A Focus Stacking Workflow For Lightroom And Photoshop

The Tip I Want In Focus

The Base Petals I Want in Focus

Focus Stacking
Have you ever taken a picture and wished you had enough depth of field so several things could be focus at the same time? An example is when you shoot a flower, you can focus on the edge of the petals, but the tip of the center will be out of focus. The same is also true if you focus on the center of the flower, the petals will then be out of focus. There is just no amount of depth of field that will carry focus in that situation. A tilt shift lens help a little, but your out of focus blur shifts from a front to back situation, to a vertical one. This focusing problem holds true for landscapes, bees, heck anything that you can focus on.

In the macro world they learned long ago to use a technique during capture called Focus Stacking. Focus Stacking a system used during capture that allows you to extend depth of field that is impossible any other way. There is even special software (Helicon is top of the food chain for this) to automate the focus stacking postwork process. The whole idea is to work from a tripod and to shoot an object that does not move. The idea is to work your way from one end of the object to the other, rotating the focus ring just a little at a time, ending up with a series of images that when processed will show your object completely in focus. It sounds complicated but it isn’t, it’s just tricky for me to explain in words.

There are special nodal and macro rails to insure you cover your object in it’s entirety. However, there is no need to take it that far in order for this technique to be an effective tool for your image making tool box. Heck you don’t even need a tripod in most cases, just be sure to shoot loose around the edges of the frame. The reason is, you’ll need to crop your final image in order compensate for any misalignment issues created during capture. Remember, no tripod equals framing issues, thank goodness we have Photoshop to save our butts.

In the video below, I shot a hand-held sequence of images of a hibiscus. All I wanted was to have the tip of the flower (stigma pads & pollen sax) to be in focus along with the base petals of the flower. I was able to focus stack only two images in order get the final image I was after. The whole time I was shooting, I envisioned two images, an old-looking black and white, and a 1970′s faded velvia saturated vivid color shot. I am not quite sure I was able to pull it off in post, but I am happy. Just remember I was not shooting this for a job, I was shooting it because I just liked the flower and was hoping to make a print.

Sometimes you just grab the camera and have some fun, even if it’s shooting a simple flower. If you are anything like me, you will feel uneasy with the world if you don’t have your camera in hand making a picture at least once in a day. Thanks for taking time to stop by today. I hope whatever it is you’re doing today is fun and exciting and this post was able to help in some way. Sincerely, Thomas Shue

Below are the two finished images of the flower. Sometimes I just have to get this stuff out of my head so I can move on. So, do ya think I was able to pull off my vision? I would love to hear from you.

The B&W From My Vision

The 1070″s Faded Velvia Vision

A Lightroom Button That’s Hidden In Plain Sight

Hey guys, today I want to show you a feature in Lightroom that has been hidden in plain sight since the day I started using the program. Before I tell you about it, I want to give credit where credit is due. Lightroom guru Matt Kloskowski of Kelby media recently was offering some Lightroom training and brought this feature to my attention. This feature is actually just a button, and it lives in plain view.

So what’s the name of this elusive button? It’s the button that says Previous on it. I am sure you have all seen it, heck it sits in plain view and just happens to be visible every single time you develop an image in Lightroom. With a name like Previous, it seems pretty obvious what it does right? Well if you think that, you would be wrong. I guess the reason I have never used the Previous button is because I use the ctrl+z (cmd+z on a Mac) instinctively as needed to step backwards. I mean its super silly to use a special button to undo/go back/return to the previous state when the same undo shortcut exists on every piece of software on the planet. What a worthless button… boy was I mistaken.

So what the heck does the Previous button do? Let me show you. Take a few minutes and watch the video below on how to use the, “Lightroom Button That’s Hidden In Plain Sight”. Thanks for taking time to visit today. I hope you have a great day. Sincerely, Thomas Shue

How To Make A Full Page Watermark To Protect Your Images

Today I am going to show you how I made a full-page watermark to protect some images from a recent prom shoot. I really don’t know of any better way to protect images that you are planning to sell as prints than a watermark. The whole idea of a watermark is to mark your images so people know who made them. Also a watermark is used to protect your images from theft. The theft issue is a huge in my opinion the reason for this post.

I shot a prom a few days ago and the kids were great. I had a lot of fun, there were lots of nice people and it seemed like everyone had a great time. I was there to work, and work hard I did. Not many people know how much work it really is to load, setup, tear down, load, then unload an entire professional photo shoot set by yourself. I will just say it is a ton of work. Now, I know you can shoot with speedlights, and I do. But when you have one chance to get it right, you need to break out the big guns, the studio strobes. When you do these types of shoots, you are there to sell prints, rarely do you get paid to show up.

