Focus stacking is a computational photography technique where multiple images at different focus distances are combined to increase depth of field.  This enables much more of a subject to be in focus than with a single exposure.  I’ve written about this before.  Please read that article for background on the methods and software used.

Normally you would set things up and carefully vary the focus or the distance to the subject by very small amounts using a focusing rail or else by very carefully changing the manual focus of your lens.

Knockout Rosebud

For this photo, I wanted to try something a little different.  I placed the rosebud in front of my tripod mounted camera and used the touch screen to control the focus point and trigger the shutter.  I had the self timer on a 2 second delay to prevent any motion due to my touches.  It was a simple matter to point at various portions of the flower until there were enough photos for the depth of field I wanted.  Then I used the focus stacking ability in Photoshop to blend the images together.

I think that a touchscreen is very useful for this type of photography.  What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
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