Attention! The method is only suitable for shooting static objects!

The lesson is relevant for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and higher!

I think you have more than once encountered such an unpleasant phenomenon as digital noise. Sometimes you really want to shoot something beautiful, but, as luck would have it, the tripod doesn’t fit into your jeans pocket, and there’s no top-end DSLR that doesn’t make crazy noise at high ISOs.
However, this is not a reason to despair! In some cases, using a smart lens can help you.

If you've been paying attention, the noise is never the same in two photos. I took several identical shots in a row, let's take a look at two of them at 100% zoom.

As you can see, the noise in the images is completely different. Logic dictates that if you analyze the differences between images, you can cover the noisy areas of one image with the noiseless areas of another. But how? Don’t sit all day and draw layer masks pixel by pixel!
Stack Modes will help us cope with this task. Now let's go in order:

What to do?

1. To begin, enable burst shooting on your camera or phone.
2. Switch to M mode and adjust exposure. Aperture - depending on the scene you are shooting. Exposure is as long as possible without causing blurring due to movement. ISO – raise it up to the extent that the previous parameters were not enough. When shooting with a point-and-shoot camera or phone, do not use the “Night Shot” mode! As a rule, this mode involves automatically setting a long shutter speed, which leads to movement. You can use exposure compensation, or you can manually set the ISO a little higher if your camera allows it.
3. Take 5-8 frames in burst mode, trying not to move.
4. We make preliminary preparations and open the images correctly. I offer an option through Lightroom and directly through Photoshop, your choice:

4.1 Lightroom.
Add a folder with images to the library.

In the Develop section, in the Basic tab, adjust the white balance, if necessary.

In the Detail tab, turn off sharpening so as not to amplify the already strong noise. And we completely turn off noise reduction so as not to blur the details along with the noise.

Turn on geometric distortion correction on the Lens Correction tab. This is a very important point! Since shooting is done handheld, frame displacement relative to each other, albeit small, is inevitable. And if so, then distortion in different frames will affect different parts of the photographed object. This will lead to problems when overlaying in the future. Our goal is to achieve a perfect match of frames, so we correct distortions by checking the Enable Profile Correction checkbox.

Press the key combination Ctrl+Shift+C or right-click on the thumbnail, Develop Settings -> Copy Settings.

In the dialog box that appears, check Lens Profile Correction. After that, click Copy.

Now you need to apply the same settings to the rest of the images in the series. To do this, select the first image, press Shift, select the last image. All photos between them should be highlighted automatically. Right-click on them, Develop Settings -> Paste Settings.

With all frames still selected, right-click again and select Edit In -> Open as Layers in Photoshop.

The selected images will be loaded into Photoshop onto separate layers of a new file.

Select all layers using the combination Alt+Ctrl+A or using Shift and the mouse.

Run the function Edit -> Auto-Align Layers…

At this stage, you can completely trust the electronic brains of Photoshop and leave the Auto mode, confirm the launch by pressing the red button. A little more and the noise won't stand a chance!

Now you can move on to point 5, since point 4.2 is an alternative to what we just did.

4.2 Photoshop

If you do not use Lightroom, then after step 3, process directly through Photoshop:

Loading images onto layers using File -> Scripts -> Load Files into Stack

In the dialog box that appears, click Browse and select a series of images. Check the box Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images. Click OK.

As with Lightroom, files must be loaded onto separate layers.

5. Select all layers, right-click, select Convert to Smart Object

All layers will turn into one smart object. The fact that this is a smart object is indicated by the icon in the corner of the layer preview.

Change Stack Mode to Median or Mean. Layer -> Smart Objects -> Stack Mode -> Median (or Mean)

Most of the noise has gone away successfully. Now all that remains is to remove the remaining noise using conventional methods, carry out processing and increase sharpness.
Here is the result before and after using this method:

Additionally
Now about the different Stack Modes:

Briefly: Mean – when shooting from a tripod, Median – when shooting handheld. Why read on?

