Focus Stacking MISTAKES to AVOID for SHARPER Landscape Photos!!
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In this week’s episode, we discuss focus stacking mistakes to avoid for sharper landscape photos!! One of the most popular and often used techniques in landscape photography today is focus stacking, but you rarely hear anyone mention the mistakes you want to avoid in order to create those perfectly sharp landscape photos. Now focus stacking isn't a highly complex procedure, but there are certainly a few things you want to look out for that could potentially ruin your results.
In this video, I want to share with you the focus stacking mistakes I made most often when I first began experimenting with this incredibly powerful technique, in hopes that this video will speed up the learning curve so to speak for anyone just getting started with focus stacking. I was going to rate these mistakes in order of frequency, but after careful consideration I came to the conclusion that all of these mistakes are extremely common so they're not in any specific order whatsoever.
I hope this video clears up any confusion or solves any issues you may be having with regards to focus stacking, whether they're on-location problems you're experiencing with focus stacking or issues blending the images together during post-processing. If you have any additional questions, check out the playlist link below to my videos on both Focus Stacking and how to Manually Focus Stack your Landscape Photos.
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If you enjoyed this video, please consider giving it a thumbs up and let me know what you think in the comments below - I guarantee I'll get back to ya.
Thanks for watching everyone!
-Mark D.
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Thanks so much for watching everyone!!
Thank you for teaching! Also, you've been putting a lot of effort in editing. It shows! I enjoyed the little icons and sounds here and there. Helped to really point out something.
Gertjan Van der Kelen Really happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Hey mark I took a AEB photo of the moon recently and because of the different shape of the moon under different exposures I couldnt auto align it to hdr blend it. So annoying! Plus it was hard to figure out a way to manually align them.
Mark Denney Can we pls get a focus stack + hdr post-processing tutorial. Thanks
From my own experience, I've learned to compose with enough room around the edges to allow for cropping (because of focus breathing). Another thing I do is duplicate my layers, then just auto-blend the duplicates. That way if there are any inaccurate blends, which often happens with foliage, I can mask in the correct in-focus areas manually from the original layers.
Your exaggeration on the shutter button is absolutely hysterical! It reminds me of some awful "as seen on TV" commercial where it shifts to black and white and shows people failing miserably to open a cabinet or something. Thanks for the video as always.
Gaaahhhh I should have made that clip B&W - you’re right🤣🤣
Thanks for the Focus Sacking lesson. I find when I do that, I'm afraid that I'll miss something, so I take too many shots and end up with 5-6 images when most times 1 or 2 would work. The other thing is I'm always taking close up shots of mountains, and don't include the foreground items enough. I'm learning to back out on the cropping. Thanks.
Your camera shake made me laugh!!
My first attempt at focus stacking was yesterday. I now know that I made a lot of mistakes. Lol. You do a very good job of explaining your steps and thought processes and I appreciate that you follow up with a visual aid.
Many thanks Kim - glad you think so!
Sir your lessons and experiences are priceless and I really appreciate the care and attention to detail in the tutorial
The stairs image is a great example of where not to focus stack. I think having the scene recede conveys depth.
Thanks Mark. it's so easy to mess up focus stacking, especially when you have a small window of 'special light' to work within. Focus stack panic sets in (a bad case of acute FSP). The cure is to get the composition figured out ahead of time, make sure you know the focus spots and when the light hits, turn your phone off and get down to business. Easier said than done!
Time to get an im camera setti g for this, like bracketing. Especially with mirrorless and communication with the lens, the camera can determine the distances involved in the frame.
Thank you Mark, very clear as usual and you always have the perfect examples to help us understanding. Good learning, merci!
I haven't played with focus stacking lately but I had to smile when you started talking about "focus stacking EVERYTHING" because I did that for a bit, but I find I often lean on using exposure stacking a lot. It definitely helps for a scene with HUGE dynamic range, but I've found it can be helpful for lower light and sometimes for product photography
Great presentation and coverage, Mark. Well done. You may have already covered my following suggestions. You could add to your advice about camera stability to use the inbuilt camera timer of 2 or 10 seconds or a cable release for shutter activation. Although an extra burden, I also use a sand bag filled with pebbles ( no sand anywhere! ) that I suspend from the tripod. The 8kg bag makes the tripod really rock solid against wind and accidental bumping movement. If the location has pebbles they could be used in situ instead of carrying the 8kg bag. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience. All the best.
