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Professional nature photographers caution that you don’t want a final image that shows the entire insect’s body in focus. Then, maybe the eyes and if they are large, then you may need two different images, focusing on the front of the eyes and their furthest surface from the camera. Your next image could be the features at the front of the head: mouthparts or fine hairs. For example, you could focus on whatever part of the insect is furthest in front of its body, either its front legs or antenna.

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Once you have control of the conditions, you’ll then want to plan the series of images you need for focus stacking.

Many of the best nature macro-photographers will recommend that you shoot in the shade and/or even erect a temporary blind or use a tent, so the light is more diffused, wind or even the slightest breeze doesn’t move the insect and it’s less likely to fly to another location. That’s why this type of photography takes such practice and perseverance. You may have to shoot a number of insects before one remains perfectly still during the time it takes to record those multiple images. Add the possibility of the light changing even just a bit and it might seem like an impossible task. Of course, shooting multiple images of the insect without it moving slightly or to another perch is quite a challenge. For example, your subject is a tiny insect. Once you’ve uploaded the images into Helicon Focus, it easily stacks them into a single image with exactly as much or as little depth of field you desire.īefore Helicon Focus can do its job, you must first capture that series of images.

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Focus stacking is the combination of multiple images of the same subject or scene you’ve shot at different focus points, using the Helicon Focus software application during post-production. There is a solution, however, and that is the concept of focus stacking – and the tool that makes focus stacking easy is Helicon Focus from HeliconSoft. The result is that only a very narrow sliver of the subject is in focus because you’ve essentially reached the limit of your camera and lens. You’re forced to use a large telephoto lens with greater focal length and very small aperture openings, but that only creates an even shallower depth of field, which is exactly the opposite of what you want if your subject is a flower or tiny insect. Once you’re interests turn to macro or product photography, however, depth of field isn’t so controllable. You attach a smaller telephoto lens for portraits or a much larger telephoto lens for sports and action and select a large aperture…and you’ve taken command of depth of field. The correct depth of field for these types of images are within the capabilities of your camera and lenses and it doesn’t require much learning and practice on your part to produce the depth of field you want. Sports and action photography also requires a blurred background, so athletes don’t blend into the crowd behind them, losing the effect of their movement or the winning moment. You want the perfect bokeh effect in portraits to give photos more dimensionality, so the subject pops from the background. For many types of photographs, the goal is to control depth of field and create a good balance between the background and the primary subject or object.

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