In our case, Mean and Median will successfully combat noise, but there is still a difference.
Mean works better if the camera was well secured when shooting. In this case, the original images match perfectly and you don’t even need to apply Auto-Align Layers to them. However, when shooting handheld, Auto-Align works well, but not perfectly. As a result, the images do not overlap perfectly. The Mean mode begins to compose and average them, and the output is soap.
Median may be a little worse at dealing with noise, but roughly speaking, it selects only those frames that match best and overlays them. Therefore, the result is sharper.

Comparing Mean (left) and Median (right). (If you overlay the images on top of each other, you can see it better)

As you can see, the Median mode produced a sharper picture. Therefore, when shooting handheld, this mode is our best friend.

What this wonderful program can’t do. This is a rare case when a mega-harvester copes well with a thousand tasks. We pay for this with some glitches and freezes during operation and sometimes unstable versions.
For example, version Adobe Photoshop CS6 In terms of staking, it works absolutely correctly. And in the photoshop version Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 From time to time the staking function does not work as expected.

Example of using Adobe Photoshop for staking

So we have two camera images Canon which we did in the previous article. In one frame the focus is on the lens, and in the other on the “body” of the camera itself. Why we did this, I explained again in the previous article.
Now we will stitch these images together.
Both of my images were shot in RAW format, but this is not so important. We open both in Adobe Photoshop without horizon correction, etc. in a RAW converter (this can cause problems when stitching, so shoot well right away). White balance can be set quite well.

Let's go to the menu File->Scripts->Load files into stack

If you just opened the files and immediately went to the menu, then you can move on. If you have made some manipulations in Photoshop, but Photoshop will prompt you to resave the files.

Here we choose "Add opened files" to have Photoshop populate the staking list open files(I assume that you only have the images open that you will use for stitching). Your 2 images appear in the list.
Put a tick in the box "Attempt to automatically align source images". This checkbox tells Photoshop that in the process of combining files with one, you need to try to align them in size and other distortions.
If you took pictures carefully, did not shake the tripod and did not change the angle during shooting, then, as a rule, Adobe Photoshop aligns images perfectly.
You click “OK”, Photoshop “thinks” for a while, creates a separate file, loads two of your images there, aligns them in all respects and transfers control back to you.

Be sure to click the layers, turning off the top ones and connecting them. Make sure the object and its blurrier counterpart are properly aligned. They must be the same in size and shape. In real stacking there can be a lot of layers.

If everything is fine, then you select all the layers and go to the menu: Edit->Auto-blend layers->stack

This is the stacking process itself (image stitching).

As you can see, there are two options for stitching images. One is a panorama, i.e. stitching into one long shot. And the second is stacking, focusing stitching.
Someday we will discuss the possibilities of the first point, unknown to the general public, and now further about staking.

Click “OK” and, depending on the size of the files and their number, we get the result quickly or wait for some time.

As a result of the “Auto-blend” function, we received masks for our layers that reveal those places where it is sharp in a given layer and hide those places where it is blurry. This is ideal, but the program may incorrectly identify these places.
Accordingly, those places where it is sharp in the mask are left white to open this part of the layer, and those places where it is blurry are painted over with black, i.e. hidden. As a result of hiding some of the unsharp parts of the upper layer, the sharp parts of the lower layer appear underneath and we see the overall picture, where everything is sharp.

This is the mask Photoshop created for my example.

In this case, the mask reveals the front element of the lens and hides the blurry camera body. The bottom layer mask does the opposite.
Please note that the mask is somewhat “clumsy” and does not exactly follow the shape of the front lens of the lens.
Your job is to analyze what should actually be sharp and adjust the mask if necessary by painting on it with a black and white brush.
Black - completely hides the area
White - completely opens the area
Gray - partially hides. The transparency of the brush can be adjusted.

Well, the resulting frame, which I already posted.

And also here is an example from my practice of subject photography.

