@4:00 The alternative to covering the lens with your hand is to use Lightroom's Library>Photo>Stacking>Auto-stack by capture time that will stack images captured in a series together in one group. This can make things much simpler when you return from shooting dozens-hundreds of images for stacking. I use both techniques on a regular basis. Cheers, and thanks for this excellent video.
As a beginner I thought that I could take one photo to get all areas of interest in focus in one take, you have just made my life so much easier and now will be able to enjoy my photography even more. Wonderfully presented in a manner that you can understand and follow along easily, thank you Mark.
I wish I could give you an infinite amount of likes for this, I was exhausted and trying to focus stack pictures and I just couldn't figure it out (even though I have done it a couple of times before I'm still a complete newbie and my head wasn't cooperating at all). I was so frustrated I nearly just deleted everything, decided to give UA-cam a go and found this video. I can not believe how easy it is when done this way and I can't believe I've wasted so much time trying to do it manually, THANK YOU! You made my day!
Without a doubt one of the most helpful photographers on UA-cam. You always knock it out of the park, Mark. Really appreciate what you do to help those of us still learning the art.
Mark, you are one of the best, if not the best, teachers. Have learned so much from you. Easy to listen to, easy to follow, easy to understand. All indicators of someone who is comfortable with the subject end explaining each of the elements involved. I look for your videos all the time. Thanks for sharing and teaching. Bill.
Man, I started watching you when you had hundreds of followers and struggling to see if you could make any money. Now look at you! You deserve every follower of all those 100k+. You’re content is great. Very inspiring to see. Proof that hard work and perseverance pays off.
The information you're sharing and the way you share it is just precious and I'm sure I'm not the only person that you've made absolutely happy! Thank you for providing such an enormous help, you are a wonderful teacher and I feel a lot wiser when it comes to this part of photography! I'm really grateful!
Great tip on using your hand as a marker for the focus stack series! The wife and I are going to White Sands NP soon and I’ll be putting this technique to work there, I think. I’d enjoy seeing your process for manual focus stacking, please and thank you.
Thank you Mark for helping me better understand the focus stacking process. I shoot with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk III and Olympus has built in software to both provide a series of focus bracked images for post processing and focus stacking in camera to provide an on location image. So I come home with a wider selection images to create just what my minds eye experienced.
Nice video once again, thank you. I always use the technique of taking a picture of your hand or finger when shooting a panoramic shot that has to be stitched together. If you are shooting say left to right; first frame is your left index finger pointing right, then shoot the pano frames and the last one is your right index finger pointing left. This brackets your series and also indicate direction.
Mark, thank you so much for this and all of your videos. The hand image before and after a sequence..so simple but so incredibly helpful...can't believe I never thought of doing that myself! Those are the little things I love about your channel, as well as the more complicated stuff. Look forward to some more.
Thank you for all the professional tutorials your do Mark. I find your videos to be some of the best content in tutorials; from the content you post, the nice speed you explain, the lack of distractions and noises, video quality, and you have amazing hair! Kudos!
1. The change in composition due to refocusing is called focus breathing, and most lenses suffer more or less of this, unless we are talking about much more expensive cine lenses. 2. The biggest challenges in focus stacking are to resolve the focus breathing and scenes with moving elements (wind can also affect branches, clouds, etc), without introducing artifacts. 3. This is specialized software can do better job than Photoshop. I am using Helicon, and it has several stacking algorithms that can be fine-tuned. 4. The lowest the number of photos, the less problems during blending. 5. f/16 is however too narrow, most lenses already suffer from diffraction at that aperture, I would use something closer to the sweet spot of the lens (f/8 or even wider), even with the risk of having to blend more photos. 6. I would take a second series with narrow aperture as backup in case the blending of the first series produces too many artifacts.
Very good one, Mark, simple and direct as always. A request: I’d love it if you ever feel like doing a video on focus-stacking an image that also has either high dynamic range or water movement/multiple exposure times. I never know in which order to do what in those cases. Do you take advantage of the LR RAW files first for their DR and then do the stack in PS? But then exposures aren’t quite even and the stacking can get more difficult if DR is really big or water textures very different among the images. Can’t wait for the “Advanced Focus-Stacking” tutorial someday! Thanks again-
This video was absolutely gold!!!!!!!!!!! I had to really chill and follow the process, at times I thought I had goofed up, but my image came out like my brain had imagined it, which is rare. Thank you, thank you.