Awesome ! Thanks Mark ! slowly getting ready for my Canadian Rockies trip this summer with the kids, will definitely use your tips & tricks for focus staking.
Excellent video Mark. I am very grateful I found your channel. Your videos are of an exceptional quality, very easy to follow and very practical. I have learned a tremendous amount from watching your videos, even on topics I thought I was well versed in. Thank you :)
Thank you for the good advise Mark. I've just started to experiment with focus stacking and I really appreciate your sharing your knowledge. Since I mostly shoot in aperture priority I never considered how different the lighting can be in different areas of the same scene and how the camera reacts to those changes. I also didn't consider just how fast it can change between the first and last shots. Thank you again for sharing.
Hi Mark. Once again you give us good information and what to avoid. The teacher comes through once again. I love focus stacking. Thanks to you I'll be getting better. Bill.
Hey Mark, very good and informative video, truthfully speaking I was watching your work space for first 5 min., how intricately and beautifully you have arranged things back there, multiple source of lights and its shadows on things, everything is placed perfectly and its coming together to add more beauty to the place. I had to rewind the video multiple time to catch up with you 😀
Love the experience you have shared, it takes a lot to bring it together and sum it up in 15 min, Hats off...
wow! very detailed and informative. I learned a lot from this series of videos on focus stacking. subscribed!
Excellent video! Thank you!
Thanks for this. what I usually find as a good rule of thumb for myself especially when shooting landscape and stacking is I put the focal point into the center of each square of the thirds grid so I generally wind up with nine shots for each stack with each square having a center focal point which generally sharpens that entire section of the photo between f8-11.
I shoot with the A7R4 now so I am learning that more not then often, I don’t need to actually stack photos as often. But it’s a fun process.
There is an app for that, even if you camera doesn't support focus stacking. Helicon Focus and Helicon Remote. Haven't used it for years. Best I remember, with Remote you take the near and far photos and it takes those in between. Focus does the stacking, though there are other options for that, too. It's marketed for macro photography as it takes the stack without the photographer having to touch and accidentally move things. Yeah, it involves being tethered. Thanks for your great videos.
Thanks for the tips! No. 5 was very helpful.
Thank you very much! I have learned a lot... as I do from all of your videos!
Thank you for this wonderfully informative video. I'm just now trying focus shift shooting so these tips are very helpful
Great stuff Mark. Have done FS before but some very good info there.
Thanks a lot
Thanks for checking out the video Warren!
Thanks for yet another simplified elaboration. “Bonus mistake” that’s a good one. As always loved your video. Keep up the good work.
Nafiz Mushabbir Hahaha! I was thinking the same thing when I said it!
Super interesting! I really like the calm an methodical way in which you explain all the steps and what mistakes to avoid! Great video Mark!
Thank you Janne! Great to hear you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the tips and tricks!
Great video, thanks. I’ve spent the afternoon with my camera and manual trying to sort a couple of things and am keen to give this a go now
Thank you Mark! I haven't yet had the chance to try out focus stacking but watching your videos on the subject will help me feel in control and informed when that chance comes around!
You'll be surprised just how easy it is once you try it and it'll unlock loads of new creative options for you as well! Thanks for watching Jackie!
Thanks Mark! Great advice and information. Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for watching Patty!
Amazing video Mark, thank you! :D
Thank you for sharing so much, especially your mistakes. I am tempted to try photo stacking myself on the near future again. My last attempt was a complete failure!
Thanks a lot for all these information
Great video Mark, I learned all of this hard way. Now I stick to focus stacking primarily for panorama, and anything else that requires a close subject also in focus (something interesting and adds to the image). I always shoot manual mode and hence, the other one was never a problem. The challenge is when it's windy and you need to stack. I have not figured that one yet - except returning to the location in a better weather condition.
2nd mistake. I just realized I started focus stacking everything when I found out this particular technique. Thanks you so much for pointing this. Helps a lot
Glad the video was helpful Robert!
A hyperfocal Calculator can also help decide if you need to focus stack.
Hopefully your lens doesn't suffer from too much focus breathing.
Wind can also move foliage around in between shots...
Very good video. Keep up the good work!
Good video Mark. Movement in the subjects is also a common problem for my part. Leaves/grass moving can result in a bad stitch/stack afterwards.
Excellent video!!
Thank you, Mark. This video is really helpful, and you explained it very well as per usual!
Great to hear you enjoyed it Nigel!
