Originally posted by Sir Nameless Finally, here's my procedure for focus stacking with my DA35 macro, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time or mess up some detail and have to go back and re-shoot the stack.
1. Set up the camera on a tripod with remote shutter release and two second delay.
2. Set the camera at ISO 200, f/8, and aperture priority exposure. Set white balance with a white or gray card.
3. Compose the shot at the closest focus distance (ie with the nearest detail in focus). Due to focus breathing the scene will zoom out as your focus further away.
4. Take a test shot with the furthest detail in focus that you want in focus. Check that the background is sufficiently blurred. If not, open the aperture and take test shots until satisfied with the background blur. The best range is f/5.6-8, with the best overall sharpness at f/8.
5. Return the focus to the closest detail you want to be in focus.
6. Meter for exposure then switch to manual exposure to lock settings.
Take a series of shots starting with the closest detail and progressing outward. To do this you’ll be turning the focus ring on your 35 mm macro in a clockwise direction as you’re facing the rear of the camera.
Finally, I stack with 16-bit tiffs for best quality, but I'm not stacking that many files. If you're into the 100's do yourself a favor and stack jpegs.
That's about all I know. Good luck and happy shooting!
Sir Nameless, thanks for the detailed focus stacking procedure and your photos are fantastic! Your steps for shooting are pretty much the same as what I do. I use Lightroom and Photoshop for my processing and have always used the RAW files. I will have to try converting to tiffs first. Since this thread was going, I decided to do a shot today and process it. This one is a stack of 9 images with no touch ups. I see a handful of places that didn't come out quite right, and probably could have benefitted with a few more shots. However, I can probably touch up a few of them. The lens was the Pentax FA 50mm f2.8 macro.