Shooting
steps
1
CameraandmacrolensMost
macrolensesshouldhavethe
abilitytorecorddetailatahigh
level,measuredby‘reproduction
ratio’(howlargeyoursubjectwill
berecordedontheimage,onthe
sensor).Lookforlenseswitha
reproductionratioof1:1.4
Activatingthecameras‘Focus
Bracketing’optionIuseda
WithourOlympusEM-1MkII,we
neededtogointothebracketing
functionandthenselect‘FocusBKT’.2
Findasubject!Findingan
appropriatesubjectcanbe
achallenge.Wefoundthislittle
gardenflyfrequentingtheoffice
picnicbench!Ideallyyouneed
somethingthatissufficientlysmall
anddetailedtoshowthebenefitsof
astackedimageoverasingleshot.5
BasicFocusBracketing
optionsDifferentcamerasmay
workinslightlydifferentways,but
theOlympusasksyoutomake
twosimpledecisions.Firstly,how
manyshotsdoyouwantthecamera
totakeandsecondlyhowmuch
variationinfocusdoyouwantthere
tobe.Forthissubjectweused
between20-30imagesandselected
onlyanarrowvariationinfocus.3
Getintoasteadyposition
Cameraswithanin-camera
FocusBracketingfeaturecanoften
generateaseriesofshotsvery
quickly(inthiscase 20 pictures
inunder 2 seconds).Thisopens
upthepossibilityofhandholding
thecamerawithouttheuseofa
tripod.WesteadiedtheOlympuson
thetopofthebenchtomaintaina
consistentview.6
SwitchingtoaFocusingRail
Forcamerasthatdonothave
afocusbracketingfeature,afocus
railcanbeanextremelyuseful
accessory.Thebasictechniqueisto
focusyourlensmanuallyandthen
shiftthewholecameraset-upgently
backwardsorforwardsto‘shift’the
focusthroughyoursubject.1
3
4
5
6
2
shootIng skIlls