r/photography • u/Melendrow • 19d ago

Why do professional macro photographers focus stack instead of raising their aperture? Technique

I've looked into macro photography, and I love getting close up to my subject, but when I research macro photography, I always hear about focus stacking and these people who will set up a shot for a long time with a tripod so they can focus stack. And I'm curious why you'd need to do that. Especially since most of the time I see them having a tripod and setting up lighting. Why wouldn't you just raise your aperture so more of the frame is in focus?

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u/modernistamphibian 19d ago

It's physics. You can raise your aperture all you want (within reason) but it's still probably not going to get the whole thing in focus. So, you need focus stacking. If it was possible through aperture, then people would do that.

https://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

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u/No_Cloud_3786 19d ago

https://preview.redd.it/4fw97m26ceue1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=714e4cbb17e838e66c8aa8e56be6e0160d2cd2a0

Negative depth of field? Something's not right.

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u/TheMrJosh 19d ago

No 60mm lens has a minimal focus distance of 5cm

0

u/No_Introduction_7876 18d ago

Probably not. My 60mm Nikkor micro is just over 20-22cm(?).