I use Helicon Focus to stack the images I find it does a great job, nice tip about applying the lens correction before stacking I will have to give that a try
What drew me to your video was the Superstition Mountains. They are in my backyard and one of the most frustrating to capture. Very rarely does everything come together. Light, cloudy sky, foreground etc. What keeps me here enjoying is the content of your videos. Well done and keep 'em coming.
I definitely want to try focus stacking but after years of doing landscapes, I like to use different methods of emphasizing something in the image. Light, contrast, colors and composition are key, but so is what you have in focus and what is not sharp. Out of focus areas can help direct attention to what you want in the photograph to emphasize that is sharp.
@@vickifrance It's under construction and there is virtually no information on it right now. Thanks for the heads up but what you say makes no sense at the moment.
had to brush up on my lightroom/photoshop techniques. thank you for this video - both the quality of your teaching and the time you spent to create production value!
Thanks for making these videos. There are a lot of people making photo tutorials out there... A LOT! Yours always holds my short attention span because you seem to be a natural teacher with a great speaking voice. Now, about this video: Light Room is all I've ever used to edit my photos. Are there any other programs besides photoshop that can focus stack? (I wouldn't use photoshop enough to justify the subscription.)
dragonguise Thanks so much - very kind of you to say. Unfortunately Photoshop is the only program I use that can do it but I’m sure other programs can do it - I believe Capture One can as well.
I tried photo stacking a few weeks ago. During one image a local dog wandered in. I thought I had to redo everything, but when I focusd stacked it still worked, but the dog was in it! LOL
I would like a video/tutorial about how to stack them manually, as it happens to me that photoshop doesn't stack the right areas together (especially in astrophotography, the stars confuse photoshop)
Mark.. You've got to be the best photo editing teachers/photographers on UA-cam. I have plucked through tons of videos that are wasting my time every time. Not only do you have an incredible eye for photography, but you really know how to compose great UA-cam videos by implementing a very efficient and eye pleasing work space. Glad I found you today, as our taste is eerily similar!
Thank you for not just covering the post-processing part of the technique but also for taking time to talk about how you set up the shot and capture the images. Very helpful!
The idea of putting your hand is really helpful 😅 when I forget to do that, I look like an aged grandfather looking so close into the screen trying to know which is the first photo and which is the last 😆 Thanks for sharing that ✌🏻👍🏻
If you have your camera set to consecutive numbering of your photos, shouldn't it be easy to see that the first photo in the sequence with the scene in question is 'the first' and the last is 'the last'? What am I missing here? (I'm sure I'm missing something... ;) )
@@KaiTiura Yeah that is true if you made only 1 set of focus stack, but if you made for example 25 photos and each 5 of them focus stack from foreground to background, and you want to choose the best light conditions in 5 of these 25 it would be somewhat hard without separating each 5 with a photo of your hand.
The moody Photographer Ah! Gotcha. Makes perfect sense that you'd do a series of series' to make sure you got your focus variants where you want them, and this would save a lot of close inspection to figure out where each series starts and finishes. Thanks for the explanation.
Absolutely loved this video! Focus stacking is something I've been afraid to do because of how difficult it is but with this as a guide I am definitely going to start doing it! Would love to see a video about manual focus stacking in the future!
Great tip on using your hand to show what photos go together. I am very new to photo merging whether it's focus stacking or bracketing. I've often come back to my computer and struggled to see what goes together. Thanks for such informative videos. I'm glad I recently found you.
Do you export the Photoshop file back into LR as a tiff? In your experience, do tiff files respond to LR editing the same way raw files do? I've read several articles that say edit the raw file first before you stack because once it's a tiff it doesn't react the same as a raw (i.e. pulling up shadows). Have you tried them back to back?
I've got a series of focus stacked photos that I've been wanting to stack, but I wasn't looking forward to editing it in Photoshop because I figured I'd have to deal with each layer individually.
@@MarkDenneyPhoto Regarding the order of doing things: As far as I'm aware editing first and stacking second yields better results because that way one edits the original, uncompressed RAW file(s), whereas the TIFF after stacking no longer contains 100% of the captured data.
John Vansant Thanks John! Adobe just didn’t give LR the ability to create a focus stacked image, but I don’t know the actual technical reason behind the decision.
In ye olden days, we would select a suitable aperture and use the hyperfocal distance scale on the lens to get everything in focus in one shot. Admittedly - the sharpness might be quite as good as focus stacking but usually it worked out just fine.
