Focus Stacking Panoramas

[Hani Draye]

Hi
Has anyone tried using Focus Stacking when taking panos?

Hani Draye - هاني الدريعي
https://riyadh.photo Https://Riyadhkey.com

[Hani Draye]

I just tried it

Stacked (Nikon 16-35mm f4)
http://riyadhkey.com/panos/sara1?ivs

Hyper focal distance (Nikon 16mm f8)
riyadhkey.com/panos/sara2?ivh

What do you think please?

Hani Draye - هاني الدريعي
https://riyadh.photo Https://Riyadhkey.com

[Hani Draye]

Is stacked foucus for panos a good ides?
I tried it and here are the results :

Stacked (Nikon 16-35mm f4)
http://riyadhkey.com/panos/sara1?ivsm

Hyper focal distance (Nikon 16mm f8)
riyadhkey.com/panos/sara2?ivhm

What do you think please?

Hani Draye - هاني الدريعي
https://riyadh.photo Https://Riyadhkey.com

[Gabriel Acoca]

Hello Hani,

It seems that no one comes here, or answer here …
May I suggest you to ask this question at the Facebook Page of 360 Photographers :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/panoramicphotographers/

Think there will be answers.

Anyway, I had the same idea as you, and done it using a 25 mm, and Helicon focus … the subject wasn’t very interesting and don’t show a large scale of distances ( my desk room ), but I think that it will be interesting, and your example show that.

Have a good day,

Gabriel.

http://www.gabrielacoca.fr

http://www.gabrielacoca.fr

[Jürgen Schrader]

That’s not a kind of panorama where focus stacking makes sense at all and particularly not at 16mm.
The gain in resolution over full frame Fisheye is marginal and not worth the effort as the image shows.

If you really want to try it, start at 35mm.

[Sam Rohn]

shooting with a fisheye lens at infinity or hyperfocal will give sufficient DOF for most pano environments, so no real need for focus stacking unless you want to experiment with special technique in an environment where is is needed

sam

[Aaron D. Priest]

I have been focus stacking panoramas for 15yrs or so. I helped with the development of the “advanced” stacking mode on the Promote Control specifically for panoramas. Today I mostly use the built-in focus stacking feature of the Nikon D850. I shoot mostly gigapans where focus stacking is necessary for long focal lengths, and nightsky 360s where the depth of field is shallow at wide open apertures and the foreground has to be refocused. On the D850, if I want to truly maximize the resolution of that 45MP sensor, I have to use a circle of confusion of 0.009mm (most calculators assume 0.03mm), and use no smaller than f/13 to avoid diffraction. At 24mm f/13 this gives me a hyperfocal distance of 5.06m where everything half that to infinity will be acceptably sharp. This means I have to either focus stack or refocus my lower row of the ground for critical sharpness because I’m not that tall! :-P That’s the shortest focal length that requires focus stacking though, as my next go-to focal length is either 14mm rectilinear or 15mm fisheye, and those are fine if I focus at 1.73 – 1.98m or so. I always focus a little past what the calculators like PhotoPills recommend to ensure the background is perfectly sharp for landscapes (i.e. 2m at 14mm).

For post processing, I usually use Helicon Focus’ batch mode. Mostly because the D850 does not let you define an end point (it goes until it hits the number of frames you have selected, or the lens hits infinity). It also does not return to the start position afterward, you have to refocus manually. So this means you will get a different number of focus frames for each position of a panorama (8, 9, 7, 10, 8, etc.). This is a nightmare to sort and figure out later in Lightroom or Bridge, but Helicon Focus can batch by capture time and this makes it extremely easy to stack them all without fuss. There’s usually a 2-3 second gap between frames of a focus stack where I moved the panning head, and as long as I’m not shooting long exposures Helicon Focus will find those gaps easily. If there is any wind though, I have to manually mask, and then I’m back to the tedious chore of manually grouping each stack. Lightroom has a similar feature of grouping by capture time that helps with this.

Happy shooting! ;-)

[Jürgen Schrader]

Excellent advise Aaron.
THX

[Author]

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