FOCUS STACKING MADE EASY FOR SHARPER LANDSCAPE IMAGES

[@jamesburk3959]

As someone who already knows and has practiced focus stacking for both macro and landscape photography, I can confirm that the information presented here is about as clear and concise as humanly possible. You will be hard pressed to find a video or article that covers the essential technique and tools for photo stacking better than this. Bravo Simon!

[@ThomasOMeara559]

I had left some comments on Simon's instagram a few times and I cannot believe he made this video! It feels like my prayers are answered. Simon, I cannot thank you enough for your wisdom. What an amazing teacher- someone who really listens to his students!

[@scooterdoo1]

I had a similar experience, I asked if the exposure slider is correct is the histogram not blown out. Two days later he makes a video about the exposure slider haha

[@simon_dentremont]

Welcome! And sorry I’m quiet in the comments! I’m out shooting in Botswana!

[@luzr6613]

Simon is everything AI wishes itself to be.😂

[@NeedNoThoughtControl]

As a former teacher I can attest: Mr. d'Entremont is a very talented teacher. He was able to explain several concepts clearly and in just 9 minutes! 👏👏

[@MO-hq4iz]

@@simon_dentremont Why is focus stacking better than hyperfocal distance shooting with a wide lens? Why is one shoot not the best option?

[@zezus3]

I've been following Simon for some time now, because he demonstrates a unique and rare characteristic - in addition to all his experience as a photographer - he has the gift of communication and, most importantly, shares his wisdom with so many people, whether beginners or not. Thank you very much.

[@haukemurr3455]

Thank you for this no-nonsense rundown! I like the clear and concise style of your videos and this is definitely a great example! Much appreciated!🎉

[@rj66600]

This is something I wanna learn how to do. Especially with very close macro shots Thanks Simon.

[@xwhite2020]

The in camera stackers have changed the game for macro. Canon r7 is great gor it.

[@kolklown]

Anything beyond 3-6 images or so and Photoshop starts having trouble with focus stacking in my experience. Other software like Helicon Focus are great for stacking lots of images of macro subjects.

[@erossphelps]

@@kolklown Agree, Helicon or Zerene

[@chase_with_jase]

have also used focus stacking when taking photos of the scale models I build as doing close up shots can be real hit and miss. But will have to give it a go with landscape photography as well.

[@Exedust]

Focus stacking. Something I learned. Thanks for this informative video! I recently got a canon rf16 f2.8, can’t wait to try it out!

[@FinnMacCuhl]

This is a masterclass in how to transfer knowledge. Thank you so much!

[@simon_dentremont]

Glad it was helpful!

[@dennisfrederick9304]

Once again you put a subject that lots of folks want to know how to do and make it very easy to walk through and accomplish. Great stuff!!

[@ksnmurthy4476]

Fantastic Simon. So simplified process. No confusion at all. 👏🏽

[@simon_dentremont]

Glad it was helpful!

[@andrewhannam.]

Natural teacher, also love that you explain why, how and when.

[@edgorochowski9709]

Clear, concise and to the point. You have a rare gift.

[@stretch90]

The gift of putting effort into your work lol

[@BRollBenny]

I'm heading to Banff in a couple of weeks and have been brushing up on my landscape skills (I'm a portrait guy). I found your channel along the way and I'm so glad that I did. Just an unbelievable amount of good information

[@VickiTraud]

You are so thoughtful to share your talent with all of us followers!!! Bless you!

[@rlfisher]

The clearest, most understandable, exploration of this topic. Well done!

[@alainthibodeau9602]

Une des meilleures vidéo sur le "Focus Stacking" de paysage que j'ai vu à date. Les informations sont exactes et précises, les illustrations et animations sont excellentes et faciles à comprendre. Il y a bien sur d'autres considérations à tenir compte pour la photo macro, mais pour la photo de paysage c'est complet. Je suis francophone parlant un peu l'anglais aussi, et malgré la rapidité et la courte durée des explications, les messages était clair, précis et concis. Simon est l'un des très bon formateur sur KZbin.