I endorse many of the points that Mark makes. However I would encourage people not to use F16! With modern sensors of anything over 30 MP this will lead to some dull looking flat images due to the effects of diffraction. F8 is a far far better bet IMHO. Obviously that means you need to take a larger stack but even with a 20 mm lens you only need 4-5 shots max. When using a longer lens like a 28 or 35 is where the focus stack really comes into necessity rather than "nice to be able". This is going to mean bigger stacks. Personally I don't think Photoshop is the right tool for this. What Mark hasn't mentioned is a phenomenon called "focus breathing". Focus breathing occurs when the lens changes focus from near to far. As it does, the size of the image grows. Some lenses don't do this, but that is rare. Doing a 15 layer blend in PS is a waste of time...it just takes too long. Instead buy Zerene Stacker for a handful of dollars and it will do a 20 layer stack in around 30 seconds. Use the right tool for the job.
Rob Ducker why spend more money when photoshop can do it just fine? The focus breathing issue was resolved (albeit not perfectly) by the aligning tool. Are you only talking about time benefits?
Nicely done vid. I spent 18 years living, hiking, and photographing in Arizona. Your example photos at Lk. Powell & the cacti at the base of the Superstitions, east of Apache Junction brought wonderful memories---many thanks. BTW, I also mark a series or bracket but with a thumbs up at the start and the universal stop sign(palm-facing camera with fingers & thumb closed, pointing up). This really helps me when making multiple sets of like subjects.
Thanks again, Mark. The tip about photographing your hand - I photograph my left hand at the start of a sequence and my right hand at the end of the sequence so I know that is a complete set.
I heard the term photostacking/Focus stacking a couple of days ago and looked everywhere for an explanation. Thank you for making it so simple to understand
I agree with the others. You are one of the best teachers on UTube. I have tried watching focus stacking videos, and I finally got it because of your clarity.
I love how you give your instructions on how to achieve the lesson you are showing. Your calmness and more importantly unbiased way of creating the finished result. I've NEVER heard you say "This is the way to do this or that" You ALWAYS say "I prefer it to do it this way but there isnt a wrong or right way to do it" I have to admit though I've found myself following YOUR way to create a certain look on most of my photographic work. So once AGAIN, I great appreciate the time and effort you put into making these VERY educational videos 👍🇦🇺 PS: I'd love to watch a video and learn about manual focus stacking if its no trouble for you mate! 👌🏻
Shane Smith Photography Big thanks to you Shane! It seems like a video on Manual Focus Stacking is highly requested as well so I’ll look to make that one in the near future👍
This is not the first time I've reached out to tell you how much I appreciate your videos and what a good tutor you are, Mark. Somehow you even manage to fill me up with motivation and I thank you for that :)
Thanks Mark, this weeks video was very timely. I had just taken some shots using focus stacking this weekend and had forgotten exactly how to process them. I went back to your original video and wrote down the steps. I would like to place my vote for a video on how to do this manually as well. Thanks again.
thank you so much for that on putting the hands in front of the lense at start and end, as I tried stacking for the first time yesterday and yes I did lose where it started and ended thank you again
Thanks for the video Mark, just bought a Laowa 9mm lens for my Fujji and wanted to have a go at focus stacking, I use Affinity Photo, but I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Thank you for this video! It just popped on my feed randomly and it has been one of the most helpful videos I've seen on UA-cam. Thank you again for explaining it so well, sharing your knowledge, and making it so simple to understand!
Photographing your hand as a series start-stop indicator is a good idea, but I would recommend using a color checker card instead. That way you gain the additional knowledge of getting correct color in your entire series from the beginning. Xrite makes a great one that I use all the time.
Thanks again, Mark. For a very refreshing refresher course on "photo-stacking". I stick my finger in the frame on both ends of all my multiple layered shots. Otherwise I spend the next ten to twenty minutes figuring out which ones are in the stack, and the ones where I was finding which settings to use for the stack. It happened enough times to warrant a new approach to use in the future, so I use my finger in the frame at beginning and the end.
I watch most of your videos and must have missed this one and was prompted to take a look after watching the recent things not to do in Lightroom video. I've got to say, this is probably one of the most valuable 15 minutes I've seen to help with using both Lightroom and Photoshop, not just for focus stacking but also for copying settings to a group of images. All I need to do now is actually be able to get out and take some photos lol. Thanks Mark.
I As a recent subscriber I must tell you that I am finding these videos very helpful. A relaxed and professional delivery with really useful content. Thank you.
