I used Nikon’s Focus Shift Shooting for the first time –here’s why I’ll think twice before focus stacking manually again

Lego set split up to show focus-stacking increments .

I’ve done my fair share of focus stacking in my time. Not only is it a laborious process, but you’re never quite sure you’ve got it right until you reach the editing stage, at which point, it’s too late to fix any mistakes. Cameras have featured automatic focus-stacking functions for years, but I’ve always done it the old-fashioned way, so I thought it was high time I gave my Nikon Z8’s Focus Shift Shooting a fair shake. Spoiler: I’m impressed.

In fact, I was so happy with the results, I can’t see myself returning to my manual focus-stacking ways. Well, not unless I’m capturing an extremely detailed macro stack, but for general close-ups and landscapes, I’m a Focus Shift convert. With that in mind, read on to find out how to use Focus Shift.