[@kevinlancaster3200]

As a keen novice photographer, your content is super valuable. Thank you Simon!

[@richierich9759]

Very educational, Simon. Thanks for sharing more of your knowledge!

[@dennisjones5579]

Excellent instruction and very timely. You are truly a master of your craft.

[@johnkrogman4708]

Once again, something that is very technical made simple! Can't wait to try it!

[@Auroralover9797]

Thank you. This was very straightforward and helpful. I appreciate it.

[@j2thebee]

All killer, no filler. Great tips

[@seanarmstrong8460]

Luminar Neo also has a focus stack extension. i don’t know if it is as reliable as PS, but it works for me. I really love using focus stacking with flowers as well as landscape images.

[@RedmilesShark]

The videos just get better and better!

[@alexcomaya3492]

You’re one of the best teachers I’ve seen here in youtube about landscape photography, easy to understand and direct to the point. By the way, in practice do you shoot always using focus stacking technique? or do you shoot first at f16 or 22 as safety sharp shot? do you also apply hyperfocal distance? Because as we know the light changes fast and we may not get it if we use focus stacking first…

[@simon_dentremont]

I usually shoot landscapes in one shot at f8 or f9.

[@rogerhampton2844]

These videos are so clear and concise. I use Luminar Neo and its focus stacking tool. So simple. Click on the images to merge. Drop them in the merge box and voila!

[@simon_dentremont]

Thanks for sharing!

[@ralitsamladenova]

Another great and easy to understand tutorial. Thank you, Simon!

[@simon_dentremont]

My pleasure!

[@Maximus0389]

Really cool Video Simon. I use focus stacking for my Macrophotography too and it's a great tool for Landscapephotography to get everything in focus. Thank's for your great Videos. 🙂

[@Sadieazuki]

As a relative newbee to electronic photography yet another of your videos is extremely helpful for me to understand and learn how my canon camera and Photoshop and Lightroom have some features which I was not using, and not completely aware of even though I had heard of some of the terms - one can't learn everything about photography at once, and your video series help me learn additional features and techniques.

[@williamsingman1489]

I always enjoy your videos and appreciate how concise you are about every subject. I have two beautiful Canon tilt/shift lenses in my arsenal , a 90mm and a 24mm. I purchased them many, many years ago and have rarely used them. I do a lot of landscape and close-up photography and never paid much attention to near and far focus issues until recently. I’m thinking of using them in addition to focus stacking as a comparison experiment to see which yields more pleasing results.

[@RichardLiloc]

It's always a delight watching your videos!

[@bernym4047]

Church & Milky way image is cracking. Another very useful video. Thanks. I use Zerene stacker which has editable masks and my camera (Panasonic G9) has automatic focus stacking.

[@margot6041]

This video makes so many photographic concepts easy to understand. I am at a point where I will purchase the Lightroom classic, so I will save this one for reference! Thanks again, Simon!

[@simon_dentremont]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Furniture121]

I love that you do this, and hope that some day I have the skills to make use of the advice provided! I'm still in the .jpeg and composition stage of learning, but your videos are easy to follow and informative.

[@Twobarpsi]

Excellent advice Simon!

[@simon_dentremont]

Glad it was helpful!

[@conorcahill3110]

Thank you Simon, I am starting to look that I know what I’m doing starting photography on my R100, your videos are just perfect!

[@susanfirth2279]

Thanks for this Simon. This is good timing as I have been wanting to try. I like the way you teach. Thanks for sharing. Have a great time on your safari trip.

[@Jesus503_]

As always great video

[@Legault146]

Thank you for this very helpful tutorial.

[@brendallsterling4117]

I wasn't sure how to bracket in Photoshop. Very helpful .

