A Short Introduction to Focus Stacking

Hey everybody! Zig here!

Today I’d like to showcase an image I took on my recent trip to Mianus River Park and talk a bit about my process of retouching and focus stacking when shooting macro photography. It all starts out with a series of images and in this case, it’s a series of photographs I captured of a mushroom which I found growing on the side of a fallen log. Take a look at the images and notice how each has a different portion of the mushroom in focus, starting from the foremost edge of the mushroom and moving all the way to the back.

To capture these, I mounted my Nikon Z6 on a tripod, composited the image, and then used the “Focus Shift” feature that is built into the Nikon Z6. The way that focus stacking works is that focus on the foremost part of the object you want to photograph, take a photo, move the focus towards to the back while overlapping your first photograph slightly, and then repeating the process until you have captured enough “slices” that each contain a different piece of focus for the target image. The focus shift feature in the Nikon Z6 automates this process and made it very quick and easy to get the results that I wanted.

After I’ve taken the photos, I import everything into Lightroom and make all my processing adjustments to every image in the stack before exporting the full-sized JPEG files and opening them in Photoshop. What I specifically do is open the first image in the stack in Photoshop and then import and rasterize every other image in the stack into that same session. At this point, my layers look a bit like this;

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After this step, I select every layer in the layers tab and click on Edit > Auto-Align Layers and then choose to let Photoshop decide on the best way to automatically align them.

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Once Photoshop aligns every layer, I then go in and make any additional adjustments like the selective removal of focus from some of the layers or, if there are many images in the stack, more extremely out-of-focus areas to prevent potential ghosting when I merge everything in the next step. After I’m content with the layers in the stack, I then click Edit > Auto-Blend Layers and let Photoshop automatically merge everything together. The final image looks like this, with the expected result being that everything is in focus.

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This is a bit of a simplified breakdown of my process, but I hope that it gives the structure you would need to be able to repeat a similar process or implement it into your own workflow. I am always adjusting and improving the process as I learn some of the pit-falls of shooting macro photography and I am always open to hearing suggestions about how you might change or alter this style of processing and stacking!

I’ve only recently started to integrate this technique into my routine and I’ve already seen examples of photos where I would not want to keep everything in focus. However I think that focus stacking, and practicing taking multiple images with different depths of field, allows me to have the freedom and control I’m looking to get with my macro photography. It helps me capture the crisp, sharp edges that I like, as well as selectively keep things out-of-focus when I want to. Anyway, that’s all I have for today. I hope you have a great week shooting and I also hope that I was able to give a little insight into how I produce some of my macro images. I’ll see you all next week in another episode of the Shutter Button Podcast where I’ll be talking about formal education vs. deliberate practice, and my experience with finding a balance between both.

Thanks and all the best,

- Zig

Postcards!

Have you ever wanted to share your photography with friends and family in a cheap, easy, and physical medium? So did I! A few weeks ago. I had been looking for a way to materialize my work so that I could share my photography with my friends and family, aside from just giving them prints. I thought about several project ideas including calendars, greeting cards, and even photo books, but none of them seemed to get to the heart of what I wanted to do. I wanted a simple, personal way of sharing my work, and that’s when I stumbled upon the idea of printing postcards!

I’ve been a fan of printing my own work since earlier in the year when I purchased a Canon Pixma PRO 100 printer, as well as some fine art printing papers, but I had never attempted to print postcards before. My first step was to get some paper, but I definitely rushed when picking out my first batch of printing sheets. I did a quick lookup for postcard-sized (4”x6”) paper on Amazon and bought a cheap stack that seemed alright, but when I finally received it and did a few draft prints, I realized that I had made a very dumb mistake. I hadn’t bought coated paper and with every print, I was getting a very cheap-looking, low quality, blurry mess. I scrapped the stack and put it on my art shelf (in case I could find a future use for them) and I went back online to do some more research. I found a few recommended brands, but eventually settled on buying a stack of 50 sheets of postcard photo paper from Red River Paper Co. They arrived pretty quickly and in great packaging (much better than the sheets I bought from Amazon). Once I unboxed them, I got my printing gloves and I started testing right away!

I had to adjust my print settings a little bit because the color and brightness was a little off, but after some finetuning, I started seeing the results I had been looking for. The last thing I needed to do was print a postcard-y template on the backside so that I could write in addresses and a short message. I booted up photoshop and developed this quick template using example I found of other postcards on Google Images:

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Feel free to use this template for your own postcards!

After printing a couple of test prints, I realized that it’s better to print the backside with the template first before printing the photo itself because of possible damage along the edges, but after fitting that into my printing workflow, I started coming up with some great prints! Overall, I was very pleased with both the quality of the paper and the prints and I felt great knowing that I had learnt a new skill and service I could even provide to future clients of mine.

What about you? Have you printed your own postcards before or considered it? Do you have any other ideas about bringing your photos into “the real world?” If so, please feel free to leave them in the comments below! I’d love to hear from all of you!

Anyway, I’ll see you guys in the next post. Have an awesome week!

- Zig

A Short Introduction to Macro Photography

Hey everybody! It’s been some time since I’ve written a post! Major apologies, I hope to be doing them a little less infrequently and with more purpose so I’m looking forward to your comments in the coming months.

I’m writing today to talk to you about something I’ve been very passionate about in the last year or so, but I haven’t had the time or the platform to bring it up. That something is macro photography.

You may be thinking, “What exactly is macro photography? :thinking-emoji:” Well, you’ll be disappointed to hear that I won’t be going over any definitions, specifics, or technicalities in this post. Instead, I just want to touch on a few things to help showcase my ideas about macro photography. Please understand, that with photography (and any art form for that matter), views on a particular style/medium will vary greatly between artists and creators, so please don’t take this as the end all, be all of macro. Now, with that brief disclaimer out of the way, let’s dig in!

