I wanted to test the focus bracket option on my new X T30. So I set up a few objects in my kitchen to cover a depth of eight inches not including the background.
It is hard to find information on what the Fuji terms “Frames Step and Interval” actually mean. Frames is simply the chosen number of shots, Interval is the time between shots in seconds, with 0, being as fast as it can manage with the chosen shutter speed and file format.
"Step" is more problematic as it relates to the “relative” focus step, and is not a fixed value. However, a value of 1 is equal to 20% of the Depth of field at the starting focus distance, with 5 equal to 100% which is why I decided to do a trial.
My settings for the above scene were... Frames 50; step 1; interval 0. As I had no idea how many frames would be needed to cover 8 inches depth of field at step”1”
The distance to the first object was 26" depth 8" camera settings !/10 sec at F5.6, ISO 200 and 18-55 lens at 55mm
It turned out that my first thought of 40 shots were not enough but 50 was.
I could most likely have set the step value to 2 as there was very little change between individual steps at 1. But the cost of more shots is only in my time. And the better the overlap the smoother the result.
I chose to shoot raw as this is my normal way of working, and although I had used a tripod, I did align the images in photoshop before focus blending them. no additional sharpening was applied.
In the results are as below, and I have included 1st 20th and 50th shot as an indicator of the focus depth at those steps. Though viewed at 100% changes are of course more obvious.
My next test will be the same, but including a wide depth of field landscape with a prominent foreground and distant detail.
View attachment 250238