How To Do Focus Stacking In Photoshop

On this quick and simple video tutorial, Photoshop product manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes takes a look at combining several images of the same subject with different focusing into a single image.

Focus stacking is a technique that allows photographers to create an image which is all (or at least more) in focus by shooting several images of the same subject, each with a slightly different focus. This technique is especially useful for macro photography, as in many cases the depth of field of every single image is not enough to capture the entire subject in full focus.

We talked about focus stacking for macro photography briefly on our extended article on super macro (and the Nanoha 5X lens). You don’t have to use Photoshop for focus stacking and there are software that will allow you to do the same such as CombineZM, but if you do have Photoshop, give it a try. From experience – if you are using lots of images – this process can take quite a bit of time so be patience.

You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section. You can also check out all of Hughes previous videos on this dedicated page.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.