Why aren't the distant trees sharp when focus stacking a street scene with a GH5S and 12-60mm lens?
Asked 8/1/2026
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I'm trying to focus stack a long boulevard scene so it looks sharp from the nearest subject to the distant trees. I used the Focus Bracket feature on a Panasonic Lumix GH5S with the Leica 12-60mm lens at 54mm, on a tripod. Settings were ISO 400, f/4, and 1/25 sec, with focus jump set to +1 and 20 images.
Even in the last frames of the stack, the background trees still don't look sharp, and some of the standalone images also show the distant trees looking soft. Is this a limitation of the camera's focus stacking/bracketing, or am I using the wrong settings? What should I change if I want the whole scene to look as crisp as possible?
Originally by Sai Deepak. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Sai Deepak
20d ago
2 Answers
3
Two factors... diffraction (and lens sharpness) limits the size of the smallest object. At f/4 that is ~ 5 micron apparent/relative size (green wavelengths); that's smaller than human hair and smaller than you can see. But if the details are indistinct to the human eye the detail is less likely to be resolved. I.e. diffraction and lens resolution matter less at shorter distances because the details are presented relatively larger in size.
But also quite likely contributing is the 1/25 shutter speed. At that distance any small movement of the leaves (or camera) will add blur to the diffraction; further limiting the smallest size detail that can be resolved.
Originally by Steven Kersting. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Steven Kersting
19d ago
0
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This is probably not a camera limitation. The main issue is that the distant trees may never have been recorded sharply enough in the individual frames.
Based on the answers, two likely causes are:
- f/4 is fairly wide open for that zoom at 54mm, so lens sharpness may be weaker than it would be stopped down a bit.
- 1/25 sec is slow for fine distant detail like leaves and branches. Even on a tripod, slight leaf movement or tiny vibrations can blur that detail.
Focus stacking only combines what is already sharp in the source frames. If the background is soft in the individual shots, stacking won’t fix it.
Try this:
- Stop down to f/5.6 or f/8
- Use a faster shutter speed if there is any wind or scene movement
- Keep using the tripod, but make sure the scene itself is still
So yes, you should be able to get near-to-far sharpness in principle, but only if the background is sharp in at least some of the frames. The softness you’re seeing is more likely from lens performance and motion blur than from the GH5S focus bracketing feature.
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