Sony A7R V Focus stacking "distance"? Am I thinking of this technique correctly?

[brphotographycanada]

I've been experimenting with focus stacking with my A7RV. I set a focus bracket with 10 exposures with a width of 4(Standard). My goal is to have the majority of the image in focus from foreground (the bush) to background (house and evergreen tree). What I tend to get is the foreground (or background) in focus to varying degrees and a confused look on my face. This is where I wonder if I'm thinking of this technique correctly. I'm envisioning the camera adjusting the focus from say 1m away to 1.5m to 2m to 2.5m and so on to infinity. The trick then would be to ensure your aperture and therefore depth of field is such that there's no weird lines of focus and blur. Is that correct? If not, any clarification would be appreciated.

If that is correct, then does the width correspond to a standard distance or does it vary with aperture?

Example image where I was trying to get the entire garden in focus. Also, I realize that I could have changed my aperture from f/3.5 to something much narrower f/16 or something to achieve a similar result.

• ILCE-7RM5
• FE 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 28.0 mm
• ƒ/3.5
• 1/1600 sec
• ISO 100

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

I use width of 7 and have exposures set on max as it only takes what is needed anyway.

I find that when I have a large area with something in the very close bottom foreground, sometimes I need to wind it out to f16 to have it in focus. But I put that down to the AF coverage rather than the focus itself.

 

[brphotographycanada]

I use width of 7 and have exposures set on max as it only takes what is needed anyway.

I find that when I have a large area with something in the very close bottom foreground, sometimes I need to wind it out to f16 to have it in focus. But I put that down to the AF coverage rather than the focus itself.

Ok. I'll give it a try with the max for exposures and narrower aperture. I've gotten used to panoramas with a huge amount of exposures so why not here too

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Mine only ever takes around 4 shots on a landscape shot at f10 with that setting. I wouldn't imagine LR would respond too well with a heap of stacked 130mb RAWs! What camera have you previously used with these panoramas mate?

 

[brphotographycanada]

Mine only ever takes around 4 shots on a landscape shot at f10 with that setting. I wouldn't imagine LR would respond too well with a heap of stacked 130mb RAWs! What camera have you previously used with these panoramas mate?

I only bought the a7RV recently. Previously, I was using the a7II. And yes Lightroom chugs a bit with 40 RAWs even at 26MB. Just download more RAM lol

 

[Hank]

Galer does an excellent video on this topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFdU21iUiQ8

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Galer does an excellent video on this topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFdU21iUiQ8

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

 

[spudhead]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! the dreaded Mark Galer

 

[spudhead]

Can anyone explain the thinking and the end result you guys are looking for, image examples anyone?

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Can anyone explain the thinking and the end result you guys are looking for, image examples anyone?

Looking for a sharp landscape picture front to back aren't we? An image example is most of my still landscape shots since getting my RV, I use that feature quite often.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! the dreaded Mark Galer

But...... Mark Galer said!!!

 

[Hank]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! the dreaded Mark Galer

Yeah, the bloke knows the functions back to front. Like it/him or not. I didn't see you poms answer the cannucks question.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Yeah, the bloke knows the functions back to front. Like it/him or not. I didn't see you poms answer the cannucks question.

I'm not going to answer a question that I don't have the info for, I left it to Clint as he has the RV, and has provided a great answer too. Also, Galer can read a manual, wooo

 

[spudhead]

Yeah, the bloke knows the functions back to front. Like it/him or not. I didn't see you poms answer the cannucks question.

Yep thanks for the images in your album it is a massive effort 2 , guess you still getting your head around Galers settings

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Hi Brian,
Focus stacking is based upon the principle that the camera focus plane moves forward from your subject focal point to cover the desired focal depth you want to achieve.

For landscapes, many photographers use the hyperfocaldistance approach which is a methodology whereby for the foreground to far ground distance you
Wish to cover ,and have in focus, you engage aperture between f7 to f16 and then focus on a position 1/3 of the total distance between where you stand to the far distance (estmated) and this should enable you to have the complete image sharp or near sharp.....this 1/3 distance is approximate but their are published calcs which will calculate the actual metre based hyperfocal distance.

As regards specific focus stacking if your camera does not have such functionality you will need to execute it manually rather than automatically in camera.

I haven't used the A7RV but from your post assume it has focus stacking functionality and within that function you can set the start and stop locations
For your image as seen through your viewfinder and set the FS steps in line with the depth of field for your lens and aperture setting so you get your full image in critical focus.