Rings from Damascus steel, having a complex small pattern, which is worked out only by focusing in all possible places and then stitching into a single frame.

Helicon Focus image stacking software

On our list, this will be the first specialized software product for stacking (stitching images by focus).

Since I am not an affiliated person Helicon Focus, then I can freely write about it.

Firstly, there is a completely working version online Helicon Focus 5.3, which you can try if you wish. When the question arose about the staking program, this was the first thing I did. First I wanted to decide what suits me best: Helicon Focus or its competitor Zerene Stacker.
I will first talk about the version that is online, and then about the newest version Helicon Focus, which I purchased after realizing it was a good product.

The first step is to take several frames of the same subject with focus in different places. Open the folder with frames in Helicon Focus.

First comes the wild joy - on the right there is a list of directories and files, where you can conveniently mark the files that you select for stitching.
Helicon Focus 5.3 already understands RAW files.
But this is where some disappointment sets in - Helicon Focus does not make it possible to set white balance, and without this extremely useful function, the ability to read RAW files turns out to be completely useless for the reason that it is no longer possible to adjust the white balance as a result of stitching using a non-destructive method. The result of stitching is, at best, tiff, not RAW.

However, if you convert files to JPG from the right balance white, then they can then be correctly processed in Helicon Focus 5.3.

The program has three staking options (different mathematical methods, which can give results of different quality depending on the plot):

Method A - Weighted Average
Method B - Depth Map
Method C - Pyramid

All three methods are the best that exist today and are usually sufficient. You choose, try, and if the result is not satisfactory, switch to another method. The program works quite quickly.

The program is capable of creating a 3D model of your object, where you will see how your object on a plane rotates at a given angle along different axes. Interesting feature.

An extremely useful function implemented in the program is image retouching. This is not retouching in the traditional sense, but rather hiding and revealing different parts of the selected image in the stitching result. Those. if the program has chosen a sharp section incorrectly somewhere, you can restore justice in one move and take a sharp section from the image in which it seems better to you.

On the right, in the list of images, you switch between the original donor images, and on the left you have two windows, in one the donor image, and in the other the result of stitching.
Using a brush that can be adjusted for hardness, you work on problem areas, visually checking which areas in the donor image are better than the stitching result.

The principle itself remains the same here Adobe Photoshop when using masks, but visually everything is more clear.

In the next “text/ruler” tab, you can add some text to the stitching result, for example, your copyright or a picture of a ruler, which will allow the viewer to appreciate the scale of the image. Very convenient when shooting particularly small insects and details.

Now let's talk about the newest version Helicon Focus 6.2.2.

She greets us even more friendly. We are asked to simply drag and drop the original images into the window.

The built-in example gives a good idea of ​​how the process is organized.

In fact, little has changed in the organization of the process itself (in the demonstration the program hints to us that it is good for photographing minerals).
But in the accompanying program Helicon Remote a useful feature has been added: “Disable live view during shooting”, which allows you to shoot with flash. Otherwise, in LiveView mode, the studio flash would not fire via radio synchronizer.

In addition, it became possible to save projects and return to retouching them later.

Some RAW conversion settings appeared, but I still didn’t understand where to set the white balance. There are only two options: 1) from the camera, 2) automatically.

Both options for installing the BB do not suit me. I would like to set the color temperature manually. Maybe I missed something and the developers will correct me.

Helicon Remote

The program comes with an add-on - the program Helicon Remote, which allows you to shoot directly to your computer.

A word from the developer (Alexander Zubritsky):

The program implements two shooting algorithms with stacking, namely:

1) shifting the focusing plane by rotating the focusing ring of the macro lens (works only with autofocus lenses),

2) shifting the focusing plane by linear movement of the carriage of automated macrorails StackShot(manufacturer - company Cognisys) or carriages of homemade rails (a stepper motor produced by Trinamic).