Now, in order to sell prints, you need to host the images and allow the kids and parents to choose. Again as photographers, we do not money to show up and shoot, our money is made after the shoot. Also at these types of events, it’s a kind of gamble. The last thing you want to be faced with is someone not buying your images because they have stolen them. Kids nowadays are so used to right-click save and put stuff on their Facebook it’s just second nature. I heard one of the kids tell my partner for this event, “don’t get mad at graduation when you see the pictures”. I said, don’t get mad for what? The kids from this high school have a chance to play a slideshow and make a speech during graduation, and they were warning my partner to not get angry because they have stolen images from the web and are using them in their slide shows. So why would someone pay for images if they are just going to steal them? Answer, they won’t, hence the full-page watermark. You need a watermark that is big enough that they do not want to steal the images, but not so obtrusive they can’t see the images. The watermarking options in Lightroom are kind of weak for certain types of jobs, and this prom is just one of those types.

I do not plan to use a full-page watermark on all of my images, just on the ones that I plan on making money on from print sales. Weddings are much different, you are paid for the job via a negotiated price. The prints and albums can be a bonus if not already negotiated in the price. Whereas a prom shoot is, show up, set up, shoot, edit, host and hope for sales. I love to do all sorts of photography related jobs. I just do not like to work for free if it’s a job. Now, if you ever find yourself the need for a full-page watermark, look no further.

Sorry that the video below is so long. Making a custom full-page watermark does take a few minutes. The good news is you can save some money because you won’t have to pay the $60-100 dollars it takes to buy special watermarking software that will do a full-page watermark. So, that’s it, thanks for taking time to visit today. I hope you are having a great day. Sincerely, Thomas Shue

Sharpening… Lightroom VS. Photoshop, No Contest

Sharpening is something you need to be doing to all of your images especially if you are a RAW shooter. When you shoot Raw, there is no sharpening applied like there is in a .Jpeg. For a long time I used Lightroom to Sharpen my images, and I still do if I am just posting stuff to the web. With that said, if I am going to be printing a large image or I am going to be offering a special image to a client and want to make sure it is the best quality possible, then I sharpen in Photoshop.

The main reason I use Photoshop for all of my critical sharpening tasks is because of two reasons. First, UnSharp mask is just better. With UnSharp mask I can sharpen the finest detail without causing artifacts on the rest of the image. Secondly, I can selectively sharpen my images. That’s huge, in Lightroom sharpening is applied to the whole image based on a contrast level. I prefer to have 100% control of how much, and where sharpening is applied. I Photoshop if I want to sharpen a single hair, no problem, it’s super easy and I am in full control.

Spend a few minutes to see exactly what I mean (video below). I show you how to sharpen in both Lightroom and Photoshop. You decide which one is best, I already know. I hope you have a great day, thanks for taking time to stop by. Sincerely, Thomas Shue

Auto Tone In Lightroom Is Not a Good Thing

Today’s post is to show you why the Auto Tone (automatically mess up your image) in Lightroom is not necessarily a good thing. Computers and software are great, they automate all sorts of mundane tasks in life. However having a piece of software automatically adjust the overall tone of your image is not necessarily a good thing. What Lightroom’s Auto Tone feature does is make any adjustment necessary to even and flatten out the overall tone of the image. It tries to even out the shadows (blacks) the mid tones and the highlights (whites). Note, this feature makes adjustments with zero regard with how it affects skin tone, affects contrast or increases noise.

A good image is one where the exposure renders (portrays) the subject as they actually are and has good tonal range. Tonal range is the relationship between the black and white point in an image. This means if you have something in the frame that is supposed to be black, it looks black, also if you have something in the frame that is white, it appears to be white. If you have both a something black and white in the same image, your image should represent it and would be one considered to have full range.

Auto Tone will never give you a true black or a true white point. Auto Tone is trying to eliminate a black and a white point in an image. Auto Tone is basically flattening out everything. You on the other hand need to make sure to set a proper black and white point (if one exists in the frame). As a photographer, you need to take full manual control in post to insure you have rendered the skin tone properly and set a black and white point if they exist. Remember your camera is not capable of creating an image that is full range (an image with a true black and true white). We expose our images making sure to not blow out the highlights, then we develop the blacks in post. Well that is what I do anyway.

Spend a few minutes to see exactly what I am talking about. I am quite sure you will agree that “Auto Tone In Lightroom Is Not a Good Thing”. Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your day is going well. Sincerely, Thomas Shue