Unbelievably Simple Focus Stacking with the Sony a7R V - What You Need to Know
✨ My must-have AI presets for Lightroom: bit.ly/landscape-ai-yt
Focus stacking is one of the best ways to ensure sharp focus and detail throughout your entire photo. I'll show you how to use the Sony a7R V to easily get focus brackets for the sharpest photos you've ever seen.
📷 Get the Sony a7R V
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Table of Contents:
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00:00 - Introduction
00:49 - When is focus stacking helpful?
03:08 - The best focus bracket settings for the Sony a7R V
06:21 - Enabling focus bracketing on the Sony a7R V
11:01 - An important reminder about Sony a7R V focus bracketing
12:25 - Importing the focus brackets into Adobe Lightroom
14:30 - Check out my Lightroom/Photoshop AI adaptive presets
15:09 - Aligning and blending (aka focus stacking) layers using Photoshop
18:43 - How to focus stack using any digital camera
Focus stacking using any camera: • FOCUS STACKING the RIG...
Do you use focus stacking in your photography? If so, what are your favorite tips? And which camera do you use to take your focus brackets?
I want to use it for macro with my a6700, but I’m curious if it is possible to use a flash during the focus bracketing :) have u got any experience with this?
You're right we need a start and end point because then we can still get separation and bokeh in the shot depending on scenario, great video I learned something new today
You've sold me on the a7R V so going for an upgrade from my a7 111. Great video and easy to follow.
That’s awesome! You’re going to love it!
Ac7ii has this and I'm so stoked because for years I've been focus stacking like a peasant 😅
Shooting interval is normally used for studio strobes/flash to recharge. Set accordingly to your strobe.
Finally! I was about to buy a Sony a7R IV, but then saw the V has focus bracketing. Hoorah! You might mention the REASON focus bracketing is needed, and that is because of the phenomenon optical diffusion. As the f-stop gets smaller, i.e., f16 and on up towards f22 on further, the light diffuses. This interferes with the ability to get sharp images at small apertures. Another issue with focus bracketing to be aware of is the issue of focus breathing; as the focus is changed so is the position of the subject in the frame. Some lenses have more focus breathing than others and would not be good for use with focus bracketing. I use a custom made ball screw type mechanism for focus bracketing. A stepper motor moves the camera a predetermined amount, takes a pic, and repeats x number of frames. This is THE most accurate way to focus bracket images of small subject; say an insect or a watch. However, it's a pain to use and cumbersome. The in-camera focus bracketing will be a boon for those creating focus stacked images. Lastly, I use Helicon Focus for stacking the images (made by developers in Ukraine!). It is extremely straightforward and simple to use; unlike using the tools that you are using which require multiple steps. It takes fairly complex image processing software to properly stack images, so the camera mfgrs are best to limit their cameras to doing only the focus bracketing. For extreme macro, I use a Sony a6400, a e-mount to Canon FD, an old canon FD bellows built like a tank, a Canon 100mm macro, with a 10x 0.25 infinity apochromatic objective. The 90mm plus 110mm in the bellows gives a range of 5x to 10x. And of course all mounted on a ballscrew slide driven by a stepper motor. Thanks for the well made and concise demo of the new mode in the Sony a7R V.
The focus bracketing tutorial is awesome, but you simply change my life with that self timer for exposure bracketing in the first place 😱😱
Woohoo! I’m all for life-changing videos! 😃 thank you for the kind words!
With an RF remote shutter release, unnecessary.
Thank you Brian,that was a terrific tutorial. I am upgrading soon and have been torn between the A7iv A7rv and the A1. I think I may now be ready to pull the trigger on the 7rv.
You’re welcome! And fwiw, I definitely think the a7R V is the smart move.
I would love a feature where you manually set the furthest focus point, then set the nearest point, and then press GO! Aiming at the nearest point then guessing how many steps is a bit hit and miss for me.
This is insane! Thanks a lot for this impressive video!
My pleasure!
Thank you Brian, very helpful and to the point.
My pleasure - glad it was helpful!
For my macro photography this is going to be super useful, thank you for the tutorial
You're very welcome!
Thanks!
I just got this camera for a trip to Hawaii next month. Now with your Lr presets, I’ll have unbelievable photos.
I hope you have an absolute and get some amazing photos in Hawaii, Alton! And I hope my presets help!
