Mark Denney is a landscape photographer based in North Carolina who also runs a YouTube channel covering Photoshop and Lightroom tutorials, as well as gear reviews for landscape photography. One of his recent videos gives a tutorial on focus stacking, a post-processing technique that enables you to create maximum depth of field without losing image sharpness. This technique first became popular with macro photography, but it can also be useful in landscape photography.
Focus Stacking
This video tutorial will show you how to process a focus-stacked image series in Photoshop and Lightroom. It’ll also walk you through the step-by-step process of shooting the series of images to be used. This technique is most beneficial when you have a composition consisting of an immediate foreground interest along with a distant background that you want more than “reasonably sharp.“
Without using focus stacking, if you focus on the immediate foreground, the background will be soft. If you focus on the background, the foreground will be soft, regardless of the aperture being used. The only way to create exceptional front-to-back sharpness is to employ a focus-staking technique.
Once you become comfortable with this easy-to-use skill, you’ll begin thinking about your future landscape photography compositions in an entirely different way. Visit Mark’s website and YouTube channel to find more great tips and helpful resources that will take your landscape photography to the next level.
