Macro lenses and focus stacking

Posted on February 17, 2017
By Clickasnap
In Photography tutorials
Tagged macro, photography, standard, test

We have had quite a few posts on the free photo hosting site ClickASnap’s blog about Macro photography, from Mike Brownes guide to macro reversing rings through to WeeklyImogens introduction to macro photography using her 100mm L series lens. So now we are going to delve a little deeper into this fascinating world.

As has been mentioned previously, and as macro users are well aware, the depth of field when using a macro lens is incredibly shallow, so shallow in fact that the focus plane can easily only be a few hundredths of a millimetre thick. This is especially apparent when using really specialist lenses such as the Canon MPE 65mm. What does this mean? Well below we have a single frame taken of a circuit board with a capacitor on it:

It, as a standalone photo is actually quite nice, however the only thing that is in focus is the ‘100’ at the top of the capacitor. What happens if we want to get the whole thing in focus? This is where focus stacking comes in. The camera is mounted onto a tripod with ‘Z’ table, in this case a Velbon Super Mag Slider, a Canon MPE 65mm with ring flash and some strong lighting to illuminate the subject during the focusing stages, and finally, a remote shutter release to ensure there is minimal vibration. Step one is to focus into the highest or lowest point of the photo (it doesn’t really matter which) In this case it was the top of the capacitor, then take a photo, turn turn the dial to the next focus point take a picture, and so on until you have a series of photographs that show every detail of the subject literally from top to bottom.

Once that is complete you need to download a piece of software called ‘Helicon Focus‘ (it’s free for 30 days so gives you a chance to try it out without having to spend any money) The software is super easy to use, just install it, insert your photos and press the ‘Render’ button. You then end up with this:

Save your image and below you can see our completed, fully focused, stacked image! All you have to do now is upload it to ClickASnap and start earning money for your photos!