Thursday, May 28, 2026
By Mike Moats Photography
Many of my images I post are of subjects with everything in focus and sharp, and I always get people asking if the image was focus stacked.
If you are shooting close-ups you will get everything in focus using the lenses highest f/stops.
Why would you want to shoot a group of many images at different focus points throughout the subject, then have to download however number of images you shot into a program and have that program merge all the images together getting the whole subject in focus, when you can get the same results with one shot at f/32 (or if your lens stops at f/22) with one shot.
And you are going to say, because you will get diffraction (a soft image) shooting at the highest f/stops.
Not a problem, you just have to sharpen the image in post processing.
If the background behind your subject is cluttered, position a printed background behind the subject and shoot as high an f/stop as you want.
Been working for me for 21 years since I started digital photography.
Not only do you have to deal with shooting all those images, if you are shooting outside you have to pray no wind moves your subject.
Total waste of time.
When would I use focus stacking? If I was shooting in very high magnification (maybe 3:1 or higher) where the depth of field shrinks down to almost nothing.
But since I never shoot high magnification, I'll never have to worry about that.
This flower shot was one where I got tons of people asking if it was focus stacked. Nope, shot at, f/32, 1/100sec, ISO800, very simple.
Sharpened in Smart Photo Editor