It is nice to see Sony finally address this with at least one camera. Now, if possible, I hope to get this feature via firmware on my A1.
I gotta tell you, amigo, that I wouldn’t bet the farm on Sony bringing this feature to any older bodies, even their flagship a1. I don’t think it is due to any hardware/technical limitation, though. Now, the a1 II would be totally fair game.
@@brianmatiash This is the best time in history to be a photographer. 😎🤙
You would think Sony would add this to the a1. That should be a no-brainer. However, I’ve been using Sony cameras since they were Konica-Minolta. Unfortunately, it is not Sony’s business model to cater to its customers. So in all likelihood, ain’t gonna happen.
@@Sidowse the a1 has a 50mp sensor, which is plenty for focus stacking - most competitors do it with even smaller sensors. But I find it truly funny to hear the a1 called an older model :-) Just fyi, what phone app are you referring to? I’ve been using Sony cameras since they were Konica-Minolta and don’t know of any (Sony once did them with PlayMemories app, but d/c’d that years ago)….
Thanks. Acabo de configurar mi a6700 con este video
Hey Brian, Thanks for the great video, Im looking at buying the sony A7R iii as that is within my budget, I do macro photography, And was wondering if your familiar with sony imaging edge software which allows you to stack the photos directly after taking them and outputs the final image to your laptop
Hi Brian, thank you for your very practical tutorial. I do a lot of food photography where the product needs to be sharp from start to finish. I shoot tethered with my Sony A7R3. Most of the time it works fine. Sometimes the focus stacked image in Photoshotp develops artefacts, perhaps due to the focus breathing of the lens. Having watched your demo I realise that I don't shoot enough images and that could be the issue. Have you tried CamRanger? That seems to allow you to set focus points from minimum to maximum distance you need in focus. What do you think? Thanks again.
You should be shooting at f8 the sweet spot of the lens then bracket accordingly
This could be implemented in many of Sony's cameras. I got sweet FA for my A7R4. They are becoming like Canon used to be, with their parsimonious firmware updates.
Thanks Brian. Is there a way to customize one of the buttons (C1 or C3) to change the drive mode to focus-bracket and back to single-shot ?
Amazing and very helpful! I have a question. The "infinite" limit means that the camera can make the focus in the se on object but also can take more picture and the second object is out of focus. Correct? Then we need to change the step with to avoid it?
I'm new to focus stacking, I'm not clear why there is only an option to automatically choose infinity. I view focus points as just a list of x,y points on a 2d screen. Why not just allow user to choose the points they prefer instead of bringing 3d terms like infinity?
Wondering what focus mode to use, is it different for landscape or bugs? Thanks!
Hi brian, would this work if you had a manual Macro lens for instance. I am thinking not but thid has me really interested to change from my A7iv
Do this works with any sony lens or do I need the 90mm macro?
Just got this Camera. Trying to shoot macro images to make fine art prints. Large. Ideally would like to shoot pixel shift and focus stacking… Other than doing it using manual focus. Have any idea any programs that work with that? I believe I saw a program or a script called BB stack that allowed you to adjust focus but not take an actual exposure and works in conjunction with Sony software to where I could use that to adjust the focus and then go to Sony software take a pixel, chef sequence, then go back to Bb stack, move, focus plane, repeat.
Thanks for the tutorial! I still think that Sony's approach to in-body focus stacking is rather simple minded and far not leveraging the data available and use it for the benefit of making a perfect shot without letting the photographer to make a mistake. Concider that the camera recognizes the lens hence the lens properties, the actual aperture and focus settings clearly determines how many shots (step width x number of shots) are required exactly to cover the range demanded to be in focus (or in this case from the minimum set focus distance to infinity focus). Hence the user settings on step width and number of shots to take is absolutely redundant and just enables to make a mistake, especially in macro photography by typically overestimating the depth of field, guessing the step width and the number shots to be taken. Then I have not even mentioned that this focus stacking approach is not supporting a demand for just a specific depth of focus to cover. Anyways, it is better, than having nothing, but it is still just at the same level that Nikon had 10+ years ago.
Great video Brian. How do you set the number of images? My camera seems to run to what ever number I set it too. Am I doing something wrong?
