Focus Stacking

Lighting is important in any photography setup but equally important is focus. If your goal is to have the entire product in sharp focus, a small lens aperture may not be enough, especially when performing macro photography. A deeper depth of field can be achieved with a technique called Focus Stacking.

Focus stacking is a digital technique that involves layering a succession of photos, each with a different focus point, and then blending them together. Photoshop (and other software) allows you to generate a totally crisp image by recognizing portions of each image that are in focus.

It’s critical to have your camera locked down for this to minimize movement. Then you shoot a series of photos, progressively shifting the point of focus from the closest point moving toward the back.

In the above ring shot I took several images and then aligned them in Photoshop to produce a final image that was sharp throughout.

SUMMARY:   You’ll see how simple it is to focus stack an image if you follow the instructions below. You can have a sharp image from beginning to end in just five steps. These steps are summarized below:

• For the focus stack, choose your images.
• In Photoshop, open your files and align them (using Scripts or Photomerge)
• Using the Auto-Blend Images option, combine layers.
• Save your processed file.
• Begin retouching your photo.

For help capturing beautiful, sharp images of your products contact Steve Wagner at Wagner Photo-Grafx. info@wagnerphotografx.com, (847) 275-3936