Focus stacking for greater depth of field

SHAkers718

Senior Member
Has anyone tried to do focus stacking in PS Elements 14? And if so, do you know how it compares to PS CC for that particular edit feature?

I have several landscape scenes where I have taken the same shot focusing at various depths and would like to try focus stacking. Currently I only own a standalone version of Lr6. I'm hesitant to start a cloud subscription if PS Elements has the few extra edits that I'm looking for that aren't available in Lr6.
 
are you trying to get a VERY close object in focus like one a foot or two away? I have only used Photoshop for focus stacking. As Far as I know you cant focus stack in Lightroom 6 or CC.

If you see Stacking listed in Lightroom that is something different It is just a management tool.
 

SHAkers718

Senior Member
No, not like macro - just want a great DOF in my landscapes. I had a photo that I entered in the State Fair criticized for the distant objects being out of focus (but that's how our eyes see, so... seems natural to me).
 

SHAkers718

Senior Member
Here's a sample of the type of scene I would like to have in good focus front to back. The cracks in the earth in the foreground, the tree in the mid-range and he mountain in the background. I have several shots of this using different focal points but I didn't use a tripod so it's not aligned perfectly.


Lr6-9648.jpg
 
You can do that without focus stacking at all. Use a tripod to start with so shutter speed is not a factor,

Set ISO to 100 to get the best IQ as possible

Go to manual and set the Aperture to F16 using your 18-55 set at 18mm

Set the shutter speed to whatever it takes to get a good exposure.

Manually set the focus to something that is 3.5 feet in front of the camera. (very important)

Now shoot. Everything from 1.72 feet to infinity will be in focus.

I don't remember that lens but if it has it you can go to f22 and set focus to 2.5 feet and the near focus will go down to 1.23 feet to infinity. You are not going to do any better than that using focus stacking since you are sitting on a tripod or hand holding the camera you are going to have the camera higher and the first thing you see with the camera will be a few feet in front of you anyway.

This is called Hyperfocal distance and is really very useful. There is a online version located at Online Depth of Field Calculator This is where i pulled the numbers from. there is also a App for iPhone called "Digital DOF" it is by indie Film Gear and I have found it to be quite useful in the field.
 

pforsell

Senior Member
Has anyone tried to do focus stacking in PS Elements 14? And if so, do you know how it compares to PS CC for that particular edit feature?

I have several landscape scenes where I have taken the same shot focusing at various depths and would like to try focus stacking. Currently I only own a standalone version of Lr6. I'm hesitant to start a cloud subscription if PS Elements has the few extra edits that I'm looking for that aren't available in Lr6.

I haven't used PSE, but Photoshop CC for stacking, yes. Your approach is the correct one, IMHO. If you shoot landscape using a moderate aperture (f/8 ish) you don't lose small details and sharpness for diffraction, and you can achieve deeper DOF than possible in any other way without tilt/shift lenses.

Have you had a look at the specialized stacking tools like Zerene Stacker (free, IIRC) and PhotoAcute (also free, if you supply one lens/camera profile per their instructions. I did that some years ago, wasn't a big deal).

PhotoAcute can also do Superresolution, but that feature too is now built in Photoshop CC. PA's results are better than PS's if you have a supported lens/camera combo, but then again you can make the profile yourself! My D3X routinely delivers 48 or 96 megapixel superresolution images without panorama stitching, and that makes shooting and processing faster and more streamlined.
 

SHAkers718

Senior Member
Lr6-44-2.jpg

This is a composite of 10 photos I took in the fall (in spite of the watermark) using a free trial of Zerene Stacker. Super easy but it did not recognize NEF files so I had to use jpegs. In the separate photos there weren't so many dots of debris or reflection in the water but as it floated and made the composite they all showed up and you can see the direction of the flow. I tried to clean up a few of them in Lr6. Mainly, my objective was to give focus stacking a shot and I think it actually is rather intriguing! Oh, the other thing that would have made for a cleaner image is if I would have been using a tripod. I ended up needing to crop a little from the top and right sides because all 10 photos were not perfectly aligned. Also, the plants and shrubbery was swaying slightly in the breeze and you could see movement from one shot to the next, so that may also contribute to a "softer" look in the plants.

Thank you @pforsell for telling me about this software. I may just have to try a free trial of photo accute as well. And BTW, Zerene is not free, but they have different levels of pricing from student for $39 to professional for $289 (USD). I just went back to the website and see that they support TIFF files as well as JPEG.

And thank @Don Kuykendall. I will try to grasp the concept of hyperfocal distance as well to maximize greater DOF results.
 

Deezey

Senior Member
Using the hyper focal distance is pretty easy. You can get apps for phones that will get ya pretty close to where you need to be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

CP93

Senior Member
I get the idea of focus stacking, but what I can't understand is why the layers don't add up in such a way that the out of focus layers create a blurry halo around sharp objects in the other layers? Do you have to mask each layer so that only the in-focus areas of each layer are visible in the final image?
 
I get the idea of focus stacking, but what I can't understand is why the layers don't add up in such a way that the out of focus layers create a blurry halo around sharp objects in the other layers? Do you have to mask each layer so that only the in-focus areas of each layer are visible in the final image?


Just the magic of software. The one that is really fun to play with is removing many people from a busy scene with out taking each one out one by one.

http://nikonites.com/post-processin...ETE+TOURISTS+FROM+TRAVEL+PHOTOS#axzz3ysf6VYMo

Here is where I tried out the process
http://nikonites.com/post-processin....html?highlight=deleting+people#axzz3ysf6VYMo
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
....This is called Hyperfocal distance and is really very useful. There is a online version located at Online Depth of Field Calculator This is where i pulled the numbers from. there is also a App for iPhone called "Digital DOF" it is by indie Film Gear and I have found it to be quite useful in the field.

I miss having the hyperfocal markings on lenses. It was a feature I used.
 
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