EOS R5 Mark II Trouble with Focus Bracketing

[SOPH1A]

Focus brakecting with the r5 mark ii. I do a lot of flower photography. I like to use an aperture of f2.8 to get soft focus in the petals, but focus bracket the stamens to get them all in focus. I have done this successfully in the past with the R5 using Zerene Stacker to stack the images. I thought the mark ii would help automate the process.

I have set a sufficient number of photos and a suitable increment as I can see, when it takes the sequence of photos, that the focus is ending beyond the stamens. However, after the camera has finished taking the photos and starts processing, it says it has stopped processing the composite due to blur and suggest I narrow the aperture. It produces a jpeg image which covers about 3/4 the way through the stack.

I have tried varying the settings and it was still giving me the same message at f5.6. Rather rudely at F8 it told me that it was going to stop processing the image because it was "dull and monotone".  (That's how I like my flower photos!).

Can anyone give me some advice on how I can persuade the camera to process what it has taken rather than stop because it doesn't like the petal blur or tone?

EOS R5 Mark II 

[Waddizzle]

Don’t process the images in the camera.  

[SOPH1A]

Hi thanks for your reply. I could process on the computer but I bought the mark 2 to cut out this stage and be able to see the stacked composite immediately. 

[Waddizzle]

It seems using the Focus Bracketing tool requires some patience, practice, and a bit of experimentation. The tool is a great way to capture images. I suggest that you look at a set to actually see what the camera might be complaining about. 

Do you shoot RAW?  The camera can create JPG files from RAW files. It can also create HDR images, too.  Best results are achieved in post. 

[Wandalynn]

I agree with Waddizzle. I also have an alternative for you. I've used the focus bracketing feature quite a bit (and on three cameras--R5, R6 mark ii and lately, R5 mark ii--for nature closeups and have encountered the issues you describe when using the in-camera processing of the latter two. I'm not familiar with the Zerene Stacker you mention but as a free alternative, you can use Canon's Digital Photo Professional app, which is found on Canon's page for your camera model under Software. It's very easy to use for stacking--their term is Depth Compositing. In it, you can go through your images and eliminate any that, say, focused beyond your flower. For the stack, you can either just highlight the first in the series or select the range you want stacked and DPP will take it from there. It's a little slow so expect a delay. In DPP I have added Depth Compositing as a shortcut at the top of their screen.  I also recommend downloading the DPP manual for additional info. Focus bracketing is one of my favorite features.

[esimavi]

You have to start the focus stacking from the shortest focus distance and move on up. If you take too many photos and the captured area is completely out of focus the processor will say it stopped. But that wouldn't affect the generated composite as it's saying it stopped using the rest of the photos because they were all out of focus. I would adjust the number of photos and the increment if you don't want that warning to come up.

When you initially focus on your composition make sure you focus to the closest distance.

I've so far had good luck with in camera processing. I have seen it mess up the rendered composite rarely but it does happen. I use a macro 24mm lens and set the f value to the lowest. When using focus stacking you should use the lowest f value.

Also everything should be on a tripod when doing focus stacking. I also turn off the lens image stabilizer. I have seen the camera resonate with the image stabilizer turned on when working with some table stands.

And dont let people tell you not to use your cameras composite rendering, that's what you paid for. I can't imagine doing what I do with my patch photography to have to use photoshop to render them together. It would be a waste of time. 

[Wandalynn]

I agree that the in-camera compositing is a terrific tool. It has me spoiled, in fact!