[@garyschrader8633]

Very well done, you have that rare gift of making complicated material easy to understand. Would you consider making a video about using an Atomos monitor for photography. Thank you

[@azungu1190]

Brilliant! As always 👍

[@northernbirder7351]

So glad this can be done now.

[@dayoldtortillas9345]

Good job, sir. I've used this technique (manually before PS made it automatic) prior, but your instruction enlightened me to focus staking automatically in Photoshop.

[@vsnrystudios]

Awesome Video!!!!

[@LisanAlGareeb]

Always wanted a guide on focus stacking

[@Paul-pl3wv]

Love this episode!

[@thomasanderson5929]

M43 cameras (Olympus and Panasonic) actually excel at landscape photography due to the 2X crop factor and thus 2X wider depth of field. Bonus; m43 cameras are much easier to carry as the camera bodies are smaller and the lenses are MUCH smaller, so for hiking they're much more practical.

[@ArthurMuteesasira]

You're a blessing😊😊. Thank you!

[@lijunhao3512]

You are my go to channel to learn and improve photography 🎉

[@robertleem5643]

Another excellent tutorial, I normally use focus stacking for my moon shots etc, never considered it for landscapes, majority of the time I hand held if the wife is around, if out an about by myself I use my tripod, might start looking at stacking for some of my landscapes and see how they turn out. Thankyou

[@andyg1957]

Super useful video as always! Just got PS and LR so I'll be trying loads of the things you've covered!

[@Paul-pl3wv]

Really look forward to a episode on macro photography

[@richgodfrey7242]

Great video. Thank you.

[@roberthughes9172]

i needed this a week ago. Now i know!

[@MK-ni6gs]

Excellent tips!

[@Weitop]

You're the best

[@JohnDoe-ws5iv]

Nobody on KZbin teaches as well as you Simon!!

[@ilesmic]

Great simple explanation - well done

[@fathampeak]

Brilliant, thank you! Very clearly explained. Next challenge-how to do a combined focus stack and exposure blend, maybe in a panorama stitch composition?

[@simon_dentremont]

Great suggestion!

[@wolfgangmarvelous7239]

Great video. Photoshop is fine for focus stacking most landscape shots where you have only a few images to combine. However, for macro photography that typically will involve more images, Photoshop has problems. It cannot always handle complex shapes and can't seem to adequately compensate for focus breathing when, say, 15 or more images need to be stacked. For these images, use "Helicon Focus".

[@FlatWaterFilms]

I like that 17-40mm lens. lol My favorite go too lens. 🙂Focus stacking is too much work for me as dragging and setting up a tripod is not an option most of the time. Great tips Simon. Maybe someday I'll get into it. Lot's of time I'm shooting handheld f/4 or f/2.8, shutter speed of 1/60 and a ISO of 1250 or more. Movements from the wind can get blurry, That's why I like sunny days in the forest. Today we finally get some SUN!

[@AnshulTilondiyaBEE]

Loved the explaination 😇

[@stefankuhn6887]

Well explained - you must have been a teacher in your former life 😄👍🏻

[@tjsinva]

Nice breakdown. Carry on. 👍🥂

[@lynsmith1096]

Another good video Simon

[@simon_dentremont]

Thanks 👍

[@edc641]

I have had bad experiences with auto-blending in Photoshop. Sometimes blurry parts are used as if they were sharp, when in fact another layer is sharper in the same area. On those occasions I prefer to auto-align the layers and then do the blending manually. My tip is to always check the masks created when auto-blending, and also visually scan the photo by zooming and panning around for areas where Photoshop has failed blending. They can easily be missed at a first glance.

[@wolphin732]

I have used Helicon Focus to merge the photos, and there is tethering software to automate it (with the premium package, even on the cellphone). It's handy, as can say what the nearest and farthest items to focus, and it automates the shooting to get everything in between in focus (taking consideration of what the depth of field is, and automating it).

[@flostevematt]

Amazing! You are a font of information. Thank you.