First way has the preferences that there is no need to buy anything additional, it is enough to have any reflex camera(though production is only Canon or Nikon), supporting the function Liveview, and an autofocus lens. In addition, this method allows stacking not only for macro photography, but also for landscapes. The main disadvantage of this method is that it is practically impossible to shift the plane of focus to sufficiently small and identical distances (shift step).

Second way(most often used in real macro photography - here you can very clearly and very accurately implement a linear shift of the plane of focus) has the advantages that it allows you to use not only autofocus macro lenses, but also any scheme - manual focus lenses, inverted lenses, microscopic lenses, etc. .p.). Moreover, in the case of macrorail control StackShot all specified settings in the standard (included with the rails) control unit are blocked, and in return they are in the program itself Helicon Remote the most important settings are set - the start and end points of sharpness, the stacking step size (in mm) and the pause after the shooting step (in seconds). The same settings are set when connecting a stepper motor Trinamic.

Switching between these modes (first and second) in the program occurs semi-automatically - when connecting macrorails StackShot the following message appears in the program interface: StackShot and in addition you need to put a tick in front of the window "Stack Shot"(only in the latest version of the program)

I’ll add on my own that I liked that LiveView in the program Helicon Remote made to fill the entire screen, which at 27" gives a very good overview.

Helicon Focus Program Summary

Program Helicon Focus very nimble, stable and ergonomically designed. In order to start working with it, you don’t even need to read the instructions. The program produces good staking results.
There are a couple of disadvantages - it is impossible to set white balance for RAW Files that make their use pointless.
Secondly, the program can work together with a satellite program Helicon Remote, which allows you to control the process of shooting images for the stack, but for some reason does not use information about the position of the carriage of the electric focusing rails with which it works (the rails are connected via USB).

The potential of the program is very great, I hope it will be realized in the future.

On at the moment It turns out quite well too.

Zenere Stacker image stacking software

Zener Stacker is an analogue Helicon Focus and the operating principle is the same here.

I installed the latest version on March 12, 2015 Zener Stacker 1.04 Build T201411272115. It's easy to get confused in such version numbering...

It is worth noting that as Helicon Focus, so Zerene Stacker offer a free trial mode.
Those. You can install the product for yourself and try it for 30 days. If you like it, then buy it.

Menu in Zerene Stacker organized classically. “File”, “Edit”, “Stack”, “Tools”... Needless to say, the option Helicon Focus seems more modern, where files can simply be dragged and dropped into the window.

By the way, it is worth noting one important detail. Helicon Focus is being developed in Ukraine by a group of programmers, and Zerene Stacker in the USA, by one person, recognized in the USA as a “makrushnik” guru, Rik Littlefield. You can search for his work in the forum, where he is constantly present.
Perhaps Rick is not strong enough to create a modern interface in addition to the part of the program directly responsible for staking. Well, this is not the main thing in such programs if there is an advantage in the quality of staking. Let's see if it exists...

I stacked my stack in several ways (PMax and DMap with different parameters).

IN Zerene Stacker You need to pay attention to the bottom window during the retouching process.

Here you will see a stack assembled using two different methods PMax(pyramid method, available in Helicon Focus) And DMap(depth map, also available in Helicon Focus). One collects smooth gradients better, while the other collects fine contrasting details. Both of these images can be used as donor images when retouching the resulting image. This allows you to treat small fibers on insects and so on. small contrasting details.

IN Helicon Focus You can also use the resulting images, constructed using different methods, as the initial ones. To do this, select them in the “Use result” menu

During the retouching process Zener Stacker you can navigate through the source images by holding down the key SHIFT and search for the most suitable donor image.

In addition, through the menu, in the tab Preferences there are settings for the method DMap, which allow you to better work out the contrasting boundaries of objects (you can create several resulting images and use all of them in the retouching process).

Retouching is organized similarly Helicon Focus. On the right in the list, a donor image is selected and its areas can be applied with a brush to the resulting image.
There are brush adjustments. Only in Zerene Stacker additional brushes are hidden under the “Pro” label and using the “Pro” brush begins a 30-day trial of the brush in the regular version of the program. Then the function is disabled.

