Tag Archives: focus stack

Focus Stacking the Lily Pond

A walk in Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle took us by one of the ponds that is covered in lilies.  Unlike when I was in Juanita Bay, this pond allowed me to get down to water level.  This provided a far more interesting perspective across the pond to the trees behind.  It did put me very close to the foreground elements so I focused stacked some shots to provide a deeper focused range across the shot.  I far prefer the lower angle as it really emphasizes the foreground elements in a way that isn’t possible when higher up.

Beetle on the Acer

Walking through the backyard, I noticed a colorful looking beetle on one of the branches of our Japanese maple.  Did I shoo it off?  Of course not.  I ran to get the camera instead.  The bug flipped around the branch as I returned and was showing its underside instead which was not what I wanted.  I got a shot or two just in case and then waited to see if it would turn over again.  Thankfully, it did and I was able to get something closer to the shot that I had originally envisaged.

Focus Stack Animation

In some previous posts I showed the results of experimenting with focus stacking.  In those posts, I would combine one of the individual shots with the finished effort to show how shallow the depth of field could be on individual shots and how deep the focus was on the final image.  I was pondering whether this was an effective way of communicating the concept to someone when it occurred to me that animation might be a better way.  I created a new stack of images for a different subject but this time I used Photoshop to animate the movement of the point of focus through the shot and then show the final image.  This can then be an animated GIF.  I wonder, does this provide a better demonstration?