How and Why I Focus Bracket my Fungi Photography

In this video I walk you through the focus bracketing process that I use for my fungi and close up photography. I take you through the manual process with a Laowa 100mm 2x Ultra Macro APO and the in-camera focus shift shooting option on my Nikon D850 with a Sigma 105mm f/2.8, while discussing why I choose to bracket my images.

For those interested in the specific gear used in this video, I will leave the appropriate links below! Thank you for watching and I will see you next time.

Nikon D850 Camera Body:

Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO Lens:

Sigma 105mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro and Gear
1:39 Manually Bracketing
4:15 Why focus bracketing?
5:24 In-camera bracketing + how many photos do I need?
9:40 Difficulties and process wrap up.
11:32 Whoops!

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Music used in this video is sourced at Epidemic Sound. Sign-up here for a 30-day free trial and access to huge libraries of sound and music with no license worries.

#focusbracketing #nikond850 #macrophotography #fungi

[BornIn]

A good tip is before starting a focus bracket take a photo of your hand, then at the end of the shot take a photo of your hand. It just means when you get back to base and focus stack you can see what shots belong to each stack.

[andybusard]

Yoshida it twice-- "stacketing" - brilliant! The new name for the complete process. Stacking + bracketing. I love it!

[Revup]

I recently adopted a new technique for landscape images. I dial in 1 sec of exposure delay, switch on the interval timer with 5 second intervals, then add 3 image exposure bracketing and 6 image focus stacking, depending on the light I might also bracket the ISO and white balance. I call my new technique 'Timeterval Deposed Isobalanced Bocus Stackering'. The images are crap, but at least I get to use all the in camera functions I paid for! Love the technique videos BTW.

[HurleyDeanSandpointIdaho]

I can't tell you how much I enjoy your videos. Very informative. Hi from Sandpoint, Idaho USA

[tomhaymes]

Very interesting. Would love to see your post-processing work with those images.

[welshsteve]

‘Stacketing’ @6:29 made me chuckle. This should be a real term 🤣

[TheRifleBrigade]

It was nice to say hello to you at the Photography Show on the Vanguard stand, I find your videos very calming and professional as you sell the art of photography beautifully.

[polyvg]

One of the most watchable "how to" videos I have seen. Excellent and very human narration, explanations, and the reality of bloomin' rain, cold, kicking leaves and all the rest of fungi photography. Thank you.

From the early days of digital photography - the first (or maybe second?) camera we used was a Canon S10 back in 1999. 2.11 megapixels.Came with an 8 MB CF card!

Storage capacity and battery life were severe limits in absolute number of photos we could take. And bracketing was unthinkable.

Strictly for fun. A lot of it was a way of more deeply enjoying the woodland in the area. And many of the photos were just as a personal record and to try to identify the fungi. Got several thousand viewable photos - and many more thousand so bad they were immediately deleted.

[markustappeser]

Hello Courtney, first I'd like to say it's always a joy to see you films.
Me personally started with macro 1, 5 years ago, by buying an macro lens. When I saw how small the depth of field is, i decided to buy focusing rack (Novoflex Castel-Q, not cheap but very well built) and I must say I have never regret it.
It makes the stacking so much easier for static objects like yours.
Here my work flow:
1) i decide which aperture I wonna use, depends how blurry i want to get the background.
2) according to the aperture and the distance I check, with a app, the depth of field so I know the length of steps i use at the rail. I use steps between 1/3 and 1/2 of the depth of field.
3) I set the settings in manual mode
4) with the focus peaking mode I can check the start and end point I'd like to have in focus.

I take the fotographs and the rest are the work for the software. 😉

[jonkers]

Nice balance of technical and non-technical. I use a focus rail at home with the same macro lens you use, but in the field I use in-camera bracketing on a zoom lens with a close up filter attached. As you say, there are so many variables in the field that I want to expose the shots quickly. Btw, the rail I use is a Nisi, great quality and sensibly priced.

[GerardMackle]

Thank you so much for the explanation. You have a lovely, simple, and effective way of putting things that make it easy to understand. So yes, please, to other talks on lessons you want to share. I'm a definite starter for watching them. Regards, Gerard

[Rayzer]

Yes, love the more technical aspect, or how-to, videos and I tend to lean more towards this type of content. This was a great video, thank you!

[ryejack]

I really need to do this more often. I appreciate how "in the moment" you seem to be, slowing down and enjoying the process of getting the photos you want.

[Motorider]

Понятно и доходчиво всё рассказала. И сама девушка с красивой улыбкой 😁

[patrickmackay]

Nice !

If you buy a "smallrig" cage, you can leave your camera facing the right way (upright); when you put it upside down, everything gets complicated :)

[DominikMarczuk]

I haven't done macro since August. Today was the first time in months that I took my macro lens with me and went to a nearby forest. Most of my shots used focus bracketing. And then you release a video on what I did all morning. Impeccable timing!

[dalearnold]

I just recently subscribed to your channel. I truly enjoy watching the processes that you demonstrate and the fact that you also inject your personality into every video. I have been reading up on the method and now that I see it in practice, I feel more confident about doing it. Great job and keep on creating content!

[photosbyjosef]

Your videos are just great I can't believe I finally found this channel I wish I found it long ago
I'm a professional photographer in the architecture interior design real estate and construction world but for my personal work that does go into some galleries I would like to start including macro work I love doing it.
I thought it was great in the middle of your video when you were talking about Focus bracketing versus focus stacking and then eventually you slipped a word and called focus stacketing - you should run with that copyright and trademark it and eventually it'll end up in the Webster's world dictionary.
Love your work love your approach you teach very methodically and so easy to understand thank you thank you thank you

[ladle]

This was actually exactly the amount of detail I was looking for on stacking in macro. Thanks.

[denisesavage]

I think you just gave us a great photographic technical word in fotus . . . .