon EOS R5 See below for explanation |
I have previously posted about focus stacking using the focus bracketing feature in the Canon EOS R5. This can give good results with close-ups.
But for landscapes I find a slightly different technique gives better results.
For many landscape photos where the camera is at eye level or thereabouts a single shot at f11-16 will usually do the job just fine.
But when the camera is much closer to the nearest element in the frame it can be difficult to achieve sharpness across the frame with just one exposure.
I have found the automated [Focus bracketing] feature not sufficiently reliable in this situation.
But making four exposures each focussed manually can give very good results.
The photo at the top of this post is a composite created in Photoshop from four frames.
The leaves in the foreground are about 50cm from the front of the lens.
I attach the camera to a low set tripod and mount the Canon RF 24-105mm lens. I choose this lens as it exhibits only a minor degree of change in the effective focal length as the focus distance changes. (a.k.a. focus breathing). This should make it easier for Photoshop to correctly merge the images.
I set the camera to manual exposure f8, ISO 100, timer delay 2sec, manual focus.
After framing up I focus on the leaves closest to the camera and make an exposure.
I make three more exposures at increasing distances from the camera, approximately as shown on the photo above.
Some people report making 20 exposures. I find four is enough.
I shoot RAW. I open each of the frames in Adobe Camera Raw and apply lens corrections only.
I then open all four frames in Photoshop and go to File>Scripts>Load files into stack (check yes for attempt to auto-align).
When that is done I select all layers then go to Edit>Auto blend layers>Seamless tones and colors.
When the program has done its thing I flatten the resulting composite image and apply any adjustments to lightness, color etc in Photoshop. I often use Camera Raw filter.
Save and the job is done.
This method appears to be working well for me when I have a landscape composition which places a part of the image very close to the camera.
Obviously it requires more actions at both capture and post processing phases than a single image but sometimes it is the best way to get that “everything sharp” look which can be desirable in some usage cases.