Focus Stacking Tricks from Lightroom to Photoshop

Photography Tips  •  Photoshop Tutorials

In this video, photographer Serge Ramelli shares his technique for creating focus-stacked photos of trees. He starts by setting up his camera with a low tripod and a wide lens, and positions flowers in the foreground to add interest to the shot. He takes multiple photos of the same scene, each with a slightly different focus point, to ensure that everything in the frame is in focus.

Once he has taken the photos, Ramelli imports them into Lightroom and performs some basic retouching to enhance the image. He adjusts the exposure, boosts the contrast, and adds some magenta to the sky to make it more vibrant. He also uses a brush to highlight the flowers and make them stand out in the image.

After retouching the individual photos, Ramelli combines them into a single focus-stacked image using Photoshop. He aligns the layers and uses the “Blend Layers” function to create a single, sharp photo that combines all of the in-focus elements from each of the individual shots.

Here are the steps Ramelli used in Photoshop to create the final focus-stacked image:

1. Open all the individual photos as layers in Photoshop.
2. Select all the layers and go to “Edit” > “Auto-Align Layers” to ensure that all the images are perfectly aligned.
3. With all the layers still selected, go to “Edit” > “Auto-Blend Layers” and select “Stack Images” to create a focus-stacked image.
4. Photoshop will automatically create a layer mask for each layer to ensure that only the in-focus elements are visible in the final image.
5. Check each layer individually to ensure that everything is in focus.
6. Adjust any areas that may need additional sharpening or smoothing using the layer masks.
7. Once satisfied with the final image, save and export the image back to Lightroom.

The end result is a stunning image that captures the beauty of the trees and flowers in sharp detail. Ramelli’s technique is a great way to create unique and compelling nature photographs that stand out from the crowd.