Approaching The Scene 011: Focus Blending, Focus Breathing, & Fall Color

Sometimes it's impossible to get a single sharp image from the foreground to the background even stopped down to a narrow aperture with a wide angle. That's where focus blending or stacking comes in. What is focus blending and/or focus stacking and how does focus breathing complicate using this technique? Watch and I'll demystify all that and show how I overcome focus breathing in the process.
It's fall and the colors are changing here in Portland. I'll work through a fall color image that I focus blended to show how this technique works while answering some questions and giving a sneak peak of my new Syrp Genie II Linear motion controller at the
very end.
About Approaching The Scene: www.hudsonhenr...
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[@dirkgits]

Another great video

[@HudsonHenryPhoto]

An oldie 183 weeks ago. :-)

[@antonoat]

Honestly, every single time I've watched one of your videos I've learnt something, often many things actually .Thank you very much for sharing all that you do it is hugely appreciated.

[@RockLakeMama]

THANK YOU so much for this video! I have looked everywhere for instruction on how to deal with focus breathing when blending images in post processing. David Johnston kept promising he'd post a video about it but instead made a 6-minute video explaining what focus breathing is (unlike you, he didn't even provide examples for those who are unfamiliar with it) and only suggesting buying a cheap, plastic extension tube (with scary reviews) to solve the problem. There's nothing wrong with not knowing something, but he could have just admitted that rather than cop an attitude. Anyway …
I just want to thank you so much for your step-by-step on blending the images. I'm a new subscriber based on this video. Looking forward to seeing the others you've posted!
Cheers from Canada :)

[@HudsonHenryPhoto]

No problem! Thanks for the feedback!

[@anvilcloud]

I think I now understand focus breathing for the first time. In general, a very helpful video.

[@joeweaver5712]

Fantastic video, really helped me with my focus breathing issues for focus stacking on my 16-35 2.8 Sony GM 👍

[@michaell5806]

Some really good information here. I look forward to them each week.
Thanks for helping all of us Hudson!

[@markbowley5531]

Thanks again really enjoying your content - Awesome!

[@quebecer4605]

Thanks for the great instructional video Hudson! I have got to get to Oregon someday.

[@waynestead607]

Awesome video Keep it going

[@gosman949]

Thanks for the video and the turn-on to Silver Falls State Park!

[@davidroberts5535]

Hudson, as always, excellent video and content. I'd like to see perspective blending next!

[@christopherchall7056]

Great video! Thank you. Just getting started with panoramas. Are there Nikon lenses with entrance pupils that avoid focus breathing?

[@HudsonHenryPhoto]

Focus breathing and exit pupils are two different things. Every lens has an exit pupil where the light rays cross that avoids parallax if you rotate under it. Focus breathing is when the lens changes focal length as you focus closer and farther away. The older 70-200 VRII actually changed into about a 120mm lens if you focused close zoomed out to 200mm. The 14-24 2.8 breathes a lot. Focus breathing really matters when you do focus stacking since the close focused images are very different than the far focused photos and difficult to align. The latest 70-200 FL-ED does very little breathing and none of the Z glass I've tested has a problem with it. :-)

[@AndreaLivieriPhoto]

Really great video and a gorgeous waterfall image as well. Nice job Henry and thanks for sharing :) cheers!

[@AndreaLivieriPhoto]

Oh, gosh! Sorry Hudson :) Once again, thanks so much and horns up for good contents! All the best

[@williamwidmanphotography]

In landscape photography is it necessary to always have everything tack sharp in an image? Do you ever use shallow depth of field and bokeh to accent an area of an image over another area?

[@HudsonHenryPhoto]

Absolutely. Rules are made to be broken and selective focus can be used to add depth in 2 dimensional images. I go into that a fair bit in my core photography course.

[@ellyrion8173]

My macro lens (Sigma 105mm EX DG) seems to zoom in (focal length increase) as I focus in (so away from infinity). IS that normal for focus breathing?

[@wailshudar]

Thanks for the awesome tutorial. I never though of using masks, I always used the eraser.
Since we are on the topic of focus stacking, I would be interested to see your review of the Arsenal photo assistant.

[@rerod7481]

Quite interesting. Just wondering why you obviously didn't use a polarizer to eliminate the reflections on the leaf and rocks?

[@rickwisephotography]

Is there an auto align function in ON1 similar to Photoshop? Also, could you do the same webcast using ON1?