Mono Monday-Pure Transition

I spent a little bit of the day trying out the new focus stacking function on my camera. The camera takes eight shots each with a different focus point. Three of the shots in front of the focus point I choose and four of them behind it. It then blends those images together to give a final image. It took two or three seconds to complete the whole process. The depth of field of this final image is much greater than I could achieve taking a single image at an aperture of f2.8. 

The image I’ve posted is manually focussed by me at an aperture of f16 to achieve a greater depth of field. The shutter speed needed for this small aperture was 15 seconds and the camera took another 15 seconds to process the image. I couldn’t have achieved this without a tripod whereas I could conceivably have achieved the focus stack hand held. 

I think the manually focussed shot is the best image (extra is the focus stack) but I’ve been doing this kind of shot for a long time so I know how to set it up and how to set the camera. It’s early days yet and I haven’t really found a situation where the focus stack would be the best way to achieve a better image but at least I know how to use it if I need it. 

The new camera update also gives me the facility to take up to 99 focus bracketed shots which can then be blended together in software.I don’t have the right software at the moment but that will be my next play session as soon as I’ve sussed that out. Any suggestions for software gratefully received.

I hope these new clematis leaves fit the mm challenge. I bet those new leaves are really glad of their lovely fur coats at the moment.