If you have followed me over the years, you will know that I shoot a lot of my images at f/16 and higher f/stops to get the depth of field I want in my images. 

You may have also heard that you should avoid shooting higher than f/16 because it causes diffraction.  With out getting into the technical reasons, when you have diffraction from shooting at high f/stop numbers, you will get softness in the details in your photo, so you don't get the sharpest images out of the camera.

But, luckily we are in the digital ages, and with all post processing software, from all companies, they provide us with a sharpening tool, and when used correctly, it will sharpen the softness from the diffraction, that's what they are made to do, correct soft images.

Some people will say to get more depth of field, you can focus stack.  Shooting many images at different focus points through out the subject, and then using a software program to merge all images into one fully sharp image, you will be able to get all the subject in focus while shooting at lower f/stop number with less diffraction.

Focus stacking out in nature is difficult, as with macro, shooting small subjects, we constantly battle with wind.  Wind moving a subject over a number of shots, will ruin your focus stacked image.  Works great indoors with no wind, but more difficult in the field.

I find it a waste of time focus stacking, as I can achieve all the depth of field I need by just shooting in the higher f/stops, and getting the it done with only one shot.  Join my Macro Photo Club online, and learn how to get it done.

I admit there will be some slight softness while shooting in the these higher f/stop numbers, but as I have said, we have the tools in post processing to correct this issue.

Now, let's get back to the real reason I'm writing this blog post.  In 1932, the most famous of all landscape, and nature photographers, Ansel Adams, along with Edward Weston, and five other photographers, started a camera club in California called, Group f.64.

The philosophy of the group was to shoot with maximum depth of field, so that their subject would be in focus from front to back.  To achieve maximum depth of field, they all used lenses that went up to f/64.  That's why the group was named, Group f.64. 

So, I guess if it was good enough for Ansel Adams to shoot at the highest f/stop to achieve maximum depth of field, it's good enough for me.

Back in the day, Mary Street Alinder wrote the book called, Group f.64, which told the story of how that club got started, and the history of the photographers in the club.  I found it a very interesting read.  I've included the link to the book if you are interested in reading about this group of famous photographers, and the Group f.64 camera club. 

Click here to see the book on Amazon.