Do you prefer using low, mid, or high apertures for focus stacking?

MacM545 said:

Today I'm trying to figure out what is preferred, a quick aperture (such as f/1.4), a mid aperture (such as f/8) or a slow aperture (such as f/22) for focus stacking. Theoretically, using quick aperture will reduce time but also increase the number of photos necessary and might take up more space. Generally mid apertures provide good sharpness, and I suppose quick apertures could be helpful in some kind of situation even when lighting is adequate, while slow aperture stacks don't require the stacking process to work as slow. My best guess is that a mid or slow aperture is best, and I could also be wrong. Perhaps instead there's a better answer that I could add?

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mawyatt2002 said:

Your effective aperture (EA) is the magnification +1 times the lens aperture, so as said above diffraction can begin to degrade the IQ. Like most things it becomes tradeoff between DoF and Diffraction. I do lots of extreme stacking (sometimes ~600), mostly with microscope objectives for high magnifications, and the EA tends to hang around 18~20. These lenses don't have selectable apertures, so you get the EA the lenses was designed around.

Best,

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beginner_macro said:

I prefer using F/8 for FSing because there won't be any diffraction. But that's only for still subjects; for more jumpy subjects I use F/11 so that if they jump/fly away I have photos with a larger DOF.

With sharper lenses like the Canon 100mm F2.8L, you can go all the way up to F/18 without obvious diffraction. So, for FSing, I'm trying to get the best DOF without introducing diffraction - for me that means F/8 to F/11.

--
-CalB

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