In macro photography, I know focus stacking is often the best way to increase depth of field, but I’m asking about a single-shot approach. If I want more depth of field, I can either: - stop down to a smaller aperture, which increases depth of field but can reduce sharpness due to diffraction, or - move farther from the subject and crop the image afterward, which also increases depth of field but reduces final image resolution. At the same final framing and display size, when should one method be preferred over the other? For a single macro shot, is there any image-quality advantage to stepping back and cropping instead of simply using a smaller aperture?

For single-shot macro, is stopping down better than stepping back and cropping for more depth of field?

Asked 8/20/2015

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In macro photography, I know focus stacking is often the best way to increase depth of field, but I’m asking about a single-shot approach.

If I want more depth of field, I can either:

stop down to a smaller aperture, which increases depth of field but can reduce sharpness due to diffraction, or
move farther from the subject and crop the image afterward, which also increases depth of field but reduces final image resolution.

At the same final framing and display size, when should one method be preferred over the other? For a single macro shot, is there any image-quality advantage to stepping back and cropping instead of simply using a smaller aperture?

depth-of-field macro diffraction aperture cropping

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

10y ago

2 Answers

The pragmatic answer is: If possible, you make your aperture smaller to achieve the desired DOF. That way you do not trade in resolution.

Stepping back and cropping in is equivalent to choosing a longer focal length and stepping back (apart from the resulting resolution). It probably is an unpractical way to influence the DOF.

Mathematically, I think none of them is superior regarding the final DOF effect.

Originally by user30073. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user30073

10y ago

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For a single macro shot, the practical advice is usually to stop down first rather than step back and crop.

Stopping down increases depth of field without throwing away pixels. Moving back and cropping gives you more depth of field too, but the crop reduces final resolution, so it’s generally not an efficient way to gain DOF.

In practice, stepping back and cropping is roughly equivalent to changing framing by using a different focal length from farther away, except that cropping costs resolution. So it’s usually not the preferred way to control macro DOF.

The community consensus here is that neither method has a clear mathematical advantage for the final depth-of-field effect at equal framing, but cropping is less practical because of the resolution loss. So if your goal is more DOF in a single image, favor a smaller aperture up to the point where diffraction becomes objectionable for your needs.

If you need substantially more depth of field than stopping down can provide acceptably, focus stacking is the better solution.

For single-shot macro, is stopping down better than stepping back and cropping for more depth of field?

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