Here is a similar menu from Helicon Focus.

The program also allows you to control Stackshot electric rails, but I was not able to test this function, because... It belongs to the Pro version, but I have the regular one.

Summary of Zerene Stacker

1. The program works quite well. Builds a stack efficiently
2. I did not find any noticeable advantages in stack building compared to Helicon Focus.
3. The programs are implemented so similar that it’s obvious that someone did it with an eye on the other. For us, this is important only in terms of the convenience of moving from one program to another if it is necessary to combine results. And it is in this regard that I am glad that the programs are similar.

I'm surprised that neither Zerene Stacker, neither in Helicon Focus Reducing/enlarging an image using Ctrl+"+" is not implemented. In my opinion, it made sense to adopt Photoshop shortcuts. Moreover, Zerene-I finally adopted the increase/decrease of the brush using square brackets.

Program interface Combine ZP looks like this:

After this, an image of the first file appears in the empty field below.

2) Alignment of downloaded files
Select in the taskbar window Align and Balance Used Frames(usually it is already installed by default) and press the green key GO:

3) Stitching aligned files Select in the taskbar window Do Stack and press the green key GO:

4) Saving stitched files
To save the resulting file with stitched images, you must press the key SAVE.

In general, the program produces good results.

But with some artifacts. Also, the program is not free from “glitches”. It crashed several times while working.
If we talk only about stacking, then the artifacts of the shooting object itself are the same as those of commercial programs.

But there is no retouching function here.

Addition on the Combine ZP program from blog reader Klapauciy

A few notes about CombineZP, maybe it will help novice users, because it is not the most convenient program to use.
It has two alignment modes (Align and Balance Used Frames), Quick (and Thorough. Fast is selected by default, but gives the worst result.

There are several staking algorithms in it - five, if I'm not mistaken. In principle, the default Do Stack gives the best result in most cases, but sometimes it is worth trying others. You can run everything at once (All Methods item) and select the best one from the results.

In general, there are quite a lot of fine settings and modes. For example, alignment can be done manually, setting control points yourself. Etc. But all the users I know only use the basic ones automatic modes. I'm no exception

A couple of unobvious disadvantages. The main thing is that you cannot change the sequence of pack assembly; it is specified only by the alphabetical order of the names of the input files. The situation when they shot a series, looked at it, discovered that there was a missing layer in the middle (or simply got a defect), and simply completed the missing frame - it doesn’t work. You have to rename the files in such a way as to restore the focusing order. On long episodes it's depressing.

Second, less sad, staking can only be started once. Theoretically, you can then load and process the next batch, but in practice, the program always crashes. So after each build you need to exit the program and run it again.

Brief Summary of Combine ZP

I'm glad they are like that free programs exist and give amateurs the opportunity to try the possibilities of image stitching, even using advanced methods. With due diligence, you can get results no worse than using commercial programs (albeit with the use of Adobe Photoshop for retouching images). On the other hand, if you look at this program from the point of view of a professional, then it is more profitable to buy a commercial one right away. It is not that expensive and it is much more convenient to work in it.

Summary of software methods for image stitching

All three methods allow you to achieve high results. Adobe Photoshop is the cheapest, most understandable, but also the most inconvenient staking method.

Helicon Focus And Zerene Stacker provide similar tools for working with the stack. The quality of their stitching seemed to me to be close and more dependent on the experience of the stitcher and what parameters he would set.

Helicon Focus definitely more convenient in terms of work.

Both programs lack the implementation of the “ruler” function. IN Zener Stacker it simply doesn’t exist, but in Helicon Focus her presence is rather formal. I would like to be able to set the starting and ending points of an object in order to enter its size, and then the program could give the dimensions to all other objects in the frame simply by drawing a ruler, as in medical programs.

But in general, we have more than enough tools to create and create...