The trick is ensuring the depth of field for your selected lens and aperture are long enough to keep the focus stack limited and ensure critical fo us throughout for landscapes

In macro at very low depth of field the focus stacks can be anywhere from low tens to 200 images to ensure all images overlap and hence complete sharp focus can be achieved over the entire image(bugs,insects and product photography)

The other consideration for landscapes is sometimes there may be differences between lighting levels between the near/mid ground and far distance wherein you may need to execute two stacks and combine in post

As above if you do not have auto focus stacking capability in camera you can still create a stack by manual focus and using the lens focus wheel to advance and check position with the with fo us peaking engaged to assist in identifying the focus position in your viewfinder image.

Focus stacking in the field for macro subjects at high fps and body movement is another alternative but needs a lot of practice and patience.

As you can see from the above lengthy but simple overview, focus stacking can be complicated,and i havent even touched on the post production stacking and blending of the images ,but as always practice makes perfect...hope the above helps in some way.

Feel free to send any further questions you may have......

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Hi Brian,
Focus stacking is based upon the principle that the camera focus plane moves forward from your subject focal point to cover the desired focal depth you want to achieve.

For landscapes, many photographers use the hyperfocaldistance approach which is a methodology whereby for the foreground to far ground distance you
Wish to cover ,and have in focus, you engage aperture between f7 to f16 and then focus on a position 1/3 of the total distance between where you stand to the far distance (estmated) and this should enable you to have the complete image sharp or near sharp.....this 1/3 distance is approximate but their are published calcs which will calculate the actual metre based hyperfocal distance.

As regards specific focus stacking if your camera does not have such functionality you will need to execute it manually rather than automatically in camera.

I haven't used the A7RV but from your post assume it has focus stacking functionality and within that function you can set the start and stop locations
For your image as seen through your viewfinder and set the FS steps in line with the depth of field for your lens and aperture setting so you get your full image in critical focus.

The trick is ensuring the depth of field for your selected lens and aperture are long enough to keep the focus stack limited and ensure critical fo us throughout for landscapes

In macro at very low depth of field the focus stacks can be anywhere from low tens to 200 images to ensure all images overlap and hence complete sharp focus can be achieved over the entire image(bugs,insects and product photography)

The other consideration for landscapes is sometimes there may be differences between lighting levels between the near/mid ground and far distance wherein you may need to execute two stacks and combine in post

As above if you do not have auto focus stacking capability in camera you can still create a stack by manual focus and using the lens focus wheel to advance and check position with the with fo us peaking engaged to assist in identifying the focus position in your viewfinder image.

Focus stacking in the field for macro subjects at high fps and body movement is another alternative but needs a lot of practice and patience.

As you can see from the above lengthy but simple overview, focus stacking can be complicated,and i havent even touched on the post production stacking and blending of the images ,but as always practice makes perfect...hope the above helps in some way.

Feel free to send any further questions you may have......

Great overview of how general focus stacking works Ray. But how is this relative to the setting up structure of the A7RV's in camera stacking, as the gentleman here has requested? You should probably put some effort into reading the story rather than the headline...

 

[spudhead]

Hi Brian,
Focus stacking is based upon the principle that the camera focus plane moves forward from your subject focal point to cover the desired focal depth you want to achieve.

For landscapes, many photographers use the hyperfocaldistance approach which is a methodology whereby for the foreground to far ground distance you
Wish to cover ,and have in focus, you engage aperture between f7 to f16 and then focus on a position 1/3 of the total distance between where you stand to the far distance (estmated) and this should enable you to have the complete image sharp or near sharp.....this 1/3 distance is approximate but their are published calcs which will calculate the actual metre based hyperfocal distance.

As regards specific focus stacking if your camera does not have such functionality you will need to execute it manually rather than automatically in camera.

I haven't used the A7RV but from your post assume it has focus stacking functionality and within that function you can set the start and stop locations
For your image as seen through your viewfinder and set the FS steps in line with the depth of field for your lens and aperture setting so you get your full image in critical focus.

