The Spring Mountains

Overread · Nov 17, 2008

it would depend on how the stacked shots work together if you had clear separate areas (lets say background of a mountain and foreground plain desert sand) then you could have different lighting on the mountains to the foreground - however if they areas overlapped in any way you could get problems; say one section of mountain leading into the dessert area and you then went to combine the two with different lighting - the area of mountain in the dessert section could look out of place with different lighting to the mountains behind.

Its definatly something that you could experiment with - also combineZM I belive is free - or has a freeware edition and several people use that to combine photos - the key is making sure that framing remains the same and the you don't leave out a section of focus (done that and it looks strange in the end result)

abraxas · Nov 17, 2008

Overread said:
it would depend on how the stacked shots work together if you had clear separate areas (lets say background of a mountain and foreground plain desert sand) then you could have different lighting on the mountains to the foreground - however if they areas overlapped in any way you could get problems; say one section of mountain leading into the dessert area and you then went to combine the two with different lighting - the area of mountain in the dessert section could look out of place with different lighting to the mountains behind.

Its definatly something that you could experiment with - also combineZM I belive is free - or has a freeware edition and several people use that to combine photos - the key is making sure that framing remains the same and the you don't leave out a section of focus (done that and it looks strange in the end result)

I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Shooting for stacking would just be changing the aperture?- Starting with f/?? Or does it have to do with focus or both?

Overread · Nov 17, 2008

its based on adjusting the focus rather than the aperture - when I have tried it with macro I keep the camera totally static as well as the subject - then I select a wide aperture - shoot, and then move the focus point a tiny bit, making sure to keep part of it overlaped with the frame I just shot and then shoot again. That way you build a series of images with different points of focus, but with the same settings (so idealy lighting will be the same for all - makes eidting quicker) then you combine them together with either the software or manually with a layermask and brush.

matt-l · Nov 17, 2008

Great shot, wonderful job!!

abraxas · Nov 17, 2008

Overread said:
its based on adjusting the focus rather than the aperture - when I have tried it with macro I keep the camera totally static as well as the subject - then I select a wide aperture - shoot, and then move the focus point a tiny bit, making sure to keep part of it overlaped with the frame I just shot and then shoot again. That way you build a series of images with different points of focus, but with the same settings (so idealy lighting will be the same for all - makes eidting quicker) then you combine them together with either the software or manually with a layermask and brush.

I'm going to try some shots out tomorrow. Seems to me though that for landscapes a smaller aperture would be better.