Focus stacking is a technique that involves merging multiple photographs of the same subject taken at different focus distances. It takes the areas of each photograph that are in focus and merges them together to create a composite image with a depth of field that might be impossible to achieve with a single exposure. This technique is particularly useful for macro photography where the depth of field is extremely shallow, or landscape photography where even the smallest apertures may not be enough to capture detail in both the foreground and background.

Focus Stacking vs. Single Exposure

Individual Exposures

I used a total of of 6 exposures for this test, manually changing the focus from the foreground to the background for each exposure. Images were then processed using Helicon Focus.