I definitely need more practice with focus stacking because I really struggle with it. At that point, you hope there will be a video like this🙏 The way of explanation is so clear and makes me more confident. Thankyou Mark!
Glad to hear the video was helpful Alex!
Wonderful instruction. That I will put into practice. Thanks.
Thanks for watching John!
Great tips Mark! I haven’t practiced photo stacking yet and your videos are fantastic, you really have a way of explaining these tips very well. Thanks for sharing and keep these videos coming!
Thanks so much Tina - I sure will!
Well said, Mark
Thanks for this one Mark. I hadn't thought to use manual mode when focus stacking. I would have expected that to be a mistake. This isn't like panoramas where an automatic setting would result in changing exposures even when the ambient light isn't changing. Here an auto setting should only change the exposure to try to compensate for a change in ambient lighting (e.g., sun goes behind a cloud for on of the exposures). On manual, if there is a change in ambient light, won't the stacked picture look weird? Maybe stacking is just a bad option no matter what if ambient lighting is fluctuating quickly, or one needs to time exposure so that they are all made when ambient light is similiar? Also, I have a big issue with focus breathing when shooting macro photos (Canon L series macro lens). Auto align doesn't cure the issue. I purchased a rail so that I could shift focus by moving the camera 1 mm at a time, rather than refocusing. That avoids focus breathing but the change in perspective from moving even one mm at a time between each photo in a series of shots of a macro subject is still so big as to screw up alignment of the photos when stacking. Any suggestions?
Thanks Mark. This was definitely helpful and, as always, well-explained. My question is, how do you decide what Fstop to use when focus stacking? What factor(s) play into your decision? Thanks again.
I also watched your previous video on Focus staking
And like any other video this video is must be filled with tones of amazing informations thanks you.......
Thanks so much Sayan🙏
Thanks for the info and tips. You always put something in that I didn’t think about. I hadn’t thought about the light moving so quickly when stacking.
Glad to do it and thanks for checking it out!
Thank you Mark - lots of helpful information here!
Thanks for watching Lisa!
Over the past few weeks I have been practicing focus stacking and now getting the hang go it. Your tips in this video will help me improve my focus stacking technique. Thanks
Glad to hear it Grahame!
useful! thanks
Another good one! I think you should have covered aperture settings when you focus stack. Should you use the lenses "sweet spot" typically somewhere around f/4 - f/8 giving the sharpest images or should you stop down to the "famous" landscape aperture of f/11 giving more depth of field? I'm really interested in your preferences. Thanks.
I'm really impressed with how you explain, just keep working the channel is brutally good!!!
Thanks so much!
Great video Mark. I seem to have the best success manually blending my focus stacks. I always seem to choose a comp with a gently moving flower or fern. Then I struggle layering my shots together. Fun times.
Haha! Indeed - PS really struggles with auto blending water so I end up manually blending as well!
This is a very very well made video. Thanks for sharing.
I'm glad you think so!
Excellent video, Mark! As a landscape and product photographer, I've used "manual" focus stacking with great success with my small product photography. However, using the Nikon Z7's in-camera "Focus Shift Shooting" mode, (with camera on a solid tripod, using AF, of course, manual exposure and in AF-S mode, and the ultra-sharp Nikkor S 50 f/1.8 at f/8), when I set the first exposure's focus point on the nearest point of the subject (or bottom, if a vertical subject like a beer bottle) and set it for 25 or 35 shots, with a Focus Step Width of 5, Interval until next shot of 3, First frame exposure lock ON, Peaking Stack image OFF, Silent Photography ON (unless using flash), and Start. I find that the focus point did not travel "up" or through the subject as expected, thus invariably resulting in areas of unsharpness! Not sure what I'm missing here, but I would think that in a controlled studio environment, this function should work as well as my manual focus stacking does! Thanks, and be safe!
Loved the demo on the example of camera shake. Brilliant
Hahha! Thanks!
Mark, Thomas and Anthony. My three favorite photographers on youtube. Keep up the great work Mark.
Much appreciated- thank you!
Since I started watching your videos I found my photography is getting pretty much better thanks for all the tricks and tips helped me a lot wheather I'm out in the feild or behind the mac.
This is awesome to hear - appreciate you letting me know!