Wow thanks for this video. I have a large canvas print hanging over my desk in my home office and I wish I had known this technique prior to having it printed as some areas are out of focus. This would have made for a much better landscape canvas. I guess I might need to redo it with multiple images and use this technique. Thanks again.
Some people are just naturally born teachers.... you are definitely one of them, Awesome job! 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
Wowwwwww
I can’t beilive how much I’ve learned during 1 week of watching your videos.
I’m absolutely obsessed with your teachings.
@4:00 The alternative to covering the lens with your hand is to use Lightroom's Library>Photo>Stacking>Auto-stack by capture time that will stack images captured in a series together in one group. This can make things much simpler when you return from shooting dozens-hundreds of images for stacking. I use both techniques on a regular basis. Cheers, and thanks for this excellent video.
As a beginner I thought that I could take one photo to get all areas of interest in focus in one take, you have just made my life so much easier and now will be able to enjoy my photography even more. Wonderfully presented in a manner that you can understand and follow along easily, thank you Mark.
I wish I could give you an infinite amount of likes for this, I was exhausted and trying to focus stack pictures and I just couldn't figure it out (even though I have done it a couple of times before I'm still a complete newbie and my head wasn't cooperating at all). I was so frustrated I nearly just deleted everything, decided to give UA-cam a go and found this video. I can not believe how easy it is when done this way and I can't believe I've wasted so much time trying to do it manually, THANK YOU! You made my day!
Without a doubt one of the most helpful photographers on UA-cam. You always knock it out of the park, Mark. Really appreciate what you do to help those of us still learning the art.
ChristianDeme Thanks so much for this - really appreciate it👍👍
Mark, you are one of the best, if not the best, teachers. Have learned so much from you. Easy to listen to, easy to follow, easy to understand. All indicators of someone who is comfortable with the subject end explaining each of the elements involved. I look for your videos all the time. Thanks for sharing and teaching. Bill.
William Charlesworth You’re the best Bill - Thanks so much for this!
I agree. Mark is a natural teacher... and this from a former teacher.
Man, I started watching you when you had hundreds of followers and struggling to see if you could make any money. Now look at you! You deserve every follower of all those 100k+. You’re content is great. Very inspiring to see. Proof that hard work and perseverance pays off.
Thanks so much! Really appreciate that!
*moves over cactus part of image* "as you can see it is completely sharp"
Lol, I see what you did there..... x-D
You really POINTED it out!
pin sharp
As a man who likes word puns… I’m at a loss… I can’t add to this play on words… and it kinda suc(culents)ks … 🤭🌵
@@axlent123 not to be a prick' but you could have made the pun about the cactus cooler'
@@defytheauds_ well said!
Really good info for the beginner, will now have to give it a go. Many thanks for sharing.
Ross Sayer Glad to do it Ross!
One of the best videos explaining focus stacking that I have seen. Simple and concise. Well done Mark!
The information you're sharing and the way you share it is just precious and I'm sure I'm not the only person that you've made absolutely happy! Thank you for providing such an enormous help, you are a wonderful teacher and I feel a lot wiser when it comes to this part of photography! I'm really grateful!
Great Job on this video-- please do the manual focus stacking video--
Many thanks Michael!
You are so articulate, Mark. You make a seemingly complex topic so easy. Yes, please do a video on manual stacking.
MARGUERITE MOORE Thanks so much! I’m glad you think so!
Great tip on using your hand as a marker for the focus stack series! The wife and I are going to White Sands NP soon and I’ll be putting this technique to work there, I think.
I’d enjoy seeing your process for manual focus stacking, please and thank you.
Appreciate you watching the video and enjoy your trip!
Thank you Mark for helping me better understand the focus stacking process. I shoot with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk III and Olympus has built in software to both provide a series of focus bracked images for post processing and focus stacking in camera to provide an on location image. So I come home with a wider selection images to create just what my minds eye experienced.
Did you say ''reach around''?
LOL! 🤣
Why isn't is surprising that Gavin caught that.
I thought the same thing and now I'm embarrassed that Gavin was thinking it, too. What have I become?
Maybe....😘
😂
Nice video once again, thank you. I always use the technique of taking a picture of your hand or finger when shooting a panoramic shot that has to be stitched together. If you are shooting say left to right; first frame is your left index finger pointing right, then shoot the pano frames and the last one is your right index finger pointing left. This brackets your series and also indicate direction.
