How to do Focus Stacking in Photoshop

The laws of physics and current camera technology sometime make it difficult to create the image we see in our heads. Especially when shooting macro photography, your focus plane can be so razor thin that only a small part of your subject is in sharp focus. It can make for some milky smooth bokeh in your background, but sometimes you want more of you subject to be in focus to help it stand out. Through the power of Adobe Photoshop, it’s possible to combine several images of the same subject taken at different focal lengths into one image that has a greater depth of field. This technique is called focus stacking.

Taking the Images

For this technique you will want to put your camera on a tripod. Photoshop does a great job in aligning images automatically, but it does a much better job if each shot is exactly the same except for your focus point. Once you have your shot setup, start by switching your lens to manual focus and focusing on the closest part of your subject that you want to be in focus. Take a picture and then gently and carefully adjust your focus slightly further back on your subject. Repeat this process until you have a set of images that each have a slightly different part of your foreground subject in focus.

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