Extreme depth of field...

I would like to take some shots of flowers and insects showing the landscape that they are set in. In other words what I want is to have everything in focus from a flower maybe 25 cm from the front lens element all the way out to the horizon. Whats my best method do you think? Focus stacking or a tilt-shift lens? Any other methods? Suggestions appreciated!

Tilt-shift doesn't work that way. It allows you to tweak the plane of focus, not extend DOF indefinitely. Multi-exposure stacking is, I believe, the only practical solution.

Yep, multi exposure stacking is the only way. Check out Heliopan Focus. It's exactly what you're looking for!

Bryan

Get a tilt-shift lens.

Flowers, rocks and other foreground objects of interest all tend to be in a similar plane to the ground. Shoot at f/8-f/10, tilt the lens slightly down, focus using live view. and you'll have everything in focus, from up close to infinity.

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ChrisSearle wrote in post #13860610
I would like to take some shots of flowers and insects showing the landscape that they are set in. In other words what I want is to have everything in focus from a flower maybe 25 cm from the front lens element all the way out to the horizon. Whats my best method do you think? Focus stacking or a tilt-shift lens? Any other methods? Suggestions appreciated!

Both methods will work. If you're going to focus stack, choose an aperture (such as f/8 or so) where the lens performs best. Then its just a matter of taking multiple "slices" of the scene from front to back.

With a tilt-shift lens, you have the added bonus of getting excellent sharpness throughout the frame, from front to back, with only having to take a single image. Also, you can accomplish this even in low light with a larger aperture. Another advantage is being able to shoot with a wide aperture/faster shutter speed in daylight to "freeze" a subject. For example, suppose you're shooting a field of wildflowers on a breezy day...you can open up the aperture to get a faster shutter to prevent movement of the flowers and still maintain sharpness throughout the image.

One disadvantage with a tilt-shift is if you have objects that protrude much above the plane of focus...

bps wrote in post #13864329
Yep, multi exposure stacking is the only way. Check out Heliopan Focus. It's exactly what you're looking for!

Bryan

I think you're referring to "Helicon Focus". But you're correct...excellent piece of software for stacking.

argyle wrote in post #13867284
I think you're referring to "Helicon Focus". But you're correct...excellent piece of software for stacking.

Ooops! That's what I get for responding to a thread on my iPhone while on the fly. Thanks for pointing out the correct name.

I've also learned something very new with this thread. I didn't realize that a good tilt-shift lens could work to this extent for getting a deep depth-of-field. That's what I love about this site -- I learn something new (or inspiring) just about every day!

Bryan

T/S lenses are great for landscapes, where there is a more-or-less planar surface you're trying to keep focused. When shooting 4x5, I'm always pleasantly surprised at how much DOF lens and film tilt can squeeze out of an ideal scene. But IMO t/s is not well suited for the sort of scene I think the OP has in mind. (Perhaps something like this? http://youtu.be/Cs1Xs3​Eheag?t=39s )
A bug / flower in the middle of the frame, with trees, grass, etc. behind cannot be brought to simultaneous focus with t/s.

If you can keep the close, foreground subjects in one corner, or along one edge, the t/s can help a little, but I doubt it will suffice for something as small as an insect. Bugs imply macro distances, where the inherent DOF is very limited - I just don't think t/s can cope.

Helicon focus it is then, I was looking for an excuse to get a TS! Maybe combining the two would be interesting?
Thanks anyway!

Yea, I don't think T/S will do what the OP has in mind, but it does depend on the framing.

Not sure focus stacking will be perfect either though. You'll likely still need a very small aperture to avoid artifacts around the edge of the flower.

With FS there are basically 2 issues - movement and the OOF foreground masking the background when you are focused on the background. In the latter you essentially end up with a zone around the foreground object where you never get a sharp image. You even see this on some of Helicon Focus' examples.

So, yes in general choose a sharp aperture for focus stacking, but for extreme situations you may have to use f22 and even then some clean-up may be necessary. Also the non-pro version is IMO not useable. You need the editing functionality. It's going to depend on how far the background id directly behind the flower though.

Also Helicon Focus does work in conjunction with T/S (even though you need to have the frames ordered correctly and tilt does 'strange' things). This may be a partial solution to the problem, but will depend very much on the exact framing. I think you'll need some experience with tilt (or a really good explanation which I'm not capable of) to understand why.

If it's just a flower without the stem in the foreground, I would take a shot (or focus stack) of the flower, then get someone to hold the flower out of the way, take another shot(s) of the background and blend them.

Not sure, never used focus stacking, but will it work with insects? He wanted to use it for flowers and insects. Do not list equipment (unless I missed it in a senior moment) but have gotten wildflower close ups with distant mountains in focus with an ultr-wide angle.

I would think focus stacking would work just fine if you do it manually. Take two pictures at f11 with the first one focused to emphasize the foreground and the second to emphasize the background. Starting at the hyperfocal distance and then focusing a bit closer for the foreground/a bit further for the background to make sure each shot has a decent amount of DOF. Then, paste one image on top of the other and mask out the out of focus areas.

MNUplander wrote in post #13958061
I would think focus stacking would work just fine if you do it manually. Take two pictures at f11 with the first one focused to emphasize the foreground and the second to emphasize the background. Starting at the hyperfocal distance and then focusing a bit closer for the foreground/a bit further for the background to make sure each shot has a decent amount of DOF. Then, paste one image on top of the other and mask out the out of focus areas.

You need a program specially for this though (unless maybe you are using a $45k cinema lens) becasue the effective focal length changes as you change focus. Thus you need to correct each shot for the distortion and FL change.