Kswa S Thanks so much!
Mark, thank you so much for this and all of your videos. The hand image before and after a sequence..so simple but so incredibly helpful...can't believe I never thought of doing that myself! Those are the little things I love about your channel, as well as the more complicated stuff. Look forward to some more.
Dennis Peterson Great to hear it was helpful Dennis - that’s a real time saver!
Thank you for all the professional tutorials your do Mark. I find your videos to be some of the best content in tutorials; from the content you post, the nice speed you explain, the lack of distractions and noises, video quality, and you have amazing hair! Kudos!
1. The change in composition due to refocusing is called focus breathing, and most lenses suffer more or less of this, unless we are talking about much more expensive cine lenses.
2. The biggest challenges in focus stacking are to resolve the focus breathing and scenes with moving elements (wind can also affect branches, clouds, etc), without introducing artifacts.
3. This is specialized software can do better job than Photoshop. I am using Helicon, and it has several stacking algorithms that can be fine-tuned.
4. The lowest the number of photos, the less problems during blending.
5. f/16 is however too narrow, most lenses already suffer from diffraction at that aperture, I would use something closer to the sweet spot of the lens (f/8 or even wider), even with the risk of having to blend more photos.
6. I would take a second series with narrow aperture as backup in case the blending of the first series produces too many artifacts.
Péter, köszönöm (I assume you are from the Balaton country).
@@michaels3003 you're welcome. I live in Budapest.
Excellent tip about separating series of photos by taking a photo of your palm. I use that also for panoramas.
It’s such a time saver!
Very good one, Mark, simple and direct as always. A request: I’d love it if you ever feel like doing a video on focus-stacking an image that also has either high dynamic range or water movement/multiple exposure times. I never know in which order to do what in those cases. Do you take advantage of the LR RAW files first for their DR and then do the stack in PS? But then exposures aren’t quite even and the stacking can get more difficult if DR is really big or water textures very different among the images. Can’t wait for the “Advanced Focus-Stacking” tutorial someday! Thanks again-
KarltheFirst Really appreciate it Karl! I’ll look to make a video on what you’re describing above
Mark Denney great! Thanks as always, Mark!
This video was absolutely gold!!!!!!!!!!! I had to really chill and follow the process, at times I thought I had goofed up, but my image came out like my brain had imagined it, which is rare. Thank you, thank you.
I use Helicon Focus to stack the images I find it does a great job, nice tip about applying the lens correction before stacking I will have to give that a try
Is this software ( helicon focus) free? I do not have photoshop
@@jordicasanovas5149 Not Free but not super expensive. It works quite well, I think better for stacking than Ps.
I too have always used Helicon Focus for my stacking.
awesome video, Mark! Thanks for always providing useful tips/information! Can't wait for the next video. Best, Josh
Joshua H Appreciate ya Josh!
this was so cleaned and simple but lots of knowledge....learnt a new thing about stacking....thnks !!!
Vikrant Mohare Great to hear you enjoyed the video!
What drew me to your video was the Superstition Mountains. They are in my backyard and one of the most frustrating to capture. Very rarely does everything come together. Light, cloudy sky, foreground etc. What keeps me here enjoying is the content of your videos. Well done and keep 'em coming.
Chris Dunham Thanks so much Chris! Happy to hear you’re enjoying the videos!
I definitely want to try focus stacking but after years of doing landscapes, I like to use different methods of emphasizing something in the image. Light, contrast, colors and composition are key, but so is what you have in focus and what is not sharp. Out of focus areas can help direct attention to what you want in the photograph to emphasize that is sharp.
Thomas, I visited your website and it loads very very slow AND it's not secure. Both of these things you should look into...especially the secureness.
@@vickifrance It's under construction and there is virtually no information on it right now. Thanks for the heads up but what you say makes no sense at the moment.
had to brush up on my lightroom/photoshop techniques. thank you for this video - both the quality of your teaching and the time you spent to create production value!
Thanks for making these videos. There are a lot of people making photo tutorials out there... A LOT! Yours always holds my short attention span because you seem to be a natural teacher with a great speaking voice.
Now, about this video: Light Room is all I've ever used to edit my photos. Are there any other programs besides photoshop that can focus stack? (I wouldn't use photoshop enough to justify the subscription.)
dragonguise Thanks so much - very kind of you to say. Unfortunately Photoshop is the only program I use that can do it but I’m sure other programs can do it - I believe Capture One can as well.
