Focus merging images

Shooting tips

• For best alignment, the images will want to be acquired with the camera on a tripod or some form of stabilization.
• Keep your exposure settings (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance) identical between shots to produce a consistent result.
• Some cameras have a focus bracketing feature, which takes a burst of shots, changing the focus distance for each shot.
• Your focus differential (how much the focus changes between each shot) should depend on the type of photography. Macro photography will typically need a narrower differential, and more shots, to ensure front-to-back sharpness. Landscape or wide-angle photography can have a wider differential and fewer shots (e.g., shots focused at foreground, hyperfocal and infinity distances).

Benefits of focus merging

The benefits are:

• Increased depth of field for macro photography whilst being able to use larger apertures. This avoids having to use smaller apertures (e.g., f/16) where diffraction may become an issue and produce a soft image.
• Ensuring front-to-back sharpness with landscape photography. While hyperfocal distances typically result in a large area of the scene being in focus, focus merging can be used for more difficult scenarios, such as elements close to the lens that may not be covered by the hyperfocal distance.