You can set the max number of images in the sequence, but the camera will take as many as it needs up until that number. So, if you set it to 50 images, but the camera can get the full focus bracket sequence in 43 images, then that’s all it’ll use. I hope that makes sense
Does focus bracketing work with flash? What is the minimum interval between the shots? I am confused here to understand the meaning of 'Shortest'?! I just want to check if this is equally good as Olympus when it comes to focus bracketing.
Have you tried focus stacking hand-held? I'm hoping with the improved IBIS it is viable at reasonably fast shutter speeds, and that Photoshop can still align the layers.
Huh? The camera was on a tripod.
@@brianmatiash just curious if you've ever done it without a tripod.
Oh man, my apologies! I totally misread your original comment. Sorry about that! Now to answer your actual question 🤣😅 I’ve never attempted a focus stack while holding the camera, although I suppose I’d be open to it with the Sony a7R V’s focus bracketing mode, and if the number of required brackets was small… and the shutter speed was fast enough. Truth be told, I don’t trust myself to handhold the camera if focus stacking is my intention.
Thank you for video! Is stacking in vertical mode also possible?
My pleasure! As for stacking in vertical, that shouldn't be a problem. I've used PS to stack vertical comps and it worked great.
@@brianmatiash Thank you!
Hi Brian, great video. I tried this with my new Sony but it seems my Lowe’s macro lens is not conpatible. Does focus bracketing only work with Sony lenses?
I assume you need the lens to have automatic focus for it to work. My laowa macro lens is manual, so camera focus bracketing is not going to help there.
Works fine with my Sigma primes.
First off. Great video and walkthrough. Thanks for sharing. I'm a former Sony shooter, Pentax at the moment believe it or not. This feature cought my attention, as I'm familiar with the focus bracketing manual process and following workflow in LR and PS as shown in this video. I would have been really impressed with Sony if they had rolled out this feature, as a firmware update for all their later camera models. (I don't know if this is in the pipeline already). I also think that it would have been impressive to have a no-hassle-inbody-process of the jpegs or raw files, leaving you with one "finished file to eksport. As it is, it feels half baked, in my opinion. A great example is the pixel shift feature in my Pentax K-1, and Kp, that takes 4 consecutive images, shifting the sensor in-between, plus doing the processing in camera, giving me one file. With the powerful processors in modern cameras, it should be possible to focus bracket this way. Maybe with 3-5-10 shorts Instead of 25+
Thank you for watching the video and for leaving this thoughtful-and thought-provoking-comment! FWIW, I agree with everything you wrote. Sony is an interesting company in that they are SO quick to innovate in the camera hardware department but lag behind with the software that drives them. You make a great point in that it'd be wonderful to have the option for the camera to auto-stack the focus brackets and, while we're at it, auto tone-map exposure brackets for an HDR image. I don't ever expect to see that, though. It just doesn't fit Sony's playbook. Similarly, I never expect Sony to retroactively add focus bracketings to older a7-series cameras via firmware updates. It's not that they can't do it from a technical perspective. Rather, I think it's a business decision to entice people to upgrade to the "latest and greatest" if they want to have that functionality. But... I could be wrong. The only time I remember Sony retroactively adding a new feature to older cameras via a FW update was with the option to shoot uncompressed RAW. But again, I wouldn't hold my breath... sadly.
@@brianmatiash thanks again Brian 🙏 I appreciate your response. I bought the first A7, back when it was released, and later the A7III. it's been fascinating to se Sony at the forefront pushing technologies forward and constantly raising the bar, with their mirrorless cameras. (I have no personal experience with Fujifilm). Something I miss, with my Pentax DSLR's, is the A7III's AF, AF tracking, and especially eye AF. The burst rate and buffer was not to bad either. A friend of mine has the A7IV, which is even better. What I don't miss though, is the software, as you mentioned. Some of my photo friends and I suspect that they hired playstation engineers for their camera division:) that's the joke anyway. The ironic thing is that Pentax uses a Sony sensor in the K-1, (36 magapixel). When we do side by side comparisons, jpegs straight out of camera, between the K-1 and the A7IV (or any of its siblings for that matter) the K-1 comes out on top in the color department. Color- tones and separation, WB is just closer to real life. Sony has a warmer or greenish tint in general. We have tried every color profile and setting and made improvements, even come close. I guess that we still can't have it all in one camera in 2023;) Would like to test the new Panasonic s5 ii. Cheers!
