https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tonn2vrrwk
Here is a detailed summary of the video “Focus Stacking in Landscape Photography” by Mark Denney:
Overview In this video, landscape photographer Mark Denney explains how to solve the common problem of capturing a landscape photo that looks sharp on the camera screen but reveals soft, blurry areas (like the foreground) when zoomed in. The solution is “focus stacking,” a technique that has become significantly easier and faster with modern post-processing tools. The tutorial breaks down the entire process from shooting on location to blending the final image in Photoshop.
What is Focus Stacking? Focus stacking involves taking multiple photographs of the same scene, each with a different focus point (e.g., one focused on the foreground, one on the midground, and one on the background). These images are then blended together in post-processing to create a single master photograph that is tack-sharp from front to back.
Phase 1: Shooting on Location To get the right source files in the field, Mark recommends the following steps:
- Gear & Settings: While it can be done handheld, using a tripod yields the best results. Keep your camera settings consistent across all shots. ISO and shutter speed don’t matter as much, but for landscapes, an aperture between f/11 and f/16 is the sweet spot. Once set, do not change your settings between shots.
- Taking the Shots: Use spot focusing. Take your first photo focusing on the immediate foreground. Without moving the camera, move your focus point to the midground and take a second shot. Finally, move the focus point to the background and take a third shot.
Phase 2: Post-Processing Workflow Mark emphasizes doing your “heavy lifting” on the RAW files in Lightroom before moving to Photoshop for the blend.
- Edit and Sync (Lightroom): Edit just the foreground photograph. Once you are happy with the edits, highlight all the photos in the series, right-click, and select “Sync Settings” to apply identical edits to all the images.
- Export as Layers: Keep all the images highlighted, right-click, select “Edit In,” and choose “Open as Layers in Photoshop.”
- Auto-Align (Photoshop): Once the images load as a layer stack in Photoshop, highlight all the layers. Go to Edit > Auto-Align Layers (leave the projection on “Auto”) and hit OK. Note: This is a crucial step even if you used a tripod, as changing focus inherently causes slight zooming/shifting known as “focus breathing.”
- Auto-Blend (Photoshop): With the layers still highlighted, go to Edit > Auto-Blend Layers. Select “Stack Images,” ensure “Seamless Tones and Colors” and “Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas” are checked, and hit OK. Photoshop will automatically mask out the blurry parts of each layer and blend only the sharpest details.
- Save: Go to File > Save. This will flatten the merged image and automatically send it back to Lightroom as a high-quality TIFF file.
The Biggest Mistake to Avoid Mark points out that the most common mistake people make is not taking enough photos in the field, resulting in “gaps.” If you jump your focus point too far between the foreground and background, you might end up with a blended image that is sharp in the front and back, but unfixably soft in the middle. To prevent this, always take “insurance shots” by capturing extra images with focus points slightly closer together than you think you need.