In this article, I will describe how easily you can do focus stacking in Photoshop. What is focus stacking? Focus stacking indicates capturing a sequence of images, each with various sections of your subject in focus and it also merges them all together into one picture where the whole view or subject is in limelight. Photoshop not only merges the pictures altogether but also blends the deepness of the area from every individual picture. Photoshop mixes every detail so accordingly that it looks great in one image.
Focus stacking is really great for large-scale photography. When you are working with huge photography then it is approximately impossible to obtain your whole subject in limelight because of the unbelievably thin deepness of the area. Besides this, focus stacking is perfect for any condition where you are getting a short supply of light, and its pressures you to apply a wide aperture which decreases the deepness of the area.
Capturing a sequence of photos along with an individual section of the view in limelight and after this merging them all together in the photo shop, you can present the whole view into a stylish and trendy focus from the forefront to the background. All you need to do is, be calm and do your work very carefully. Let’s get started.
Open your Photoshop. At first, you have to load your desired images in the photo shop as layers. Go to the top and choose the file menu < select “ scripts ” < select “ Load files into stack ”. Load layers dialog box will be opened .
With the help of this dialog box, we can decide which files we want to load in the photo shop. You have to set the “ Use ” option as files”. Basically you will get it as default but still check it . Then press on the “ browse ” button. If you are using the windows system, then use the file explorer to handle the location. Or, you can just go to the location where you have saved your file.
In Photoshop, you can load raw images also but the size will be larger than JPEG format. Also, it will take more time to complete the focus stacking task. So try to use JPEG format for your image so that you can quickly complete your work .
For selecting all the pictures at a time, press on the first image and select it and then hold on to the SHIFT key and go to the bottom of the list to select every picture. After selecting all photos, go and press the “Open” button. All the names of the photos will be displayed in the load layer dialog box. Go to the bottom of the dialog box, you will find two options there.
One is “Attempt to automatically align source images ” and the other one is “Create smart object after loading layers ”. These two options will be turned off by default. If not, then turn it off. Press on the OK button.
The loading procedure will take time-based on your file size. If you are using a huge number of raw images then it may take a longer time and if you are using a small number of images and JPEG image format then the loading time will be smaller. After this, every picture will be loaded into PS and every picture will contain individual layers. You will see multiple layers in the layers panel. The layers panel will display all the images as layers.
After loading all the images, you have to align the layers so that your actual subject looks organized in each image. If you do not align the images then focus stacking would not operate perfectly because your main subject would be indifferent sizes in every photo. It is a problem. If you align the images, then it will fix these types of problems easily.
So you can allow the photo shop to naturally align the images. You can turn on the “Attempt to automatically align source images ” option from the load layer dialog box.
If you do not want to turn on this option, still you can align all your images. All you need to do is that select all the layers. Press on the top layers and then go to the down and select every layer. Hold on to the SHIFT key while doing this. By doing this, you can select all layers at a time. After selecting all the layers, go to the top to select edit menu < now select “Auto-align layers ” from the list. An auto-align layers dialog box will appear.
Do not modify anything. Just make sure that the “Auto” option is selected and situated at the left corner of the dialog box.
Then hit on the OK button. To align your images, Photoshop may take time. It totally based on your file size how much time will take to Photoshop during aligning. If you are using raw files then it can take a long time and if you are using JPEG files then it can take a small amount of time.
After aligning, you will be able to see that there is a series of margins in the photo. For a better experiment, turn off all the layers except the first layer. To compare with other layers, turn off the top layer and turn on the middle layer and see the difference. Check the last layer also.
Image loading is done and image aligning is done. Now you have to do the focus stacking part. Ensure that you have selected all layers. If you have not selected all the layers then do it now. Select the first layer and then use the SHIFT key and select all the layers. Go to the top and select the edit option < then select “Auto-Blend Layers”.
Auto blend layers dialog box will be displayed. There will be two options. One is “Panorama” and the other one is “Stack Images”. Using these two options, you can make a panorama of the photos, and also you can do focus stacking. Choose the “stack images” option and choose the “Seamless Tones and Colors”. Those who use Photoshop CC will find another option which is named “Content-Aware Fill Transparent areas ”.
After focus stacking, sometimes translucent sections occur throughout the edges of the photo. This “Content-Aware Fill Transparent areas ” option allows PS (Photoshop) to fill up any translucent sections that occur throughout the edges of the photos. Hit the OK button and allow the PS to start the focus stacking procedure.
Time varies based on the file size. After doing the focus stacking, your actual subject will be more focused and more perfect to look at. Go to the Layers panel and check what actually occurred. To know which portion of the image is in focus, Photoshop examined the image on every layer.
And then Photoshop started to create layers mask for every layer By creating layer masks, only focus sections will be noticeable. The layer mask thumbnail will be on the right side. Black sections of the mask is not visible and there will be some white sections, that part is the invisible mode.
After focus stacking, you may feel that everything is not perfect in the photo. Your main subject can be great to look at but you may find something weird in your picture. To solve such issues, you can use the crop tool to remove unwanted sections. From the toolbar, choose the “Crop Tool ”.
Remove the unwanted portions from your image. Anything that is not on the inside of the border will be removed from the image. Then press on the “Enter” (windows system)or “Return” (Mac System) key to complete the cropping procedure. Everything is now completed. Focus stacking is done. You can check your result.