Don't be limited by your imagination. The stacking method can be used not only in macro photography, but also in landscape, expanding the boundaries of what is possible!

here I shot the grass in the foreground separately and “stitched it” with the rocks in the background. This is Cliffs of Moher

During macro photography, the depth of field can be so shallow that it is not possible to get enough of the subject in focus. Even with a closed aperture, macro photography significantly limits depth of field. Today we'll look at combining photography with special Photoshop techniques to enhance depth of field beyond what can be achieved in a single photo.

Preparation

What we'll be doing today is called staking. This technique consists of taking several frames at different focusing distances and then combining them. That is, we will take several photographs focused on different areas of the subject, and then combine these areas in one frame. The result will be a photograph in which much more is in focus than could be captured in one shot.

We have chosen Olympus camera OM-D, Micro 4:3 standard with Nikon 55mm lens. Micro-NIKKOR connected using an adapter. This lens has effective focal length 110 mm. taking into account the crop factor 2x. Creating a shot where the clock is completely in focus will require using the stacking technique we're looking at.

This technique is especially useful when using macro lenses. I chose old lens Nikon 55 mm. Micro-NIKKOR f/3.5 and Olympus OM-D camera. This kit takes incredibly sharp macro photos. I used an adapter to mount Nikon lens on OM-D. The only thing to note is that the OM-D is a Micro 4:3 camera with a 2x crop factor, doubling the effective focal length of our lens to 110mm. This long focal length also reduces depth of field, so the stacking technique is especially useful in this situation.

I chose the clock to illustrate the possibilities of increasing depth of field using stacking. Since the clock is on the table, the scene has some depth. From the closest point of the bracelet to the farthest part of it, we cannot place all the watches in the sharpness zone in one shot. Let's get acquainted with the possibilities of staking.

I wanted to illuminate the clock and used inexpensive spotlights (instead of flashes) to do this, carefully placing them around the set. I used blue fabric for maximum contrast between the subject and the background, and a small piece of Velcro tape to hold the clock in position. This is an inexpensive watch, but it is quite suitable for our lesson.

Simple spotlights and a piece of blue fabric as a backdrop allowed us to build a simple set on the kitchen table.

Finally, whenever possible, I highly recommend shooting with a camera synced to a computer. Our camera does not support this, but using a computer with a synchronized camera allows you to view the images you shoot directly on your computer monitor. This will ensure that you get the part of the frame you want in focus.

Filming

To demonstrate the benefits of staking, I used a clock as an object. When the watch has been mounted, as you often see in advertising photographs, from the near edge of its bracelet to the far edge, the image has noticeable depth. As I mentioned earlier, the long focal length of the lens and macro mode result in a shorter depth of field, which is why using the stacking technique produces great results.

This photo shows that our depth of field is too shallow. At the end of the lesson, we will demonstrate how the stacking technique allows you to get more than fits into the focus.

After some consultation and testing, I decided that six photos would be needed to properly cover the depth of field I wanted to achieve. My goal was to take separate frames with different parts of the clock in focus, and then combine them in post-production.

In the end, I made sure that I took six shots with different parts of the clock in focus. Using stacking in Photoshop will give me one merged file with all the clocks in focus.

When taking the shots needed to combine, I started by focusing on the front edge of the watch, gradually moving the focus towards the back of it. I took two shots of the front piece of the bracelet, two shots of the dial, and then two shots of the back of the bracelet.

The first frame taken also shows that each frame does not include all the clocks in focus. Here we see in sharp focus only the front fragment of the watch bracelet.

Once again, the idea is that each frame alone does not provide enough depth of field, but six frames combined can give us unlimited depth of field. Getting a sufficient number of frames during the shooting process - necessary condition for successful post-processing. The photos were taken at f/5.6 to add clarity and some depth of field to the original images, but even using larger apertures in macro photography is often not enough to increase the depth of field to an acceptable level.

