Tag: focus bracketing

Canon R5 Mirrorless — Focus Stacking

Here’s another test of the Canon R5’s focus stacking. My more detailed post on Focus Stacking for Focus Bracketing can be found here.

Blend of 10 images merged together in Photoshop to get the entire set of blooms in focus.
  • First photo in the series of Focus Bracketing. Notice the focus point is on the front flowers. Click through the series and you’ll see the focus point change to different flowers.
  • Second photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • Third photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 4th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 5th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 6th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 7th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 8th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 9th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s small.
  • 10th photo in the series. Notice the change in focus? It’s now on the back bloom at the bottom.

Here’s a view of my menu setting for this series of photos.

Canon, Olympus, and other mirrorless systems have focus stacking. Here’s my review of focus stacking using Olympus.

So far, the Canon R5 has impressed me with its focus bracketing. I can’t wait to get out and work with it on different subjects.

Have you worked with Focus Stacking or Focus Bracketing on your camera? Results? I’d love to hear from you.

Canon R5 Mirrorless — Focus Stacking or Bracketing

Photographers have fought against depth-of-field since the beginning. To get more depth of field, we have to use a smaller aperture and that means a slower shutter speed. It’s just the way photography works.

For years, we’ve been able to take photos of a subject, focus in different places, and then blend those photos later to increase our depth-of-field. Then about 10 years ago camera manufacturers started putting focus stacking in the camera. Today, Canon calls it focus bracketing in the Canon R5.

To activate focus bracketing on the R5, go to Shooting Menu 5. The menu then offers options such as how many photos to take and how far to focus into the scene.

A little icon shows on the shooting screen while Focus Bracketing is active. Push the shutter button and the camera rapidly fires a series of photos. It doesn’t blend the photos in camera but provides the RAW files for blending later. I use Photoshop to do my blending. (Instructions are below.)

  • 10 photos taken with Focus Bracketing on the Canon R5. Notice how the focus moves from bird to bird as I hold the camera and
  • Finished focus bracket of the pictures above.
  • My before picture of the same scene. Taken at f/11 but notice the out-of-focus birds at the bottom of the picture.

Notice the tiny imperfections in the photo on the left. Look closely at the tails. See the little blue highlights? That’s where the birds moved their tails. Focus bracketing doesn’t work well on moving subjects.

My instructions for blending a focus bracket (1) Open all the photos in Photoshop in a Layer. In Bridge, highlight the photos then select Tools>Photoshop>Load Files into Photoshop Layers. In Lightroom, highlight the photos then select Photo>Edit In>Open in Layers in Photoshop; (2) Select all the photos once they are in the Layers Pallette; (3) Select Edit>Auto Align; (4) Select Edit>Auto Blend, (5) Select Layer>Flatten.

  • Here’s a focus bracket of a laughing gull with other shorebirds. Notice that the three birds are in focus.
  • Same shot without focus bracketing. Notice that the third bird is out-of-focus.

I suggest you focus a bit closer than needed for your first photo of the series. That way you get some foreground in focus.

Have you tried focus stacking or focus bracketing? Success?