[@tcoiler]

Thanks for the tip on diffraction. That may be why f45 doesn't really get the superb clarity you (I) might expect.

[@russellsmith4738]

Great video, I learned this for macro photography a while back and wanted to see if you did it the same way. The only difference I would suggest is I make my Light Room adjustments first, then copy and apply the settings to the other photos before loading them as layers into Photoshop. This way I'm getting the full benefit of adjusting a RAW image. When Photoshop saves it back to Light Room it's no longer RAW and you won't be able to push and adjustments as far. Unless there is some way of keeping the entire workflow RAW that I don't know about??

[@simon_dentremont]

if it gies back in tiff or dng, you get the same benefits as raw.

[@russellsmith4738]

I’m sorry but I disagree regarding the tiff and I can’t see a way to export from photoshop as a dng. Try for yourself, to make it obvious, do some ridiculous changes in Light Room then export to Photoshop. Those changes will be baked in and when it saves back to Light Room as a tiff, you won’t be able to recover that image to its original state. I know in most cases, no one will see the difference or care, especially if you took a good photo to begin with. But if you do want to lift shadows and lower highlights etc, you’ll get a better result from the raw file than you will from a tiff every time.

[@chefmikebenninger481]

wow, even skinnier, good for you, i dropped 35 during the pandemic

[@thilinaalagiyawanna3680]

Thank you very much

[@steveostler]

Thanks. I found this helpful

[@randyschwager84]

Great info! Thanks!

[@alanpinn2266]

Great video on focus stacking Simon! But I particularly love the subject. Right in my backyard! The Cape Forchu lighthouse is always a great spot to shoot! Keep up the great videos. Cheers from a fellow photography in Yarmouth. Hope to see you out there sometime. Or perhaps up your way in Forest Glen.

[@simon_dentremont]

Thanks Alan!

[@scooterdoo1]

Hey Simon! I hope your trip is going well. I thought of a possible video idea that is usually not typical of this channel. Being a beginner photographer I’ve only ever shot photos and have always been afraid of flipping the video switch. Maybe sometime you could possibly do a video on how you shoot B-Roll in your videos such as birds breath in the morning 😊 Have a good trip!

[@klaus_s]

After watching your videos for a while now and learning so much, I‘ve finally subscribed to your channel. Bye the way, I found out about you from a video by Thomas Heaton. Regards Klaus😎👏👏👍

[@rj66600]

Hell yeah. Number 23. I’ll take it.

[@juans5308]

Sounds like you've been hanging around Thomas Heaton quite a bit :). Good job on the explanation.

[@intentionally-blank]

Commenting to boost you for the algorithm. I've not used the function in PhotoPills to see the hyperfocal distance - thanks!

[@abhinavsinha2104]

day 6 of calling simon a LEGEND!.

[@simon_dentremont]

haha too kind

[@seaeagles6025]

Hi Simon, this video was very helpful for me and no doubt for many photographers having this problem. I like the Scientific approach of using the Hypofocal distance Method. Also thanks for mentioning about the photopills App which I didn't know of. Any advice that will improve my photography is greatly appreciated. Many thanks Simon 😊.

[@seaeagles6025]

Thanks Simon ☺️

[@KellySedinger]

What, no bonus tip? :) Great video, as always...I started experimenting with doing this in camera recently, but just a few times thus far, I really need to get out and try it with a really deep composition.

[@FSCHW]

Fixed lenses have the aperture scale that shows the depth of field. That’s where I learned many years ago how to set the hyper focal distance so you could be ready for a quick photo with having to focus. Put infinity at center, look for your aperture on the left side of the scale, note the distance at the aperture, move the focus so that distant is at center. A zoom lens doesn’t have that scale because it changes with the zoom. A digital camera knows your zoom level because it records it with your photo details. It would be nice if a camera/lens manufacturer would give you the depth of field scale in the view finder based on your zoom level. Should be very do able.