The trick is ensuring the depth of field for your selected lens and aperture are long enough to keep the focus stack limited and ensure critical fo us throughout for landscapes

In macro at very low depth of field the focus stacks can be anywhere from low tens to 200 images to ensure all images overlap and hence complete sharp focus can be achieved over the entire image(bugs,insects and product photography)

The other consideration for landscapes is sometimes there may be differences between lighting levels between the near/mid ground and far distance wherein you may need to execute two stacks and combine in post

As above if you do not have auto focus stacking capability in camera you can still create a stack by manual focus and using the lens focus wheel to advance and check position with the with fo us peaking engaged to assist in identifying the focus position in your viewfinder image.

Focus stacking in the field for macro subjects at high fps and body movement is another alternative but needs a lot of practice and patience.

As you can see from the above lengthy but simple overview, focus stacking can be complicated,and i havent even touched on the post production stacking and blending of the images ,but as always practice makes perfect...hope the above helps in some way.

Feel free to send any further questions you may have......

have you got some images Ray you can share

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Here's a little something something. The camera was about 30cm above the lower side wall. The waterfall is about 40m high as you can see by zooming in on the guard rail on the right up the top of it.

Using the stacking settings I mentioned. Three images were taken here.
️

View attachment 44428

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Great overview of how general focus stacking works Ray. But how is this relative to the setting up structure of the A7RV's in camera stacking, as the gentleman here has requested? You should probably put some effort into reading the story rather than the headline...

Yes reading the original question is always important and the way I see Brian's post it is more about the principle/process of achieving critical focus across his required image and not about how to operate his camera..... he seems to understand that.

In touching on manual methods also, which quite frankly most landscapers use over auto as you cannot control moving objects in the landscape whilst with manual methods you can halt at each focus position to avoid such blurring artifacts.

Anyways I am sure Brian will revert if he feels he needs to.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Another example at the same width settings. I generally hit a focus stack at f10 or f11, depending on whether I like odd or even numbers more on that particular day. As I said, occasionally something that is basically at the very bottom just won't go in focus at these apertures, in those cases f16 pulls it straight in. I'd put that issue down to the AF sensor coverage, easy fix though. I don't get all 'scientific' on it, I just work out what works and then I stick to that... ️

View attachment 44445

 

[AlphaWorld]

Just a thought, Clint, with no experience / knowledge behind it: is it possible the the minimum focus distance is stopping the camera from getting the nearest bit in focus, and by going to f/16 you manage to squeeze it into the depth of field of the lens at MFD?

Beautiful images - you are motivating me to try it!

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Just a thought, Clint, with no experience / knowledge behind it: is it possible the the minimum focus distance is stopping the camera from getting the nearest bit in focus, and by going to f/16 you manage to squeeze it into the depth of field of the lens at MFD?

Beautiful images - you are motivating me to try it!

Yes I guess that's very possible. The first time I really noticed it was my waterfall shot for the member's comp a couple of months ago with the colourful leaves in the foreground, I'll add it here. The camera would have been very close to those as it was basically less than 100mm off the deck! There was no way it would get them in at f11. That's a solid suggestion for sure!

Get out there and give it a go mate!

View attachment 44456

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

With your aperture at f11 or similar and if the distance between your shooting position and the farthest point
of your required image is for example approximately 200m then if you focus at 66m from your shooting
position you will get the full image from your shooting position,or thereabouts, through to the far end of your image
in critical focus. A wider lens works best for shooting to get the front and far distance of your image in shot.

This is the hyperfocal distance shooting rule, the 1/3 front distance to the 2/3 idistance behid your focus point is approximate
but can be verified against your lens and camera in hypeerfocal distance tables for better accuracy. It is best if you have a feature in the
foreground you want to capture that you try to get a shooting position to coincide with the 1/3 distance between you and your feature
to ensure your feaature is the hyperfocal focus point.

As is normal you may need to get low to get your foreground and far background in your viewfinder........if you
cannot achieve this you may need to consider a few focus stacked images as an alternative.

Hope this helps.

 

[spudhead]

So op drops this question and we all now know how to focus stack apart from him, last seen Saturday I think brilliant

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

So op drops this question and we all now know how to focus stack apart from him, last seen Saturday I think brilliant

Must be LeDave's brother... ️

 

[spudhead]

Must be LeDave's brother... ️

What you think there is more than one?

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

What you think there is more than one?

I hope so..!

 

[spudhead]

I hope so..!

does that mean we can stack them?

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

does that mean we can stack them?

Hopefully Deleted Member 5003 can answer that one...

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Here you go Gary

LeDave
LeDaveII
LeDaveIII
LeDaveIIII