You should use a tripod and try to minimize camera movement while shooting a series of shots. Photoshop has great opportunities by coordinating our images, but we should always strive to obtain the original images as closely as possible high quality and consistency already during shooting.

Post-processing

Among many other vital options, Photoshop has great stacking capabilities. In just a few minutes, we can assemble the final image with increased depth of field.

First of all, let’s make sure that all the necessary photos are on the computer and are in one folder. I place each series of photos to be combined in its own separate folder.

Next, launch Photoshop and we can begin the staking process. From the File menu, go to Automate, and then select Photomerge. This command will open all our photos in one document in Photoshop.

From the Photo Montage menu, select Auto for the layout, and make sure none of the squares at the bottom are checked.

When the Photo Montage menu appears, select the folder where your photos are stored. Leave the checkbox set to "Auto" in the left menu, and then uncheck the bottom boxes if they are checked. After clicking the “OK” button, Photoshop will go to work, reconcile and combine the images into one document.

It may take a few minutes for Photoshop to work, but once it's finished you'll have a new document with all your original images arranged in separate layers. There is only one step left to obtain the merged image.

First, select all layers. You can select any layer and then press Ctrl + A to select them all (on a Mac, instead of Ctrl + A, press Command + A, in both cases you mean the English "A"), or you can hold down the Ctrl button and click on each layer to select them all. Once all layers are selected, go to the Edit menu and select Auto Blend Layers.

Making sure all our layers are selected, use Edit > Auto Blend Layers to open the stacking menu. Leave a checkmark on “Stack Images” and it will automatically carry out the stacking process.

From the Auto Blend Layers menu, select Stack Images. Click OK again and Photoshop will do all the necessary staking work for us. Once the processing is complete, you will see its results both in the form of the final image and in the form of layers on the right in the Photoshop window. You'll see that the masks have automatically aligned and Photoshop has intelligently chosen which parts of the layers to mask out in the final image.

The final image is good example staking opportunities. Compared to previous images, here the entire clock is in focus, rather than small fragments. Stacking allows us to increase depth of field using computer processing.

Photoshop relies on masks to highlight the focused parts of each image. Automatic processing perfectly prepared the image layers with drawn masks. Photoshop intelligently selected the focused parts from the original photos and then combined them.

Photoshop does almost all the work related to the staking process. The only downside is that if you're unhappy with the result, it's difficult to set up the automatic evaluation it performs. However, I think the built-in capabilities are extremely powerful and perhaps this best way increase depth of field using computer processing.

Conclusion

Staking is unique technology, which allows us to achieve seemingly incredible depth of field. With a series of photos and a little post-processing magic in Photoshop, achieving additional depth of field is easily accomplished with just a few clicks. Photoshop is an advanced application that can intelligently combine our images and automatically create and apply masks.

In this lesson you will learn how to process evening and night photographs taken with ordinary inexpensive digital camera. Well, the photographs taken SLR camera, in this way you can almost completely get rid of noise.

The effectiveness of this method surpasses all known noise reduction plugins. The only condition: you need to shoot stationary objects; this method is not suitable for portraits. Although...maybe there will be enthusiasts, because at the dawn of photography, portraits were shot with shutter speeds of several minutes!
So let's get started.

Step 1. We take several shots of the object we need. In this case, it is best to use the burst mode in the camera (read the instructions for the camera). I took 10 frames, you can take more.

An inexpensive camera was used Canon Powershot A580. The shooting was carried out handheld, and the maximum sensitivity was specially set to ISO 1600. At this value, noise literally filled the entire image. One of the frames is shown below.

Step 2. Go to the menu File - Scripts - Load files onto stack(File - Scripts - Load files into stack).

A dialog box will appear.

Click Review to select the files you want, select your captured images and click OK. Place a tick in the checkbox Automatically align images(Attempt to automatically Align Source Images).

Now each image will open as a layer in one file.

The image turned out like this, with transparent areas around the edges, since the shooting was done handheld and not from a tripod (for the purity of the experiment). These areas appeared as a result of automatic layer alignment.

