Focus Stacking Buttons

Focus stacking with the NiSi Macro Focusing Rail NM-180s – Watch on YouTube

We needed to upgrade our focus stacking rail, so we chose the NiSi Macro Focusing Rail NM-180s. It replaces our cheap amazon two axis focusing rail and has some big advantages. In this article, we’re using the NM-180s to focus stack some photos of buttons!

Focus Stacking Buttons

Focus stacking is a fantastic technique that all macro photographers should try at least once. It takes a lot of time and patience, a rail and some extra processing, but the results are usually amazing!

A shallow depth of field is indicative of macro photography and focus stacking can totally remove it from the equation. Especially if your goal is to capture detail and maximum depth in the image.

Today we’re not stacking perfectly made products, or amazingly detailed insects… just buttons!

Buttons are something simple that most people will have at home and they actually make for a really fun subject for focus stacking. They have a lot of variety, and when (literally) stacked together, create a lot of nice curves and geometry that benefits well from focus stacking!

We got a few packs of buttons and piled them up. Our camera was set at an angle and we went to work capturing some interesting combinations of buttons with focus stacks.

NiSi Macro Focusing Rail NM-180s

While we’re not affiliated or sponsored by NiSi, we have to mention some of the nice features on our new macro focusing rail. Our old one was quite rickety and lacked a lot of precision. It was also annoying to mount and attach to the camera.

The NiSi Macro Focusing Rail NM-180s however is a huge improvement on our cheap amazon purchased rail. It’s an all metal design and feels very robust. While only a single axis, the arca swiss compatible quick release plate can easily be replaced with another rail to move latterally if needs be.

The movement of the rail is so smooth, it’s sometimes hard to tell it’s moving at all! Fine increments are very important for precision in focus stacks, and this rail has the ability to move the camera only fractions of a millimeter at a time.

The overall sturdy build and stability of the rail made these images far easier to take than any of our previous shoots, so hats off to NiSi.

Lighting for focus stacking

Of course, the rail is only one part of the equation. No macro shoot is complete without some lighting. We used the Adaptalux Studio to add some pleasantly diffused light to our buttons to bring out the colour and texture on the buttons.

Placing your lighting in the right spot can enhance details and colour in your focus stacked images, but it’s not easy to get right. Small subjects need small light sources, so the flexible LED lights of the Adaptalux Studio are idea.

Finally, we used helicon focus to stack our shots together for the completed stacks. Helicon Focus is a standalone piece of software that is very simple to use and creates phenomenal results. We covered how to use it in a previous article, but it’s very simple. Drag the images, click go… and see what happens!

Of course there are plenty of settings to tweak and try out, but more often than not, the defaults do just fine!

While buttons are probably not the most interesting macro subject you’re likely to see, focus stacking does bring out some amazing details on them. Even the simple button hides all kinds of interesting textures, from scratches to imperfections and even some dirt (how it got there right out of the packet is anyone’s guess!)

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