How many frames do I need for a landscape focus stack?

Usually 2 to 5. One for the nearest foreground, one or two in the middle, and one at or near infinity, each overlapping the next.

Should I use f/16 or f/22 instead of stacking?

Those apertures soften the whole image through diffraction, especially on high-resolution sensors. Stacking at f/8 to f/11 gives a sharper result from front to back.

Can I focus stack handheld?

For landscapes with 2 to 3 frames, often yes, if you shoot quickly and keep the framing steady. Software aligns small shifts. A tripod is still more reliable.

Landscape focus stacking: sharp from foreground to horizon

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Updated 2 November 2026 · 2 min read

Wide-angle landscapes with something close in front, like flowers, rocks or ice, can’t always be sharp from your feet to the horizon in one frame. A short focus stack of two to five frames solves it without stopping down into diffraction.

When hyperfocal focusing isn’t enough

Focusing at the hyperfocal distance makes everything from half that distance to infinity acceptably sharp. On full frame at 24 mm and f/11, the hyperfocal distance is about 1.7 m, so sharpness starts around 0.9 m. If the flowers you want crisp are 40 cm from the lens, a single frame can’t hold them and the mountains. And “acceptably sharp” is soft on a large print or a 45-megapixel sensor.

Three frames, focused near, middle and far, combine into one image sharp throughout.

How to shoot it

Compose on a tripod
Lock everything down. Turn stabilisation off unless your camera recommends leaving it on.
Set exposure manually
f/8–f/11, base ISO, fixed white balance.
Focus on the nearest point
Zoom in on the screen and focus on the closest thing that must be sharp.
Step out
Use focus bracketing with a medium step, or refocus by hand: near, a few metres, and infinity often covers it. Each frame’s sharp zone should overlap the next.
Check at 100 %
Make sure the furthest frame has the horizon crisp.

Wind, water and changing light

Wind. Grass and flowers move between frames. Shoot quickly with no interval, wait for lulls, and shoot the foreground frames twice so you can choose.
Water and clouds. They change between frames anyway. The stacking picks the sharpest frame for each area, so moving water can show seams. Take water from a single frame, painting it in afterwards if your software allows.
Changing light. At sunrise the light changes fast. Shoot the series quickly; software that evens out brightness differences helps with the rest.
Exposure blending. If you also need HDR, bracket exposure at each focus point and merge exposures first, then stack.

Focus breathing at wide angles

Many lenses change their field of view slightly as they focus. Between a 40 cm frame and an infinity frame, a wide lens can grow or shrink the image by a few percent. Stacking software lines the frames up and crops the uneven edges, so leave a little room around your composition.

Focus breathing: the image grows slightly as focus moves closer. Alignment brings the frames back to the same size.

Questions

How many frames do I need for a landscape focus stack?: Usually 2 to 5. One for the nearest foreground, one or two in the middle, and one at or near infinity, each overlapping the next.
Should I use f/16 or f/22 instead of stacking?: Those apertures soften the whole image through diffraction, especially on high-resolution sensors. Stacking at f/8 to f/11 gives a sharper result from front to back.
Can I focus stack handheld?: For landscapes with 2 to 3 frames, often yes, if you shoot quickly and keep the framing steady. Software aligns small shifts. A tripod is still more reliable.