Focus stacking is a technique used by many photographers today, particularly macro photogs. In macro, your depth of field (DOF - the area in focus) is so shallow or small, that you end up with only a small portion of your subject in sharp focus. You see this quite often when photographing things that move, like insects. In order to get a sharp image, you need a fast shutter speed, so the aperture is opened all the way to let in lots of light. Open aperture = shallow DOF. Focus stacking means you select the sharp part from multiple images to create one image with more of your subject in focus. It is like putting together a puzzle with only the sharp pieces of your photos. It also means you need to take multiple photos with different areas in focus.
I exported to Photoshop (Elements) and layered the 3 images into one. My approach is to keep the base image on top, and layer the others underneath. Using the layers panel, i adjust the opacity and resize or move the photos around to ensure they align and then delete portions of the base image. The layer underneath then show through.
This one was simple, only 3 images. The most I've done manually is 10... but i know of pictures created with 20+ images all stacked together. I believe that newer versions of PSE and PS have auto-stacking... I need to investigate that and upgrade. It's a lot of work to stack, but the results are nice! Final below.
This one was simple, only 3 images. The most I've done manually is 10... but i know of pictures created with 20+ images all stacked together. I believe that newer versions of PSE and PS have auto-stacking... I need to investigate that and upgrade. It's a lot of work to stack, but the results are nice! Final below.