Photoshop + lightroom 12 bucks a month ist that bad to be honest.
Very nice detail touch. Thanks!
RaNaldo Shorter Thank ya much!!
I tried photo stacking a few weeks ago. During one image a local dog wandered in. I thought I had to redo everything, but when I focusd stacked it still worked, but the dog was in it! LOL
Another great video Mark. This is something I have been wanting to try. You made it nice and easy.
Brian Jordan Thanks Brian!
I would like a video/tutorial about how to stack them manually, as it happens to me that photoshop doesn't stack the right areas together (especially in astrophotography, the stars confuse photoshop)
Mark.. You've got to be the best photo editing teachers/photographers on UA-cam. I have plucked through tons of videos that are wasting my time every time. Not only do you have an incredible eye for photography, but you really know how to compose great UA-cam videos by implementing a very efficient and eye pleasing work space. Glad I found you today, as our taste is eerily similar!
Could you do a video on how to do exposure blend and focus stack in 1 photo?
Yep, I can look to making something on that.
@@MarkDenneyPhoto That would be brilliant
Thank you for not just covering the post-processing part of the technique but also for taking time to talk about how you set up the shot and capture the images. Very helpful!
Thanks for the feedback Steve - very glad you enjoyed the video!!
The idea of putting your hand is really helpful 😅 when I forget to do that, I look like an aged grandfather looking so close into the screen trying to know which is the first photo and which is the last 😆
Thanks for sharing that ✌🏻👍🏻
Thats a great description - I feel the exact same way!
When shooting stitches panoramic photos, I will tilt the camera about 45 degrees before and after my shots.
If you have your camera set to consecutive numbering of your photos, shouldn't it be easy to see that the first photo in the sequence with the scene in question is 'the first' and the last is 'the last'? What am I missing here? (I'm sure I'm missing something... ;) )
@@KaiTiura Yeah that is true if you made only 1 set of focus stack, but if you made for example 25 photos and each 5 of them focus stack from foreground to background, and you want to choose the best light conditions in 5 of these 25 it would be somewhat hard without separating each 5 with a photo of your hand.
The moody Photographer Ah! Gotcha. Makes perfect sense that you'd do a series of series' to make sure you got your focus variants where you want them, and this would save a lot of close inspection to figure out where each series starts and finishes. Thanks for the explanation.
Another great video Mark! Very valuable...thank you!
Michael Davis Thanks Michael!
Absolutely loved this video! Focus stacking is something I've been afraid to do because of how difficult it is but with this as a guide I am definitely going to start doing it! Would love to see a video about manual focus stacking in the future!
Thanks so much - very much appreciate the feedback!
Great tip on using your hand to show what photos go together. I am very new to photo merging whether it's focus stacking or bracketing. I've often come back to my computer and struggled to see what goes together. Thanks for such informative videos. I'm glad I recently found you.
Fantastic Video Mark. PS. I'd love to see your take on focus stacking manually.
Thanks so much! I'll look to doing a video on that as well.
Very clearly explained ! Thanks !
Glad you enjoyed it!
I use Affinity Photo to do focus stacking. Quite cheap and only a one time payment, no subscription model like Adobe. Worth the try.
I use all the Adobe products and experience most of the features as a fully paid one without spending anything
Hi Cedric. Yes, Affinity Photo os excellent on an iMac! I too, use it for focus stacking/merge, and then export as a .tif to open in Photoshop.
Your channel is the most comprehensive to learn about landscape photography and its easy to understand. Thankyou for your dedication.
I would like a video on manual focus stacking.
Great video and explanation. Thanks Mark.
Warrick Fraser Thanks for watching Warrick!
Do you export the Photoshop file back into LR as a tiff? In your experience, do tiff files respond to LR editing the same way raw files do? I've read several articles that say edit the raw file first before you stack because once it's a tiff it doesn't react the same as a raw (i.e. pulling up shadows). Have you tried them back to back?
Mike Hines Yep, I always save back to LR as TIFF - never did a comparison, but I’ve never seen anything that really made me question it.
Great video, I understood the concept of focus stacking and now I know the mechanics
Jon Kocen Thanks Jon!
I tried doing this manually a while back... wasted an hour and it turned out awfully hahaha. Thanks for this
i love doing this technique. learned it a little while ago and it definitely upped the landscape game!
Will Simpson - Exploring Photography Definitely a game changer!
Mark Denney it really was!
Canon's Digital Photo Professional can focus stack - they call it 'Depth Compositing Tool'.
