When I take photographs of flowers, I want all of the flower in the shot to be sharp, front to back. This is impossible just taking a one off shot, regardless of the lens or aperture used. If you take a shot of a flower using a 100mm lens at an aperture of f11 and 500mm from the subject, just less than 10mm of the flower will be in acceptable focus. If you have a subject that is 80mm across front to back, it follows that most of the flower will not be in focus. For many photographers that is not a problem as some make a virtue of having large areas of soft focus in their images. In the end it’s an aesthetic judgement. As far as I’m concerned I want all my subject to be in focus.

For an example I shot a dried plant head which was 170mm in diameter from a distance of 500mm. I shot the first image (shown below) using a 90mm f2.8 Sony macro lens. The camera, a Sony A7R3, was mounted on a tripod and triggered using a wireless remote to minimise any camera camera shake. It was also set to a two second delay.

Dried Flower – first image

It can be seen from the first image only a small part of the plant head is in focus.

To create an image that was sharp front to back I shot 23 images altering the focus point a small amount for each shot. I started with the focus point at the front of the plant head and then worked toward the rear a small amount at a time until I had covered the whole of the plant head. I use manual focus with focus peaking enabled that lets me see exactly what is in focus for each shot.

I imported all 23 images into Lightroom where I performed a basic edit for exposure. I then sent all 23 images to HeliconFocus, the image stacking software. The short movie shows how HeliconFocus creates the single front to back sharp image by incorporating all the sharp portions from each image into the final single image.

Dried Flower – slide right for single shot, slide left for focus stacked shot

Dried Flower – final image with background

I use this technique not only for flowers, like the Iris, but for all the still life images I shoot.

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During the course of a portrait shoot – which would normally last about three hours – I’ll take around 300 images. The subject will normally change outfit and hairstyle if appropriate during the course of the shoot.

Hairstyle 1

Hairstyle 2

Hairstyle 3

Part of the process is for me to get to know the subject and the possibilities they present.

I will normally shoot on a tripod, which I find allows me to concentrate totally on the subject and more or less forget about the camera. If I’m in a studio I will normally set the camera to f8 @ 125th of a second, always focusing on the nearer of the subject’s eyes. I’ll use minimum ISO which in the case of my camera, Sony AR73, is 50. I also use auto eye focus where the camera will track the subjects eye, always keeping it in focus.

I’ll spend a good deal of time talking to the subject, giving them direction on how I would like them to move. I’m not a fan of static posing. I much prefer using slow dynamic movements.

I’ll ask them to move in a particular way then pause for a beat, and then repeat until I ask them to stop and rest. I’ll also ask them to try express in their look some emotion. While the subject is performing their movement, I’ll be watching for the moment that I think may make the best shot. As they repeat the movement I have a number of opportunities to get the shot I’m after. I normally have an idea of what I’m after and will shoot until I think I have got the best shot I can from any particular sequence.

Shot 1

Shot 2

Shot 3

Shot 4

The shots from any one sequence can be radically different as every small movement the subject makes produces quite a different shot. This is where the challenge as a photographer rests; in choosing that decisive moment to take the shot. This is where rendering the camera as invisible and totally concentrating on the subject, in my opinion, allows me to really get to grips visually and aesthetically with the subject.

I normally find the subject likes very different shots from those I pick. I put this down to familiarity with one’s own face, in that they, the subject, are used to seeing themselves in a particular way and often what I produce is not how they are used to seeing themselves. This unfamiliarity often bring surprises. In the end I’m often shooting to please myself and not the subject.

The most time-consuming part of the process is selecting the final shots. I often have to leave them for a couple of weeks and sometimes much longer until I make the final selection. Shots that you initially think are good turn out to be among the ones rejected in the final selection.

As I spend quite some time on an edit, I want to ensure the images I pick will turn out to be successful images. Unfortunately that’s not always the case. During the edit I will remove certain blemishes and spots that I think detract from the image. I never change or distort features. I’ll always crop the image to ensure a good composition and will sometimes add in a background that I think complements the image.

Before Edit

After Edit

Final Edit 1

Final Edit 2

Final Edit 3

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