Shift-Focusing

OK, I have a Z7II, I just got my 105mm f2.8 macro S Lens. Seems nice, but I have a few questions. I did a shoot using this lens and using Focus-Shift. I set it for 5 shots with 5 seconds in between each shot for strobe refresh. I know the lens has to be set to Auto-Focus, but when the sequence begins does it automatically start from the beginning of the foreground or bottom of the sensor and shoot the 5 shots till it completes to the top of the sensor?
I have looked at the images and seems hard to tell, which way it started, also, does it reset the lens to the closest focus point and then start shooting, or does it start where the lens is set at when you activate the Shift-Focus?

gskolenda said:

OK, I have a Z7II, I just got my 105mm f2.8 macro S Lens. Seems nice, but I have a few questions. I did a shoot using this lens and using Focus-Shift. I set it for 5 shots with 5 seconds in between each shot for strobe refresh. I know the lens has to be set to Auto-Focus, but when the sequence begins does it automatically start from the beginning of the foreground or bottom of the sensor and shoot the 5 shots till it completes to the top of the sensor?

Click to expand...

The entire frame is captured in each exposure. The sequence starts at the focus position that was in place when you hit Start, and continues for the selected number of frames, and the focus position stays at the last position. The camera makes no judgements based on what is or isn't in focus.

If you found that it didn't go far enough through the depth of the scene because the requested number of exposures was too small, just continue with another sequence without disturbing anything. I inspect everywhere in the last frame at high magnification.

I recommend setting the camera to make a new folder on the card for each sequence you start. That is a tremendous help if you are doing many sequences! Especially if you make only minor changes of the scene or camera. There is only a very tiny disadvantage if you had to do an "added" sequence to complete one stack: you will need to gather the frames from more than the first folder.

I'll also recommend that you mostly use the smallest step size. According to what I've read from people who have looked deeply into this feature the camera adjusts the actual steps according to the f/#, with larger focusing movements made if you stop down further.

It starts at the focus point you have set and chugs outward until it reaches infinity or until the maximum shots you have set.

You need to reset focus again for each new series.

Thank you, everyone. I have another shoot coming soon so I'll experiment a little.

When I create a Still-Life shot, I have been doing 5 shot sequences per exposure, and 5 different exposures. To keep things easly organized, I Just place a small post-it note with the number of the exposure written on it and then take a shot. I do this first for every exposure. Easy to sort out in LRoom CC.

Thanks for both the help and the humor! LOL

Looking at the wood texture, I think I see sharper en unsharper zones.

I think you should try twice or thrice the number of pictures.

Perhaps test it with the wood tray only.

Subject and composition looks great though. My mouth was watering

Boudewijn van der Drift said:

Looking at the wood texture, I think I see sharper en unsharper zones.

I think you should try twice or thrice the number of pictures.

Perhaps test it with the wood tray only.

Subject and composition looks great though. My mouth was watering

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think you are correct, I will shoot 10-12 shots, and make sure the sequence is started at the very beginning or foreground first. Thanks for all the help.

Yeah the composition is awesome...and the lighting...yum!

As another poster said, some people recommend small step sizes (e.g., 1); in my experience, I always use the largest step size (10) and I have never noticed an area between two pictures that was out of focus. Smaller step sizes gives me too many pictures to combine, even with relatively small subjects.

Does anyone have an example of a step size being too large? That is, areas that are in focus, then out, then in, then out, and so on? I have yet to see it in my own photos or in anyone else's but would love to see an example.

I'm curious, I've never used this function of automated focus shift, do you set the closest focus, and then the number of pictures to take and the amount of distance it refocuses outwards per image?

Do you also get to choose how quickly it takes the images? You mentioned 5-seconds for flash recycle, but I'm wondering if there are are options to shoot as fast as the camera can, incase you're trying to shoot something that might move.

To the left of the honeypot the scone seems to look odd, I'm wondering if you have a "OOF" gap there? What was your step size? Could you have taken more pictures with a smaller refocus step size?

Montanawildlives said:

Does anyone have an example of a step size being too large? That is, areas that are in focus, then out, then in, then out, and so on? I have yet to see it in my own photos or in anyone else's but would love to see an example.

Click to expand...

You see this in the OP's photo. Look at the wooden board

Roland Wooster said:

I'm curious, I've never used this function of automated focus shift, do you set the closest focus, and then the number of pictures to take and the amount of distance it refocuses outwards per image?

Do you also get to choose how quickly it takes the images? You mentioned 5-seconds for flash recycle, but I'm wondering if there are are options to shoot as fast as the camera can, incase you're trying to shoot something that might move.

To the left of the honeypot the scone seems to look odd, I'm wondering if you have a "OOF" gap there? What was your step size? Could you have taken more pictures with a smaller refocus step size?

Click to expand...

First, let me say, There biscuits, not scones, LOL.

Actually, I shot 5 shots with the step distance set at 5, in the middle, the max is 10.

Next time, I will set and test the step distance, at 10, and shoot 10 shots and see how that comes out. Moving subjects is pain to shoot. Getting the shots to register without blur or ghosting in the final image is hard, even with very good software like Helicon-Focus.

Whois said:

Montanawildlives said:

Does anyone have an example of a step size being too large? That is, areas that are in focus, then out, then in, then out, and so on? I have yet to see it in my own photos or in anyone else's but would love to see an example.