I've got a series of focus stacked photos that I've been wanting to stack, but I wasn't looking forward to editing it in Photoshop because I figured I'd have to deal with each layer individually.
Nope - just edit one then sync the edit across the series.
@@MarkDenneyPhoto Regarding the order of doing things: As far as I'm aware editing first and stacking second yields better results because that way one edits the original, uncompressed RAW file(s), whereas the TIFF after stacking no longer contains 100% of the captured data.
Thanks Mark, another winner. Could you comment on why the Lightroom stacking doesn't work?
John Vansant Thanks John! Adobe just didn’t give LR the ability to create a focus stacked image, but I don’t know the actual technical reason behind the decision.
In ye olden days, we would select a suitable aperture and use the hyperfocal distance scale on the lens to get everything in focus in one shot. Admittedly - the sharpness might be quite as good as focus stacking but usually it worked out just fine.
Thanks very much for explaining the process so well. I actually managed the process, so pleased.
Shaun1966 M Glad to hear it!!
I endorse many of the points that Mark makes. However I would encourage people not to use F16! With modern sensors of anything over 30 MP this will lead to some dull looking flat images due to the effects of diffraction. F8 is a far far better bet IMHO. Obviously that means you need to take a larger stack but even with a 20 mm lens you only need 4-5 shots max. When using a longer lens like a 28 or 35 is where the focus stack really comes into necessity rather than "nice to be able". This is going to mean bigger stacks.
Personally I don't think Photoshop is the right tool for this. What Mark hasn't mentioned is a phenomenon called "focus breathing". Focus breathing occurs when the lens changes focus from near to far. As it does, the size of the image grows. Some lenses don't do this, but that is rare. Doing a 15 layer blend in PS is a waste of time...it just takes too long. Instead buy Zerene Stacker for a handful of dollars and it will do a 20 layer stack in around 30 seconds. Use the right tool for the job.
Rob Ducker why spend more money when photoshop can do it just fine? The focus breathing issue was resolved (albeit not perfectly) by the aligning tool. Are you only talking about time benefits?
Thanks Mark you the best , and nice beground you have mate
Eagle Land No YOU are the best😀
Nicely done vid. I spent 18 years living, hiking, and photographing in Arizona. Your example photos at Lk. Powell & the cacti at the base of the Superstitions, east of Apache Junction brought wonderful memories---many thanks. BTW, I also mark a series or bracket but with a thumbs up at the start and the universal stop sign(palm-facing camera with fingers & thumb closed, pointing up). This really helps me when making multiple sets of like subjects.
Thanks again, Mark. The tip about photographing your hand - I photograph my left hand at the start of a sequence and my right hand at the end of the sequence so I know that is a complete set.
I have watched many, many tutorials on focus stacking and yours is the clearest and most concise one I've seen. Thank you!!
Thanks so much Mary! Very happy to hear this:)
@@MarkDenneyPhoto ..ditto. this morning i sat and took notes!
I heard the term photostacking/Focus stacking a couple of days ago and looked everywhere for an explanation. Thank you for making it so simple to understand
Hello Mark
Big thanks for your video! A manual tutorial would be cool too
Matt Engelmann Happy to do it Matt! I’ll be making a video on manual focus stacking in the very near future👍
Finally, an understandable You Tube video on focus stacking that is very helpful. Thanks Mark!
i just got my first camera and have been watching your videos for all your tips. I appreciate them all. Subscribed! thank you!
Thanks for the great description on focus stacking. I would like to see the video on manual focus stacking.
D H Thanks so much!
I agree with the others. You are one of the best teachers on UTube. I have tried watching focus stacking videos, and I finally got it because of your clarity.
I love how you give your instructions on how to achieve the lesson you are showing. Your calmness and more importantly unbiased way of creating the finished result. I've NEVER heard you say "This is the way to do this or that" You ALWAYS say "I prefer it to do it this way but there isnt a wrong or right way to do it" I have to admit though I've found myself following YOUR way to create a certain look on most of my photographic work. So once AGAIN, I great appreciate the time and effort you put into making these VERY educational videos 👍🇦🇺
PS: I'd love to watch a video and learn about manual focus stacking if its no trouble for you mate! 👌🏻
Shane Smith Photography Big thanks to you Shane! It seems like a video on Manual Focus Stacking is highly requested as well so I’ll look to make that one in the near future👍
@@MarkDenneyPhoto I can't wait mate, I look forward to it as I do with ALL your videos 😁
So cool! I didn’t expect it would be that easy. Now I want to try it!
