Focus stacking on the 7D - tutorial

[Corniger]

Since I found all videos on YT very misleading, as recorded using 5D models, and I just found one halfway botched entry on using it on a 60D with way too many unnecessary things in it, I thought I'd post my own, so I can remember it better.

It SOUNDS complicated, but in fact it's just always "pushing the DEL button" in between that makes the instructions look lengthy, but that's necessary, otherwise you won't get the visual information required to complete this operation.

• Power on cam
• activate Live View
• press DEL twice to activate ML
• go to camera settings tab, activate "Global Draw, on, all modes" and then activate "Focus peaking", color set to something contrasting with the subject (only needs to be done once for setup, only works with focus loupe disabled!)
• go to focus settings tab, set "Follow Focus" to "Arrows" (only needs to be done once for setup)
• press DEL deactivate ML menu
• manually focus (or push the joystick left) on the point farthest away the camera should focus on. I you can't see focus peaking lines and dots, you have native Canon menus activated. Press the "Info" button repeatedly until you get to a screen that only shows the ML level bars and info. You'll then see focused details highlit in the color you chose in step 4
• press DEL activate ML menu
• go to "Focus" Tab (1 to the right)
• select "Focus End point" and press "Q", top left button. The Focus End point is now greyed out and set to "0, here". ML knows where to start from now.
• press DEL deactivate ML menu so you can see the peaking!
• press the joystick right to get the motor into motion, focusing closer towards you. ML now counts how many stepas the motor has to complete to go to where you want it to. Once the peaking is visible to the closest point that should be in focus, press DEL
• back in ML, you select "Focus stacking", select "copy rack range" and "start focus stack". Setting the correct number of steps etc. is individual and depends on what lens you use. Every time you alter the number of steps, you have to copy rack range again!

Edits: after extensive use, I found out some steps I previously described could be skipped.

[fred_76]

This step by step procedure also works with the Canon 6D.

You forgot to say :

14. Go to "Focus stacking" > "Run focus stack" to start the focus stacking sequence

After the sequence has been finished, ML will return to the initial focus point. You can then :
- whether go back from step 6 to reselect your focus range from scratch
- or go back to 11 to reselect the end of the focus range

In step 9, read "go back to the main Focus Tab"

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By the way, for some reason I don't know, the focus stacking sequence only covers a bit less than half the range I selected between steps 7 and 12. I'm using a Canon 6D and a Canon 100 mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens. I therefore have do up to step 7 and then do the following :

8b. go to "Focus stacking" tab
9b. test and try various values between "Num. of pics in front" and "Focus steps/pictures", and if no combination is working, change the "step size" in the "Focus settings" tab. Don't press on "Copy rack/focus range".

14. Go to "Focus stacking" > "Run focus stack" to start the focus stacking sequence

Cheers

Fred

[CommanderKeen]

Thank you, both of you! It took me to create an account to be able to thank you "in person". Both Corniger's tutorial and Fred's additional tips and explanation were (are!) extremely helpful. Focus stacking has been problematic for me and browsing the web wasn't too helpful. Too many tips just spread around many sites. Only just Corniger's compilation turned out to be what I really needed. So, thank you!