[@AV_Escapes]

You’re an inspiration, Simon! Straightforward, down to earth photography tips (and great photography, obviously). I look forward to your videos every week, keep them coming.

[@clabart]

For landscape and macro photos, the focus stacking technique is fine in the absence of wind, otherwise you lose the definition.

[@dkcrogue]

Unless the subject is close, auto aligning the images first should account for small amounts of movement.

[@rickfarber4243]

Thanks for an interesting and informative video. Does the R5 automatically adjust for focus breathing when stacking in-camera?

[@simon_dentremont]

I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing so.

[@petemahler4784]

I can do the same thing with Affinity; it works with waterfalls and macro on flowers. I also have saved a lot of his videos.

[@michaelsexton1704]

Simon, sometime soon can you talk about the extra “monitor” you have tethered to your camera? Thanks!

[@rghurst]

I have found the PS Auto-Align feature is pretty dependable, but the Auto-Blend is less so. Even in the examples you showed on-camera, the Auto-Blend masks created are an odd patchwork of points throughout the image. This seems to be an even more relevant problem in macros. Anyway ... good info on defining the problem. Thanks!

[@harolddavies1984]

Excellent teaching as always, do you ever focus stack with 3rd party software? Any recommendations would be appreciated.

[@northernsky6117]

Thank you for the channel. Great content. I have a question how do you do this with 1D MK4?

[@bjyoungblood]

Simon, This is neat! Thanks for sharing. After watching your other video, I had some really good results with the exposure bracketing. If a person wanted to mix exposure bracketing and focus stacking, would you recommend a particular order or operations? Exposure merge first or focus stack first? It sounds a bit tedious either way, and there may never be real situation that merits it, but I am curious.

[@simon_dentremont]

Exposure merge first, then send those 3 to photoshop to focus stack

[@bjyoungblood]

@@simon_dentremont , I'm so grateful for your response. Have great time in Botswana. I hope you get some beautiful shots.

[@andrewchristie6483]

Thanks Simon. I’m not sure I want to add PS as another monthly subscription when I’d only really use it for focus stacks. I like LR, and I’m wondering which third party plug in would be the best for focus stacking?

[@spud1300]

Video is amazing, question for everyone. When you're editing your photos in lightroom, and you're going through many pictures that are similar because you took the scene from a few angles, is there a way to quickly see which of the images were the ones you focused on the foreground, and which where the ones you focused the background without pixel peeping each photo? I looked for a mask, but there doesn't seem to be one. For myself I know I usually focus in the distance first, then focus on the foreground, so my pictures will be in that order, but I'm also using bracketing, and it's cumbersome to sort through everything back on the computer. Curious if someone has a tip or thoughtful workflow for that. Also, if you're processing your bracketed photos for HDR, and then performing a focus stack, is there a loss of quality from the double-processing?

[@mrgoldy7532]

Focus stacking Exposure bracketing HDR Would any of these be used in wildlife photography with the subject moving fast? And in same relation, sports photography during the action

[@simon_dentremont]

Not usually. You can technically exposure bracket static wildlife like a backlit hippo to get more detail, but I prefer to deal with the harsh conditions and use what I have.

[@davidgommeren7283]

Thanks for a very useful video, unfortunately I can't use Adobe products (Linux user), but definitely seems easy. One question though (which you might have mentioned, but I must have missed it). Do you shoot full manual (including manual ISO) for the multiple shots?

[@simon_dentremont]

I do, but any mode can work.

[@marclaliberte4118]

Thanks for this awesome informative video! I was considering getting Topaz Photo AI, would that product help me to fix blurred foreground (or background)? Anyways, have a good trip in Botswana again! I will be on the lookouts for your updates and photos on facebook and insta!

[@simon_dentremont]

Not really. Best for sharpening, noise reduction and upscaling.

[@AltonTorres]

Do you have a video going more in depth on hyperfocal distance?