I use this lens too and I can see you suffer from the same problems as I do. I think the reason why the images didn't aline properly is due to focus breathing. You actually zoom the lens a little when you change focus - super annoying! And when you mentioned vignetting and compensated for it in post my experience is that lightroom/cameraraw overcompensates for the vignetting of this lens. I normally add 30-40% of the vignetting back into the picture :)
Thank you for doing this! You might want to try and do this on a more regular basis, those kind of videos are what a lot of people are looking for. Especially when you find something interesting that you haven't encountered before. Again, awesome video!
8 months later, I saw your original video of taking this photo and thought, "I wish I knew he stacked that!" Lo and behold, others in the past wanted the same thing, and you delivered. Thank you!
Kudos TH. I was trained in a fine arts program many decades ago. Your tech instruction here is proper but it's your inferences (grunt, Mordor) concerning tones, mood, etc for the desired "look" that impress as most valuable. Your process choices flow naturally from your eye. So I'm going to subscribe and see more of your work. You have a ton of editing with the goal of improving on realism, which is fantastic, it leaps past the limits of the camera. On the tech side you could shoot this faster with 3 focus points than taking the time to super carefully get full DOF, plus you can use a more open aperture reducing diffraction. That is important for setups in rough environments. A+.
Thanks Thomas, another example of how one of my favourite people on YT to watch responds and cares about their fans. You're brilliant, really pleased I found your channel.
There are times when I let Photoshop auto-stack. But sometimes I like to have more control over exactly which components are masked and where. It all depends on the artist's preference. Great vid as usual, Tom.
I have watched a lot of youtube videos about focus stacking and most let Photoshop do it's thing without masking. I trust Thomas because he is the master! I'm a little conflicted on which way to go with this. I guess the only real way is to compare is by myself. Photography is so much fun! I enjoy shooting in the great outdoors and the technical aspect that we do with our computers. It's all about contrast! Outdoors and computers is as big a contrast that I can think of.
For those that get a buzz from Thomas' videos you really should be sure to check out his recommended video too. The upper left window right at the end. Always a good watch and keeps that buzz going just a little longer. You're welcome 😉
Hi Tom, One tip I got from Bryan Peterson at the Out of Acadia conference on depth of field: For lens with focal length 24mm or less, set the focal distance manually at 1 meter and f/22. the minimum focus distance then is 7" ( 16cm). He told us to not worry as the defraction is not an issue for super wide lens. I tried it and found that my image was sharp from front to back.
Cheers Tom for the bonus video. You answered my question about vignetting on your wide angle lens. I must go out and buy myself a whole new 100mm filter system. Looking forward to your next video.
I've started doing focus stacking myself recently and noticed some weird stuff happening around the edges and was wondering what it was. This video has provided me with some answers! Many thanks!
Thanks Thomas, after watching your last vid I wanted to know how to process this type of image capture. I have looked at some very long winded and complicated versions of how to do it in PS. You, once again demonstrated the HOW TO without making it complicated. Now ready to give it a go and learn a new PS skill. Cheers!!
Mr Heaton...all my gratitud to someone who lives his job with so passion, so inspiring than just watching your videos, I need to run outside and do a lot of practice to know exactly, what I want to explain with just one picture...with Nick Pahe and few others, you are one of my inspiring heroes!
Great video Tom, clear and concise instruction on how you work. I prefer the manual blend like you demonstrated rather than the Photoshop function because then I'm in control.
Thanks for this one Thomas. Nice to see how you think about and execute your processing workflow. I think this helps others break out of their standard routine by giving them ideas they otherwise may not think of. Keep these kind of videos coming.
Found you through Nigel's channel and have been sitting here watching videos for like 4 hours now. Absolutely phenomenal channel! Thank you so much for all the tutorials, the awesome B-Roll stories, and man, I am blown away on how amazing your work is. Not just the photography, but the freaking RUclips videos as well. Thank you so much for this. I'm still saving up to get a camera, but doing all the homework I can ahead of time.