Dave King Super easy!
Hands down, the best video on focus stacking. Thanks Mark.
You are so easy to understand, good job! I did focus stacking the old fashioned way, such a pain - this is super!
This is not the first time I've reached out to tell you how much I appreciate your videos and what a good tutor you are, Mark. Somehow you even manage to fill me up with motivation and I thank you for that :)
This is great to hear - thanks so much!
I love how thorough your videos are man thanks so much.
Great tutorial. Thanks. I do the hand thing when doing panorama shots
Ron Zufelt Thank ya Ron!
Hi Mark great video on Focustacking, really easy to understand, please do the one on doing it manually, that could be a big help, many thanks Ian
Thanks so much Ian - happy to hear that!
Thanks Mark, this weeks video was very timely. I had just taken some shots using focus stacking this weekend and had forgotten exactly how to process them. I went back to your original video and wrote down the steps. I would like to place my vote for a video on how to do this manually as well. Thanks again.
Thanks Mark, very clearly explained. Would value a manual stacking video too.
Mark Lawson Thank you Mark!
Thank you for making this a nice easily understood video.
Joe Grimando Glad to do it Joe and many thanks to you for checking it out!
Yet another great video Mark. I will watch again. Fascinating how you make it sound so easy to do. Thanks!
Céline Morisset You’re the best Celine! Thanks so much!
thank you so much for that on putting the hands in front of the lense at start and end, as I tried stacking for the first time yesterday and yes I did lose where it started and ended thank you again
Thanks for the video Mark, just bought a Laowa 9mm lens for my Fujji and wanted to have a go at focus stacking, I use Affinity Photo, but I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Simon H Happy to do it Simon!
wow, you took a task that I thought would be so complicated and made it into something a total novice (me) could replicate. Thank you very much.
Thanks, another great video. Manual focus stacking would also be interesting.
Bob G5511 Thanks for watching the video Bob!
Thank you for this video! It just popped on my feed randomly and it has been one of the most helpful videos I've seen on UA-cam. Thank you again for explaining it so well, sharing your knowledge, and making it so simple to understand!
Great video. Thanks Mark
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Thanks Tommy! Glad you enjoyed it!
Another fantastic and helpful tutorial Mark! Many thanks.
Really appreciate it Daniel!
Photographing your hand as a series start-stop indicator is a good idea, but I would recommend using a color checker card instead. That way you gain the additional knowledge of getting correct color in your entire series from the beginning. Xrite makes a great one that I use all the time.
The best and easier focus stack video ever! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks again, Mark. For a very refreshing refresher course on "photo-stacking". I stick my finger in the frame on both ends of all my multiple layered shots. Otherwise I spend the next ten to twenty minutes figuring out which ones are in the stack, and the ones where I was finding which settings to use for the stack. It happened enough times to warrant a new approach to use in the future, so I use my finger in the frame at beginning and the end.
Very good video Mark! I would really like to know how to do focus stacking manually. Please make a video on that too.
THanks so much!
Thanks for sharing that. I had no idea it was so easy with photoshop. Would definitely appreciate a manual photo stacking tutorial
Paul Bradshaw Happy to do it Paul!
You are an excellent teacher explaining everything in detail in a short time. I know how to stack now Mark.
Thanks
I watch most of your videos and must have missed this one and was prompted to take a look after watching the recent things not to do in Lightroom video. I've got to say, this is probably one of the most valuable 15 minutes I've seen to help with using both Lightroom and Photoshop, not just for focus stacking but also for copying settings to a group of images.
All I need to do now is actually be able to get out and take some photos lol.
Thanks Mark.
I
As a recent subscriber I must tell you that I am finding these videos very helpful. A relaxed and professional delivery with really useful content. Thank you.
Glad to hear it Roger! And many thanks for subscribing as well
Brilliant. I always stayed away from focus stacking because I thought it would be too much effort. This is simple as thanks for sharing 👍
Great video. I always wondered how a person could get the entire landscape in focus in one photo. I will definitely be trying this out. Thanks!
Wow thanks for this video. I have a large canvas print hanging over my desk in my home office and I wish I had known this technique prior to having it printed as some areas are out of focus. This would have made for a much better landscape canvas. I guess I might need to redo it with multiple images and use this technique. Thanks again.
would love a video on manual blending. your videos are so clear and precise