What I didn't realize, though, is just how powerful this tool can be for certain purposes. I'm new to focus stacking in general, and assumed it was meant to bring as much of an image into focus as desired, while allowing for wider apertures in order to not worry about softness due to diffraction limiting while stopped-down. With this firmware upgrade, Olympus has brought not only focus bracketing to the E-M1 but in-camera focus stacking as well, letting the camera take the focus sequence and then do all the laborious stacking work for you!įocus Stacking "level 5" is my favorite setting from this first batch, as seen below. (In a way, it's kind of like shooting with a range of different exposures and then stacking those in post for a classic HDR look.)įor several years now many cameras have handled HDR stacking "in-camera", saving you the trouble of going through the motions after the fact. It's a matter of taking the in-focus areas from each shot and bringing them all together in a single image. Focus bracketing is a well-known photographic technique by which you take shots at multiple focus points and then "stack" them in post-processing after the fact to increase the total depth of field. (Scroll on down if you'd rather see the 6 sample images first!)Īs macro shooters know, depth of field becomes extremely shallow at macro distances which can make it difficult if not impossible to keep a 3D subject entirely in focus, even when the lens is fully stopped-down for maximum DOF (that's why you'll often see macro lenses with tiny minimum apertures of f/32). This feature is versatile enough to warrant a more in-depth article on the subject, but I couldn't wait to load up the new firmware and take a few shots for a quick post. Olympus recently released a major firmware upgrade for both their flagship E-M1 as well as their enthusiast-grade E-M5 II camera, and both got a whole host of cool new features including focus bracketing, but the E-M1 was the only OM-D to receive in-camera focus stacking. Wake up with IR! Here's today's cup of Caffeine Priority.
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