Macro in a Nutshell (Literally?)

So, let’s go back to that original question you might have had; “What exactly is macro photography?” Well, to keep it brief and easy to digest, let’s just say that macro photography is when we take a photograph of something veeeeery tiny and magnify it many times using special equipment. In even shorter terms, we zoom in…A LOT.

Styles, Subjects, and Standing Still

If you take a moment to look up the terms “Macro Photography” on Google images (or your preferred image-lookup service), you will be treated with a smörgåsbord of the more popular styles and subjects of macro photography. Things like; insects, flowers, and water droplets dominate the commercial scene. This is not everything that macro photography is or should be, but it’s good be acquainted with what types of work people get paid for. At the end of this post, I’ll describe the type of macro photography I practice and go over some of the styles I personally prefer, but for now, let’s just stick to what’s really popular in the macro world.

So we’ve seen a few examples of the two biggies; insects and flowers. Why do these two dominate the macro genre? I can think of a few good reasons, but I think everybody enjoys them for different reasons. Personally, I don’t think insects typically elicit an aura of personality, but when they’re scaled up, edited, and made the focus of a beautifully composited photograph, we are treated to an inside look at a story set in a world we rarely ever get to see. We get to see textures and colors of the world around us that we pass by on an everyday basis. We get to look into the eyes of a spider on its web, waiting to catch its prey. We can watch a group of worker ants hauling chunks of food back to their anthill. We see droplets of fresh, morning dew, glistening on the back of a rhinoceros beetle. These are all picturesque, interesting subects and I genuinely think that they are so popular because people love to get glimpses of the hidden worlds and stories all around us.

Fun fact: That’s actually why my brand is called “Hidden City Photos.” When I go out shooting in New York City, especially with the intent to capture some macro photographs, I look for all of the hidden, easily missable stories scattered across the sidewalk.

Now, insects are all and good, but what about flowers? Sure, they’re beautiful, but is that it? Yes and no. I think that flowers are one of the biggest macro subjects because of similar reasons as insects; they’re beautiful and we often don’t get a chance to really stop and look at them. You know that old, cheesy saying, “You need to learn to stop and smell the flowers.”? Macro photography gives people that chance to stop and, while they can’t actually sniff the flowers, they can at least see all the beautiful texture, symmetry, and color that macro photography can bring out of even the most bland houseplants. Floral photography is also a bit impersonal, but makes beautiful decor, which is a great selling point for clients looking to buy prints to hang on their walls or office spaces. Keep that in mind as you’re shooting to help pick subjects and styles that will appeal to a larger audience of buyers.

There’s also something that I hadn’t brought up yet, but it applies to many aspects of macro photography, as well as art in general. People love nature. It’s in our nature to stand in awe of sweeping vistas and decorate ourselves in floral patterns. Our connection to nature is an important one, and exercising that connection in different ways is a key part of being who we are. Macro photography (and specifically with natural subjects) is just another way of expressing that connection. Take some time to plug in different keywords in your image search and browse around to see what other popular styles and subjects of macro shooting are. I think this is a great exercise to help develop your own taste and style because you will instinctively start picking out the specific pieces of photographs that you like and might want to bring into your own work.

Abstract Adventures

So, we’ve talked a bit about what macro is and what’s popular in the market right now, but I haven’t really spoken too much about the macro photography I do! I personally LOVE abstract and fine art photography. To be a bit more specific and down-to-earth, I love geometry, shapes, shadows, and interesting lighting. On a subject-level, I enjoy seeing architecture, urban scenes, and industrial textures. These are just a few of the things I try to keep an eye out for when I’m doing a day of shooting, but I think they’re the most important ones to watch for. There are subtler things that are easy to miss, but I think if you’ve got an eye on the lighting sitution and you’re constantly looking for new subjects, then you’ll be able to produce a wide variety of photographs you can take back home with you.

You can view a small, active portfolio here to see some samples of my own work.

My workflow usually involves five steps;

1. Scouting

   Picking a location to work with for the day, as well as any specific subjects I might want to pay extra attention to.

2. Shooting

   I usually approach each subject indvidually and work with it using various angles/viewpoints/etc. before moving on to the next.

3. Processing

   This is the importing/metadata/flagging step, which I will be talking about at a future date when I talk about Lightroom and its various workflows.

4. Editing

   This is very subjective and I approach every photograph differently, but generally I will go through all of the photos I’ve picked and adjust correctly for exposure/sharpness/composition before moving onto tones/moods/styles.

5. Producing

   This is the final step where I actually prepare each edited photograph for release either by my website or onto my Instagram @HiddenCityPhotos. I have to consider cropping limits, photo groups, and more for each app/website/device I’ll be posting my image to.

Now, this is a very barebones outline of my general workflow (and I’m sure many photographers might agree or disagree about the order or specifics or even missing/alternative steps), but I hope it gives some insight into how I approach a photowalk and the editing sessions, thereafter.

Closing Thoughts

In summary, I hope I was able to give a little more insight into the world of macro photography and perhaps inspire someone else to “take the leap” and start having fun with macro styles. Thankfully, it’s fairly inexpensive to get started with the very basics, and while there are some caveats to shooting macro, specifically, I think it’s a fun way to explore your abstract and story-telling skills! You can test yourself against some difficult/unusual subjects in ways you wouldn’t have thought of before and you might even find yourself shooting your typical subjects differently as a result!

So good luck, and I hope to see you all around very soon! Perhaps, in a future post, I’ll start exploring some techniques I use when I’m out shooting my own macro photography.

Until next time, happy shooting!

James Z.