Step 3. Now right-click on the name of the top layer and in the drop-down list click Select Similar Layers.

Now you have all the layers selected.

Step 4. Right-click on the layers palette and select Convert to Smart Object(Convert to smart-object)

Now we only have the smart object left in the layers palette. All layers will be inside it.

Since the noise of a camera matrix is ​​random in nature, that is, different pixels make noise from frame to frame, it is quite logical that by averaging the values ​​of a sample of pixels from several images, noise reduction can be achieved, and with a slight loss of image detail. This is what we see in the final picture. Further correction is at your discretion. Just remember to rasterize the smart object, otherwise many of the tools will become unavailable. This can also be done by right-clicking in the layers palette and selecting the command Rasterize the layer.

To compare the effectiveness this method Here is a picture that I processed with the Noise Ninja plugin (one of the best plugins for dealing with noise).

I think that after studying this lesson, you will discover not only new opportunities Adobe programs Photoshop, but also your camera.

I wish you all creative success!
Evgeny Kartashov.

In this material we will talk about such an overseas concept in photography as staking. So what is staking?

In simple terms, this is the concept of creating one final photograph from several that differ from each other by different focal points. Ultimately, thanks to automatic photo processing in Photoshop, the result is a photo that is completely sharp in all places. This technique is mainly used when shooting macro scenes. I think those who have already shot macro know that the depth of field in this thankless task is very small and it is very difficult to shoot a solid macro in one frame. But thanks to stacking, it becomes possible to shoot the subject of the scene completely in focus, which is good news. Do not think that using staking is not professional, under no circumstances. The main thing to remember is that to achieve a beautiful, effective photo, all means are good.

In this example, we used 6 photographs with different places of focus.

It is also worth noting that stacking can only be done successfully from a tripod and when shooting a stationary subject. I don’t think it’s worth explaining why.

Remember stacking is not possible with all lenses. Recommended focal length for stacking is from 20 to 30mm. However, this rule can be broken by some lenses. The fact is that sometimes on lenses while rotating the focusing ring you can see a noticeable change in the size of the subject or other visual distortions due to which it is simply technically impossible to take photographs for stacking.

How to take photos for stacking?

So, let's talk about how to take photos for their subsequent successful stacking.

In this matter, remember an important thing - the more photographs you get with different focusing that differs by a fraction of a millimeter, the better.

It is necessary to take photographs from manual settings and preferably with artificial lighting of the stage (so that the brightness is the same and it doesn’t turn out like “oh, the sun has gone behind a cloud”).

Keep the focusing step minimal so that there are no out-of-focus stripes between frames. However, few people are successful in photographing frames for their first stacking.

After you have “walked” the focus over the entire object, it’s time to start post-processing, the process of gluing together photographs into one.

Processing photos for stacking

Let's start from this moment with a tale about processing photographed images in the wonderful Photoshop program. I recommend having one of the following installed latest versions program, because I cannot guarantee the availability of the functions used in other versions.

We will divide all the work into points to make it easier for you to perceive the information.

A window should open where the button Review select all your photos for the current stacking. And check that the checkboxes at the bottom of the window are all cleared. Left in the area Layout, should stand Auto.

When everything is checked, click OK.

2. At this stage, Photoshop will load the photos. This may take some time.

Now we need to select all layers. To quickly do this, left-click on the very first layer and then go to the last one, hold SHIFT and click on the last layer.

Now after all the photo layers are selected, click in the Editing panel (Edit) -> Auto Blend Layers (Auto Blend Layers)

A small window should open where you select Stack images.

Check mark Smooth transitions colors and tones You can leave or remove it at your discretion. I usually clean up. Click OK.

3. Let's go make some tea and wait for Photoshop to finish processing. Upon completion, you will receive the long-awaited result. Using it, determine for yourself what to pay attention to next time, how best to shoot, because it’s better own experience no instructions.