To take a series of bracketed shots, prepare your composition and focus on the part of the subject nearest to the lens by half-pressing the shutter button. You will soon notice that the shooting mode has automatically shifted to High burst/silent and cannot be changed as long as focus bracketing is active. Simply enter the menu and turn all the options to ‘on’. How does the Focus Bracketing function work?įocus bracketing, like the other bracketing options, can be activated from Shooting Menu 2. I’ve found that a focus differential of 5 tends to work well for most close-up work, but I will use lower values if there are many small details or intricate patterns in my composition that would be hard to reproduce in post production with a cloning tool. The important thing is that each shot overlaps the depth of field of the previous shot. (The images have not been retouched.) In the “10” example, you can clearly see some blurry banding where the focus hasn’t been captured. However, you don’t want to use a focus differential that is too low (1-2) unless absolutely necessary, as you will wind up dozens of shots that barely differ from one another.īelow is an example of the difference between a focus differential of 5 and 10. These will appear as out-of-focus bands in your composite image. With a higher focus differential (8-10), the distance between each shot is wider, so it is more likely that you’ll end up with gaps between the in-focus areas of your image, especially if you use a very fast aperture. The focus differential is the distance between the in-focus areas in each shot. you want to cover a wide depth of fieldġ0 shots, focus differential of 5 (hand-held).there are many subjects in your composition at varying distances from the lens.Generally speaking, you’ll need more shots if: (You can use either the Raw files or JPGs but keep in mind that the E-M10 II Raw files aren’t yet recognised by most post-production software programs.)ĭepending on the number of subjects in the shot, your distance from the subject, how much of the subject you want to capture, and your chosen f-stop, the number of shots and the focus differential required will vary. Knowing which values to choose is really a matter of trial and error, though experimentation and experience will help you make an educated guess. Instead, you must use a stacking software such as Photoshop or Helicon Focus. The camera itself will not stack the images. It allows you to take up to 999 consecutive shots at focus differentials between 1 and 10 in a fast burst. With the new OM-D E-M10 II, we now get a new mode called Focus Bracketing. (For an in-depth explanation about focus stacking, I suggest you visit this excellent article by Cambridge in Color.) E-M10 II, 1/200, f/2.8, ISO 400ġ0 shots, focus differential of 10 (hand-held) Although it is also used for landscapes, it is most frequently applied to macro photography because your depth of field will almost always be shallow with a macro lens, even at the slower apertures. It involves combining multiple shots taken at different depths of field to bring a subject into focus. What is Focus Bracketing on the E-M10 II?įocus stacking is a well-established technique used by photographers to extend the depth of field of their images. What’s so exciting about this camera? It all comes down to one feature: the Focus Bracketing mode. Now, nearly three years on from the release of the original E-M5, we’ve arrived at the most recent iteration, the E-M10 II. It was later followed by the E-M10 which introduced a Live Composite mode, and subsequently the E-M5 II, which gave us a High Res Shot mode. Then came the flagship E-M1 with its efficient autofocus system that works with Zuiko 4/3 lenses. The first E-M5 gave us in-body 5-axis stabilisation and Live BULB/TIME. And what’s great is that these features aren’t so much “technological gimmicks” as they are a reaction to the realistic needs and interests of photographers. It seems that with every new Olympus OM-D camera, we get at least one exciting new feature. Update: Olympus has announced firmware updates for the E-M1 and E-M5 II that include focus bracketing and focus stacking (E-M1 only) among other things!
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