Great video and tips! First, I'd love to see a video explaining how to use hyperfocal distance with modern lenses (if you can use it). really, that should guide us in determining how many shots we need in a stack. Second, a question on your last bit about manually checking your stack. I saw when you clicked off your first image, that some patches of sky showed as part of the mask. Why did you let PS pick a spot in the back of the picture to include in the mask for the part of the stack where you focused in the very front?
Thanks for posting these videos they have been very helpful. One thing I struggle with is "Metering Mode" and "Focusing Mode". I'm a Canon user and for Metering Mode I have 4 choices, Evaluative Metering, Partial Metering, Spot Metering and Center Weighted Metering. For Focusing Mode I have the following choices; 1 AF Point, Zone AF, Large Zone AF and 45 point AF. With regards to shooting several frames for later Stacking what setting should I be using. Thanks in Advance, C.
very useful. just imagine one person somewhere a remote location of INDIA did tried to do focus stacking and left out with FOCUS GAP today and frustration culminated in....thanks for solution.
Hi Mark, Great video as always! As you know, many cameras now have automatic focus stacking features where you set your camera settings, select the nearest focus point, then select the number of shots to focus stack and the camera will select various focus points. Both intentionally and accidentally, I have used aperture priority on some of my focus stacks. When blending them automatically in Photoshop using the checkbox option "Seamless colors and tones," I have had good experience with the final result. Sometimes on high dynamic range images (e.g., a backlit sky at sunset), I have taken a second underexposed image of the infinity focused image to blend together in PS later. Have you had success with focus stacking images not shot on manual?
About the last (non-bonus) one, one feature that I really like about the Fuji X-T3 is the automatic focus bracket mode. You can set how many images to take, how large of a step there is between images, and even how long between each image is taken. You still have to process that many individual images, but when you're out there it really helps with speed and not having to potentially move your camera out of place ever so slightly.
I’ve had the xt3 for over a year now and still haven’t experimented with that. I need to change that soon - thanks for the reminder👍
Works great with macro shots on my X-T4!
Great advice once again and presented in an easy to understand way. You actually addressed my question I asked you a few months ago. Exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you Mark. A few light bulb moments there.
Glad to hear the video was helpful Johan!
I use focus stacking with HDR interleaving.
Great Video Mark, using Manual exposure is a great tip. Look forward to watching more of your videos. 😄
Many thanks Steve!
Very useful Mark, Many Thanks. I spotted mistakes I make sometimes as though I always shoot panos in manual unless it's in blue hour I have mostly shot Focus Stacked images in Aperture priority. guess if you have one of the fancy new mirrorless cameras that automatically do focus stacking it's simples!!
Very helpful thank you sir. Greetings from the Netherlands.
Great advice Mark and the bonus advice for focal stacking came at the best time for me as I'm going to try my first time at focus stacking this weekend as my 10-24mm fujifilm lens arrived today 😁 Once again your videos are truly appreciated mate 👍
Many thanks Shane! Enjoy the new lens - its a beaut!!
Great reminders here, Mark, especially the one about taking too many stacking shots is better than not enough. A little breeze here and there can certainly cause issues if you don't have a way to account for it.
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Thanks Robert! Glad to hear the video was useful!
Mark, As usual; a very informative and educational video. Presented in a way to easily understand. Well done.
Thanks Ralph!
The Olympus OM-D system has a built in Focus Stacking and a Focus Bracketing function. Sounds like that system would work better to resolve many of these issues. The only issue I have found with those is what focus differential to select.
very good !!
Another great video, Mark. Always enjoy your simple, no-nonsense, straight to the point delivery on a range of topics.
Many thanks Kelen!
@@MarkDenneyPhoto I'm curious, casting aside the additional time required, potential focus gaps, and impact on exposure, do you think you end up with a sharper focused stacked image using, for example, 10 or more shots at a wider aperture versus 2 or 3 at a narrow aperture? In other words, do you think you can achieve a better in focus image using more of the sum of its parts vs. less. My guess is the differences, if even distinguishable, are trivial at most. Just curious if you've considered this at all?
Thanks for this great video. Is very useful because I've tried focus stack only with some macro, but now I want to use it on landscape photos.
Thanks for checking it out Riccardo!
Very good video, thank you!
Thanks Patrick!
Haha, I wish I saw this last year. Its wild to think about how much valuable content we will never know existed.
Good rule of thumb to help focus. The object you focus on is going to have 1/3rd focus in foreground and 2/3 in background of the object you focus on. So you could focus around 1/3 in and see if you have full focus to determine if you need to focus stack
Great presentation as always. Have always wondered whether there's an easy way to combine HDR and focus stacking without having hundreds of images?
