Master Focus Merging
Get to grips with this powerful Affinity Photo tool and learn how to focus stack for richly detailed close-ups
FILE & VIDEO
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James Paterson With over a decade’s experience as a writer and photographer, James is also an accomplished image editor, and an expert in Affinity Photo.
Close-up photography lets you see the miniature world in incredible detail, but it can be a challenge for all sorts of reasons. First you need the right kit, such as a macro lens, a tripod and possibly a focus rack. Then there’s the challenge of composing and framing tiny subjects. On top of this, one of the biggest difficulties is the limited depth of field.
The closer we are to a subject, the less the depth of field – the plane of in-focus details – will be. Of course, with macro photography we usually need to get in very close to the subject, often with it right up to the front of the lens, so our depth of field will naturally be very shallow. Even when using narrow apertures like f/16 the sharp area may only stretch to a few millimetres.