That´s exactly what I thought, when i commented this "Why aren´t the photos stacked in the camera already? Why the Lr or photoshop to get one picture?".
I have a seven year old Casio ZR5000 that does this. Casio was always ahead of the rest of the rest of the manufacturers. They were the first company to release a digital camera on the market!
That doesn't surprise me. Many of the best digital camera innovations are first found with the lesser-known manufacturers like Casio, Panasonic, etc. They do a wonderful job of pushing the envelope.
The craziest thing is the Sony a6700 has this feature
I've been playing with it a lot on my a6700. I don't have a macro lens, but have been using extension tubes on the 18-135mm lens. The results have been fantastic!
I have a Nikon z6 II that has this feature. I rarely use it. I think it works best for macro photography or working at close range to the subject. The thing about the way depth of field works is that the closer you are to the subject the smaller the depth of field is. The further you move away from you the larger the depth of field gets. If you have a landscape scene where there's a cactus really up close to you, you might need to focus on the front and back of the cactus. Your third shot may be a few get further away. The next shot may be 10 yards away. The one after that may give you infinity. I think the in camera focus stacking gives you the same increment in distance so you end up with more photos than you need that overlap each other. This can become critical if you're also doing exposure bracketing. You can't do both at the same time in camera so you would have to start your focus stacking and just changed the exposure yourself. So I don't use the focus stacking feature for landscape. But I have used it with my macro lens and it works really well. But I may excitement more with it in the field at some time to see what I can get with it.
I have a new sony A7R5 body. Im a new sony A7 user. Im using a Sigma MC-11 to adapt canon aps-c lens. Im trying to perform focus stacking and getting the following error message, "invalid with this lens" error. The "step width" and the "number of shots" are also grayed out. I also get the error message "this function is currently disabled". I also used a canon prime lens and still get the same error message " invalid with this lens". I have also turned on/off aps-c mode and still get an error message. Or are you suppose to use "only" native Sony lens. Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.
Works fine with my Sigma APS-C primes also.
Hi. Just a note that the title of your video "focus stacking with the Sony a7R V" is a bit misleading. The camera is only doing focus "bracketing" and the image stacking (merging) must still be done using post processing software. I was hoping that the latest A7 V5 did in-camera stacking like Olympus (OM), but I guess not just yet. 🙂
I have just received the A7c ii that also has focus stacking. But when I follow your instructions by setting the 2 sec. timer in the bracket settings from the menu and I try to set the focus point before I shoot I get "operation or setting not available as follows - self timer during bracket - on" . Hopefully it's user error and I would appreciate any suggestions on correcting
Hmmmmm.... I wonder if that's a bug? Unfortunately, I don't have an a7C II to confirm. So, my best recommendation would be to contact Sony Support to determine whether that 2 second delay functionality is activated a different way for that camera. Please let me know what you find out. Thanks!
Will do. Thanks!@@brianmatiash
Figured out problem. Will not work if trying using back focus, only when shutter release is set to focus@@brianmatiash
@flipdalfonso9431 ahhhhh! Ok, that is really good to know. Thanks so much for following up!
@@brianmatiash 👍
Any chance we will get it for our a7IV ?
I wouldn’t hold my breath for it.
@@brianmatiash would love something "more" for mine. Like vehicle detection or whatever.....just something....
Was hopping it was all in camera developing one final photo.
I get that, but you really wouldn't want the camera to handle the stacking on its own. Focus stacking can be tricky and there are many times when manually adjusting the masks is needed to get an optimal result. That's not something that I'd want to trust my camera to handle.
@@brianmatiash true, I got away from using computers and mainly use an iPad for my quick work flow. Light room mobile does not offer some features. Like the Panoramic mode I use to love the in camera mode but the iPad mode does not have an option.
Why aren´t the photos stacked in the camera already? Why the Lr or photoshop to get one picture?
You mispoke at the beginning. The Sony does not offer "focus stacking in-body". That would imply that the camera gives you the stacked image. It doesn't. It does give you *focus bracketing* in camera, and it's a great thing that it does.
Since the processor isn't combining the photos for you, only doing the focus bracket shooting, this seems like a software update that could be brought to other modern/recent Sony Alpha cameras, no?
