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Choice of Aperture for Focus Stacking
The choice of aperture varies with the goal:
- A “short stack” with the goal of sharpness over a relatively narrow range may be shot at f/2 or f/2.8 or even f/1.4 so as to retain background blur—for example a macro shot of a flower in which one wishes all the background to be pleasingly blurred. This will necessarily increase the number of frames (and thus the work factor).
- For classic landscape images and similar, the typical goal is sharpness from a few feet away to the far distance—everything as sharp as possible. The use of f/9 or so is a good choice for full-frame cameras, depending on focal length and the distance range; see the various examples.
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- Eases into photographic challenges with an introductory section.
- Covers aspects of digital sensor technology that relate to getting the best image quality.
- Technique section discusses every aspect of making a sharp image handheld or on a tripod.
- Depth of field and how to bypass depth of field limitations via focus stacking.
- Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
- MTF, field curvature, focus shift: insight into the limitations of lab tests and why imaging performance is far more complex than it appears.
- Optical aberrations: what they are, what they look like, and what to do about them.
- How to test a lens for a “bad sample”.
Intrigued? See Focusing Zeiss DSLR Lenses For Peak Performance, PART ONE: The Challenges, or (one topic of many) field curvature.
Focus-stacked image, 3 frames
NIKON D810 + Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 APO-Distagon
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