Thank you Mark as usual for this video!
Thanks for checking it out Andrea!
You and others photographers helped me to switch from Canon to Fuji! Actually I didn’t switched yet but I will do next days...greetings from Italy!
Something new to practice!!
Great job, Mark...always appreciate your insights and teaching style!
I actually watched this video when it first came out and applied it, with great success, while shooting with a D7500.
I have now changed ("upgraded", "downgraded", "lateral movement", depending on one's point of view) to a Nikon Z5. That has the nifty "focus shift shooting" feature in the menu.
I'm curious as to your take and experience with this feature. While manually doing things the "old fashioned" way is a more ingrained process at this point, and makes one less dependent on technology, what, in your expertise, are the plusses and minuses of letting the camera do it for you instead?
Maybe you can address this in a future video with some suggestions for settings? There are numerous options within the sub menu, like number of shots, focus shot width (narrow to wide), interval to next shot and whether you should save those stacked shots in the main folder (along with any other non-stacked shots) or in a separately named folder in the card file system.
Lastly, I was (initially) led to believe that the camera created a finished photo, "in camera", from all the combined shots. However, it appears that these stacked photos STILL need to be processed in PS/LR or one's photo editor of choice, correct?
Great video, super useful, superb content as always. I struggle a lot with focus stacking trees, especially when it's windy. The moving leafs cause a lot of trouble when blending the images, there is a lot of ghosting and the inbuilt Photoshop anti-ghosting can often not handle it properly. Do you have any tips for this issue?
I have watched your clips for a couple weeks, The way you explain things is very easy to follow along. Thanks a lot.
Are you doing Post process in Ps and Ls online? or Are you selling Post process tutorial to download? I am going to have one. Cheers
Amazing video again!!!
Really appreciate it!
Thanks again Mark! Would it be a mistake to use the camera's focus bracketing instead of choosing focus points manually? Also, no one seems to know: on my Panasonic camera, the focus bracketing setting asks how many "steps" per image (between 1 and 10 I think), what is this number measured in? I know that a higher number varies the focus more per image, but what is this number measured in? Meters, feet, stops, percent, etc?
Great video as usual. I don’t know if it’s a software feature that’ll be available for the XT3 but I know in the XT4 it’s got a focus bracketing feature which looks good and would help solve some of those fails. Especially adding camera shake and when you need to be quick.
... and when you're shooting macro.
Nice video Mark.
Thank ya Carlos!
Great lesson!
Thanks Erich!
Excellent information...slowly getting addicted to your video..
Thanks so much!!
Greta tips!!
Great points to avoid Mark and definetely will make me more confident . Thank you and have a wonderful weekend. You always "Rock!", Mark.
Much appreciated Anuja! Enjoy your weekend as well!
@@MarkDenneyPhoto Thank you Mark.
Thanks for the video! I just ordered the new Canon R5 that has automatic focus stacking where you can choose the total exposures, the focus increment, and exposure smoothing. It will not merge images in camera but it sounds like it will make the process much easier and you don't have to worry about inadvertently moving the camera during the manual stacking process. Cant wait to try it!
I heard about that! Curious how well it works - based off of everything I’ve heard about the R5, it’ll work great👍
My Lumix GH5 and G9 cameras have focus bracketing, shooting a selectable number of photographs at different focus points. Very useful indeed.
These tips answer some of the struggle I have with focus stack. One question remain open to me. How do I focus stack when I also have to braket exposure? For example sunrise with cloud in Background and rock formation in fore ground. Do I expose background and fore ground differently or blend exposure of two focus stack exposure? Thank again for the video and have a good day.
When I'm in that situation I create an exposure bracket for each section of my scene that I'm focus stacking. You're left with a ton of images, but the result will usually work very well.
Mark, thank you for the excellent tips! I have a question: is it better to exposure bracket AND focus stack at the same time, or is it better to simply use a graduated ND filter and just use focus stacking when making a landscape photo?
Granted, on the first one, you could use two different exposure times to brighten shadows and make more dramatic skies like in a mountain scenery when the sky and ground are at different exposures naturally to manually enhance dynamic range.
Hi Mark
As usual this is a great video that you created on focus stacking. I’m going to go ahead and try out some of your techniques.
Thank you.
Pat Hogarty from El Dorado hills California.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Pat!
Good stuff and cool t-shirt