How to Use Focus Stacking for the Sharpest Photos Possible

Landscape photographers often aim to get everything from the foreground of a scene to the most distant elements in focus. Focus stacking is one of the most effective ways to accomplish this, and this helpful video will show you how to use it for your own work.

Coming to you from Mark Denney, this great video will show you how to use focus stacking in Photoshop to create the sharpest possible images. Focus stacking is a common technique that uses multiple images with the same framing taken at different focal distances and blends them in post-processing to create a final image with a larger depth of field and better sharpness throughout. This helps you to avoid problems like diffraction, which seeps in when you use too narrow an aperture, and can give you better results than using just the hyperfocal distance, though this is sometimes a good compromise. Focus stacking is often effective when you have a foreground element you would like to show off in addition to a strong background. Check out the video above for the full rundown.

And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi."