Samples

The following images were taken with the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III macro lens mounted on a Nikon Z8 camera. The images were developed in Lightroom 14.0/CRAW 17.0 from RAW/NEF files (or DNG files from focus stacking) to Adobe Vivid profile (with few exceptions) with the lens profile compensating CA, distortions, and vignetting. Noise-reduction was set to 0, sharpening to 50/0.5/36/10. I applied exposure compensation plus some extra tone, color, or saturation adjustment to produce more pleasing images which are closer to what one would normally do when processing RAW files. Most images were shot wide open, just remember the effective aperture shrinks in close-up shooting.

The individual exposure details are stated for each image. All of my high resolution Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III macro sample images are available to download in their original formats for analysis at Flickr. These files are for personal evaluation only and cannot be used in another publication or website without permission.

1/60, f4.2, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro at 1:2.0, 68 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original

A few observations from using focus shift shooting with the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro between 1:1 and 1:4 magnification:

• Focus on the nearest point you need to be sharp. Focus shift shooting takes the indicated number of shots focusing incrementally further away from this point.
• Focus step width (1-10) and effective aperture determine how far focus is changed between each shot. For sharpest results from focus stacking use a step width of 4 (values between 1 and 4 do not change the results). A value of 7 doubles the focus shift distance, a value of 10 doubles it again. So at 10 you only need a quarter of the shots that you need with 4. But then you’ll end up with a lower quality focus stack.
• If you stop the lens down depth-of-field increases and the camera automatically increases the focus shift distance accordingly – no need to change the focus step width. So you could capture the same focus range at f4.0 with 100 shots or f8.0 with 50 shots.
• When shooting at 1:1 magnification, a focus step width of 4, and an aperture of f5.6 the focus shift distance of the Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro is around 130 micron which is well within the depth of field. So even shooting with a focus step width of 7 (resulting in a focus shift distance of 260 micron) should be a safe step size for stacking, allowing for 20% image overlap.
• When the focus shift sequence is done, focus remains at the farthest point (unless you activate focus position auto reset). Check the last image and if it is not far enough away simply start another focus shift sequence from that point. Should the lens hit infinity, focus shift shooting is automatically terminated and no shots wasted reaching “beyond the horizon”.

All in all focus shift shooting involves a bit of guesswork regarding the number of shots to cover the desired focus range. But after a bit of experimenting you can quickly and easily get perfect image sequences which you then can merge with the stacking software of your choice (I used Helicon Focus 8). I’ve also listed the number of steps I used to create the images plus the approximate magnification. So you can get a feeling of what you might need at a focus step width of 4.

1/15, f5.6, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro at 1:1, 25 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/20, f4.0, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro at 1:2.4, 72 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/160, f4.5, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro at 1:1.9, 30 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/15, f5.6, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro at 1:1, 20 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/125, f4.2, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro at 1:1.7; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f2.8, 1250 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f2.8, 1400 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f3.2, 1800 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f2.8, 900 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f3.0, 1100 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f3.0, 800 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f2.8, 80 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f3.2, 2800 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/80, f2.8, 800 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f2.8, 1000 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/50, f2.8, 1250 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/100, f3.0, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/60, f3.2, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/400, f3.0, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/100, f2.8, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/500, f2.8, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/160, f2.8, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/500, f2.8, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/13, f8.0, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, here for large original

1/1250, f2.8, 64 ISO, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di III Macro; click image for 4k version, large original available at f2.8, f4.0, f5.6, f8.0