I agree. It'd probably be a rather easy thing to add via a firmware upgrade. But, it's also a business decision for Sony, and I don't see them doing that. I'd love to be wrong about it, though.
A camera focus stacking function that performs in camera processing is only going to be useful if subjects are static with little to no element movement like with studio macro or if combining lower resolution images. Out in the field with even slight breezes given the high resolutions of modern digital cameras, elements like vegetation, water, and tree leaves are likely to slightly move creating artifacts like blur or multiple element captures. Thus far better with landscapes to post process with say Zerene Stacker where one can select specific shots at high 100% detail intelligently versus some internal electronics memory and speed limited algorithm.
Still waiting for this function on my a1.
I honestly wouldn’t hold my breath. I’d be shocked to see Sony retroactive bring new functionality, even something as seemingly simple as this, to an almost 2-year-old camera via a firmware update. They’ll likely add it to the a1 II and use it as a marketing feature.
@@brianmatiash The Sony a9 was an abnormally. Those days are gone. The FX1 and a1 are both missing features from lower-end bodies.
I believe that outer edge blur is a result of lens breathing
Also due to the way each shot is processed into alignment that won't necessarily perfectly fit the 100% pixels frame size. Thus a need to possibly crop off a few pixels at frame edges. Even a slight movement of the camera on a tripod or slightly different point autofocus selects between shots can do so.
I am literally trading my A7IV for the RV right now 🤷🏾♂️
Worth it.
Brian, thanks for this. Any camera out that does the LR/PS processing in camera?
The only one that I know of is the ZEISS ZX1, which runs an Android version of Lightroom in-body. Unfortunately, I don’t think ZEISS is actively supporting that camera anymore, which is a shame because I used it for several months (I’m a ZEISS ambassador) and it produced some truly sharp and punchy photos.
@@brianmatiash I remember that one. In the Sony RX1 and Leica Q category with the editing SW built-in. THere is a used one on sale at B&H at 4K.
I thought the OM-1 did in in camera as well :)
Is the autofocus a lot better than A7RIV?
It’s definitely improved, but I can’t say that it’s N% better.
Ty for the vid! Get a faster card ;) your buffer is screaming
Incredible they don't bring this simple features to other cameras. I have a Sony A1 and the newest firmware doesn't have this. A $6500 flagship camera purposely is missing software to make the newer cheaper camera more attractive to buy. If they don't add this feature to the A1 soon, instead of getting an A7RV, I'm just going to get a Canon R5.
I don’t disagree with you. I mean, I don’t pretend to know what is involved with retroactively adding such a function, but it doesn’t strike me as especially complicated. Nope… this is purely a business decision I think and would not hold my breath to be honest.
Fuji has had it for years. I have a Sony a7iii and the new Fuji X T 5 and my Sony is gathering dust on the shelf
Good for you, I've just sold my xt-20 for exactly the same reason
I've always been jealous of other cameras that had focus bracketing functionality, so this is still very exciting for me 😆. Also, the ability to dial in a specific bulb mode duration is HUGE, too!
@@brianmatiash Does the a7rV allow long exposure beyond 30 seconds? That is a much bigger deal than focus stacking.
@@TheSmartWoodshop Yup! You can dial in a specific shutter speed for bulb mode now. To access it, press the menu button, then go to the fourth section (the +/- camera), then 1. Exposure, and you will see BULB Timer Settings. First, you'll want to turn it on and then you can set a specific duration. When you go to set your exposure info and move the shutter speed to Bulb, you'll see the duration that you just set listed right there. It's super cool. Do you think it'd be a helpful video for me to make?
@@brianmatiash The video would be highly appreciated since long exposures of over 30 seconds are a fundamental aspect of landscape and seascape photography. Currently, I have to resort to Sony's iPhone app to control my A1 camera for exposures exceeding 30 seconds, so having this capability built into the camera is a significant advantage. 😁
Technically you can't focus stack in camera, you can focus bracket 😁
Fair point! While I do show the workflow of stacking the focus brackets in this video, it's a worthwhile distinction to keep in mind.
welp. time to get another, larger, hard drive
Hmmmm. I fail to see a benefit. Getting images to focus stack in PS is simple from most any camera.
The stacking of brackets isn’t the point. The point is that the camera can automate the capture of the focus brackets that you can then stack using PS or another utility.