affinity photo A Focus-Merged image via Affinity Photo

[stevelink]

This image of the Patagonia Logo was created from 18 separate 26MB jpgs, each taken with a Fuji X-T3 ( on a solid tripod, at1/250sec), a Fujinon XF80mm f/2.8 Macro at f/8, and a Godox AD200 strobe at 1/2 power (with barndoors) bounced off a 10' white ceiling. After the merge in Affinity, I save and export as a .tif. Some final post-processing and file reduction is done in photoshop, prior to publication on my site at www.totalqualityphoto.com. Affinity Photo works flawlessly with my iMac. Thank you!  

[John Rostron]

With images such as this, I often ask: what was the depth of the subject matter, and why were so many component images necessary.? I must say that the coat and label are in nice sharp focus, but what would it have looked like with a single image at f/8?

Having asked this question of others, there is usually some very good reason for the multiple exposures!

John

[unni]

Good image with bright and contrasting colours and a softer edge region. As John mentioned,single image could also be almost covering the area of interest with good sharpness because the subject seems to be in a single plane. While shooting with microscope objective,I have noticed about 25 microns dof for a 5x objective but my 90mm Tamron macro gives much more at f8. If we examine focusmerged exposure at 400% or more some artifacts will be visible in certain areas. This can be painted out from layers but needs lot of time and patience. Comparing the final image with each of the 18 shots will give good insight into how optimisation can be done . One way is to select alternate images and do another stack. John, I have been doing lesser of photo editing over the last couple of months due to a sudden revival of my music hobby! Trying to learn fingerstyle guitar. Touching the acoustic guitar after 25 years. It's also a hobby and I have never learned guitar or music from a teacher. Internet is useful and I could complete learning Scarborough fair from the website learnguitarinlondon.com . 

[unni]

Just checked Steve's website and the about page. You are a professional with decades of experience, great! Well, I am a hobbyist with very little hands on experience and diy resources. So my ideas and inputs may not work for pro use !

[stevelink]

Unni, thanks for the kind words. John, to answer your question, if I shot this as a single exposure at f8, sure, it would be relatively sharp at the point of focus (the Patagonia Logo). However, it would have been “soft” in comparison to the focus-stacked image, because rather than have a single focus point, I have 18! Short of using a view camera with its tilts/swings expanding the plane of focus, in terms of image Sharpness and detail, this was the best I could do with the APS-C sensor camera. Thanks for the comments!