Click to expand...

You see this in the OP's photo. Look at the wooden board

Click to expand...

Hmmmm, I guess I don't really see it. Moving from the front corner of the board to the left, nothing is in sharp focus until you get to just before where the wooden knife handle meets the board, and then going further back there are areas of light and dark, more and less texture, but I could easily see this being the variations in the board itself and they are not regularly spaced. I don't see it anywhere else where it would be easy to identify such as the smooth areas of the photo (the jar, the jam, the label, etc.).

Having done focus stacking with manual focus lenses in the past, I have seen clearly where I was changing focus too much between each shot, but this is not nearly as clear to me (due to the subject matter, surely).

just Tony said:

The entire frame is captured in each exposure. The sequence starts at the focus position that was in place when you hit Start, and continues for the selected number of frames, and the focus position stays at the last position. The camera makes no judgements based on what is or isn't in focus.

If you found that it didn't go far enough through the depth of the scene because the requested number of exposures was too small, just continue with another sequence without disturbing anything. I inspect everywhere in the last frame at high magnification.

I recommend setting the camera to make a new folder on the card for each sequence you start. That is a tremendous help if you are doing many sequences! Especially if you make only minor changes of the scene or camera. There is only a very tiny disadvantage if you had to do an "added" sequence to complete one stack: you will need to gather the frames from more than the first folder.

I'll also recommend that you mostly use the smallest step size. According to what I've read from people who have looked deeply into this feature the camera adjusts the actual steps according to the f/#, with larger focusing movements made if you stop down further.

Click to expand...

That is about as well-explained as it gets. You should write a brochure

gskolenda said:

Boudewijn van der Drift said:

Looking at the wood texture, I think I see sharper en unsharper zones.

I think you should try twice or thrice the number of pictures.

Perhaps test it with the wood tray only.

Subject and composition looks great though. My mouth was watering

Click to expand...

Thanks, I think you are correct, I will shoot 10-12 shots, and make sure the sequence is started at the very beginning or foreground first. Thanks for all the help.

Click to expand...

I have even seen recommended to start before the area of interest.
Don't worry about some free shots more, the program(s) do all the work

Montanawildlives said:

Yeah the composition is awesome...and the lighting...yum!

As another poster said, some people recommend small step sizes (e.g., 1); in my experience, I always use the largest step size (10) and I have never noticed an area between two pictures that was out of focus. Smaller step sizes gives me too many pictures to combine, even with relatively small subjects.

Does anyone have an example of a step size being too large? That is, areas that are in focus, then out, then in, then out, and so on? I have yet to see it in my own photos or in anyone else's but would love to see an example.

Click to expand...

Well, the proof of incoherancy (math term, I probably translate it awkwardly) would be:
Stack one shot and expect it to be sharp front to back.

Here is an example I am not particular proud of. But I was to lazy to redo all those miniatures.
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63841839

P.S. maybe "proof by absurdity" would be a better term.

Well, Tonight I started a Shoot, using Focus Shift, and I got mixed results.
Here are the exact settings: Shots-10, Spacing-6, Timing-Interval-6Seconds.

Auto-focus set to single, AFArea-single, The red focus box was set to the very bottom of the screen, and dialed in manually, then set to autoFocus on the lens. and started the focus-shift sequence. One time it only shot 3 times, then I double-checked everything in the Focus-shift menu, and it was correct. Next time, It shot five shots and stopped.

Also about three times it would not fire the flash in the sequence. Powered down, re-checked everything, reset the focus-shift, checked all-flash system batteries, and it finally started to work, but, when 10 shots were brought into Helicon focus, it would either miss focus on the very first shot or the last shot in the sequence. All my strobes are Off Camera with a Wireless Remote attached to the Hotshoe of the Z7II, and the remote has new AA batteries in it and is recognized by the Z7II, it's made for Nikon.
I did have some success, but it took a lot longer than I think it should have.

If anyone has had an experience like this I would like to know.

I need to get this ironed out as I use this feature a lot, in the studio.

I guess the flash did not always get enough time to recharge it's capacitor.
Try to reduce the power of the flashes, open up aperture, or even use natural light.

I found Steve Perry's video on focus shifting shooting to be terrific and a real bargain. He uses Nikon gear. Here's the link:

These are high-end strobes with plenty of battery power. I have to keep the Aperture pretty closed, f8 to f10, Don't want any natural light, I'm in a studio with No windows anyhow.

Thank you, very much for that Link! I purchased it, Very good deal. I feel that this will fill in a lot where the Nikon manual and Dave Busch's Nikon Z7II Guide fall short.

Thanks again!

Well, The Video tutorials on Shift Focus from Backcountry Gallery, were awesome! What I found out is the understanding of Nikons terms to Lamens Terms, Lol.

Also, I think Nikon needs to improve on how they have it implemented in the menu and maybe even add or change the way you start the sequence, from the menu, rather than from pressing the shutter button, which Panasonic does.

With Nikon they have you start from the menu because with their setup, if you were able to start from the Shutter Button, being in Autofocus, it might refocus the start position.
So, I got it to work, and all is good, but could be better! Lol!

Highly Recommend the Shift-Focus tutorials, worth every penny of $18.00!

Thanks, everyone for your input and help, Appreciated.