>>3199094For living creatures, focus stacking is difficult because they move around, ruining the sequence of photos for a stack. If they hold still and you can do it, do it fast. You'll need to do it manually. It is best with a tripod and a macro rail or macro bellows. You with use the manual focus ring on the camera or the rail/bellows to move the DOF across the subject. Either manually focus using the ring on the lens or just keep moving the camera closer/further away from the subject and watch the DOF move across the subject. Overlap the DOF a good bit from one photo to the next.
For light, it depends on the subject. You can use white reflectors outside, if they don't scare off your subjects. That can be something as simple as some white paper on cardboard. A Ring Flash is the great option to get photos of live subjects so you can have a high number F-stop and wider DOF.
https://www.diyphotography.net/the-comprehensive-guide-to-macro-photography/As far as when to use focus stacking. You use it when you want your DOF to be larger than what it is so there's more of the subject in focus. If you need to have your F-stop set to a low number like F/3 then the DOF will be much smaller than say F/8 or F/11. You'll get more light and good bokeh using wide open aperture, but you'll need to focus stack with 2-4 images to make up for the smaller DOF.
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/5717972844/focus-stacking-in-macro-photographyYou can focus stack by taking photos without a tripod or anything other gear, just by holding the camera and taking fast pics. Sometimes it works out well, other times there's too many inconsistencies between photos.
