Ring Macro Focus Stacking for Photographers
I was going through my macro ring stacking photos last week after learning that a few people in the facebook wedding group were curious on how to make their rings show up clean clear and not out of foucs! Well, introducing “Ring Macro Focus Stacking!” Similarly to how I have been doing my panoramic photos coined as the “Brenizer Method,” Macro Focus Stacking is a whole different process. Easy, but different. It doesn’t take much learning, except you will want to manually focus your shots when you compose it.
I first learned about stacking photos when I noticed someone taking photos of insects and everything was absolutely in focus. I didn’t realize what they had done until I caught wind of it in a post and the photographer at that time showed a snip of how he made this electron microscope shot with stacking. It hit me! Let’s do it on the rings. Here are a few ways you can achieve the goal. See the video below. I have included the metadata in all of my rings shots I have included here. I hope you enjoy them! I prefer to have the macro stacking on the ring shots that give a great depth of field but also have my subject, the ring, in focus.
I have used 4 lenses over the years
Nikon 70-180mm
Nikon 105mm
Nikon 60mm
Canon 180mm
My all-time favorite is the 70-180mm, an older lens by Nikon. The next runner-up is the canon 180. I was photographing weddings with both cameras at once point due to the increased megapixels on the canon mark iii at the time.
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 3200 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.00063s (1/1600) |
| NAME | Dayanis + Kevin-2.jpg |
| SIZE | 4863 x 3354 |
| FILE SIZE | 14.00 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-10-24 16:56:35 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:30:54 |
| COPYRIGHT | MDP |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D850 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 1600 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.005s (1/200) |
| NAME | Sara + Troy-16.jpg |
| SIZE | 5411 x 8271 |
| FILE SIZE | 27.74 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2018-01-15 14:19:18 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:47:35 |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 1600 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.00125s (1/800) |
| NAME | MD2_9849-Edit.jpg |
| SIZE | 3200 x 4901 |
| FILE SIZE | 6.99 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2015-07-12 19:23:07 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:39:20 |
| COPYRIGHT | MDP |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 400 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.002s (1/500) |
| NAME | Anna Kate + Aaron-45.jpg |
| SIZE | 4794 x 3191 |
| FILE SIZE | 5.19 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2016-04-23 15:01:46 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:30:48 |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 2500 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.0008s (1/1250) |
| NAME | Karen + Mike-12.jpg |
| SIZE | 3209 x 4715 |
| FILE SIZE | 9.71 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-12-10 13:41:38 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:46:39 |
| COPYRIGHT | MDP |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 1600 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 130.0 mm (130.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.3 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.02s (1/50) |
| NAME | Jessica and Dray-27.jpg |
| SIZE | 3280 x 4928 |
| FILE SIZE | 8.49 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-12-29 14:35:41 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:46:45 |
| COPYRIGHT | MDP |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 1600 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.01667s (1/60) |
| NAME | Kirsten + Ben-14.jpg |
| SIZE | 4928 x 3280 |
| FILE SIZE | 3.24 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-10-28 13:43:43 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 1 |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D850 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 400 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.005s (1/200) |
| NAME | Briana + Trey-1.jpg |
| SIZE | 5336 x 7956 |
| FILE SIZE | 19.77 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2018-01-26 16:38:30 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:48:02 |
| COPYRIGHT | MARKDICKINSON |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D850 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 1600 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.008s (1/125) |
| NAME | Alyssa and Brandon-33.jpg |
| SIZE | 5362 x 8148 |
| FILE SIZE | 21.91 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2018-01-04 16:07:11 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:47:02 |
| COPYRIGHT | MARKDICKINSON |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 125 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.001s (1/1000) |
| NAME | Kayla + Matthew-2.jpg |
| SIZE | 4658 x 3101 |
| FILE SIZE | 6.37 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-10-26 17:52:25 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:43:46 |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 400 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.00313s (1/320) |
| NAME | Laura + Phillip – Halifax-10.jpg |
| SIZE | 4550 x 3033 |
| FILE SIZE | 6.44 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2016-01-15 13:29:50 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:30:49 |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 250 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 180.0 mm (180.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.6 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.00313s (1/320) |
| NAME | Jenna + Nick-1.jpg |
| SIZE | 4860 x 3138 |
| FILE SIZE | 4.42 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-11-12 17:33:54 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:44:57 |
| COPYRIGHT | MDP |
| CAMERA | Nikon NIKON D4 |
| LENS | AF Zoom-Micro Nikkor 70-180mm f/4.5-5.6D ED |
| ISO | 1600 |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 150.0 mm (150.0 mm in 35mm) |
| APERTURE | f/5.3 |
| EXPOSURE TIME | 0.008s (1/125) |
| NAME | Katie and Justin-256.jpg |
| SIZE | 4682 x 3155 |
| FILE SIZE | 8.65 MB |
| DATE TAKEN | 2017-11-16 19:19:02 |
| DATE MODIFIED | 2018-01-30 13:45:11 |
| COPYRIGHT | MDP |