Thanks Mr Heaton. This will really help me with a location I keep visiting, but struggle on this very subject. Feeling a bit less dim than I did before.
Love all your videos. Just listened to your podcast,thought that was great and informative. You just keep doing what your doing and how your doing it. I had no idea how rough viewers could be. Only positives from this viewer. Thanks for everything you do.
I just saw a video a couple of days ago on the Nikon D850 showing some of its features, and stacking was one of them, but I didn't get the whole concept of the idea. Thank you Tom, you made it easy to understand and to make me curious to try it!!!
pdonoso55 The D850’s focus stacking mode automatically makes a number of shots (you determine the amount in the menu) from nearest focus to infinity. Let’s say you set it to 30, the first shot is closest focus and the last shot is infinity. All shots in between gradually shift focus from near to far. Next you can load the images as layers into Photoshop and actually you can use a automated script called ‘autoblend all layers’. This way you don’t have to manually paint in the layer masks.
Just subscribed because of this video. Please do more series like this where you show your process before, during and after taking the picture and editing it! I'm just getting into photography and photo editing and have been watching a bunch of photography channels. Your videos are great!
Thanks for the video Thomas! For those who upgraded from ancient Lightroom to Capture One Pro for the better quality, there's a hidden menu item to open the files as layers in Photoshop. It took me some weeks to see it, so that's why I'm hoping to make you happy with it. You can find it in Capture One Pro under the Scripts menu and then Stitch With Photoshop. That opens the files as layers in Photoshop, with an incredible amount of detail.
thanks for sharing how you edit it. I love learning new ways of editing. love your videos and they have become a weekly task to watch them. inspiring to live happier
Thanks Thomas. This is great. I've often thought (but hadn't mentioned) that I'd like to see more of how you handle your wonderful images in post-processing. This quick overview is pretty much exactly what I'd hoped to see!
This is definitely the best way especialy when you have three to five images to stack. Recently Ive had a few problems with auto blend layers after using scrips and had to resort to this way with layer masking anyway. Great video Thomas spot on. Jim
Tom, you should really do more Lightroom tutorials, this was fantastic. I learned more about Lightroom in 5 minutes from your video than I have done in 6 months just playing around! Never knew about the sharpness masking tool, that's great stuff.
Thanks Tom for the quick tutorial. Being new to photography, I have a tons of pictures and still haven't gone thru any of them because post processing seems so overwhelming. Cheers!!!
Thanks for the video, as a keen beginner its good to know that not all great pictures come straight from the camera and quite a bit of post processing is involved. You have a new subscriber, I’m looking forward to seeing some of your other videos
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills. You have a perfect presentation style which is allowing me to understand more about photography. Keep up the great videos.
Great video: I've used this method myself. Autoblend is hit or miss as you said. However, I have found that once autoblend creates masks - I can use those masks as a starting point and then correct as needed. Saves a bit of time in painting in the mask.
Great Video Thomas. Very clever the result you have from stacking the images. It certainly gives that Cartier Bresson moment. When everything comes together within the image. Thanks again for your excellent tutorials they have certainly made me take a look at the way I have been approaching my photography. And how I am now going to approach it.. it is true all roads do lead to Rome. Just the way you eventually get there. Cheers Steve
Thanks for the quick tip Tom! Can I make a suggestion when cropping....? If you use a solid colour layer the same colour as your desired photoshop background you don’t have to commit to the crop until your finished editing as the crop will exist as a layer. This has been such a great change to my work flow as cropping before spending time editing has always screwed me over! Love the channel, Lee Solid colour - make a marching ant selection of your crop and full with background colour - invert to see crop and then you can change mask at any time, hope this make sense
Bravo, I love this very detailed video along with the wide angle companion video too. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. This is exactly what I've needed. I just got back from shooting Acadia National Park in Maine and took lots of Focus Stacked shots, and now you have very much helped me in showing where to go from there. More of these step by step tutorials would be great in showing how you got the shot. Thanks Again, Ray J.
Thanks Thomas, it's great to occasionally see how you've processed the image if it involves something less common. You've inspired me to give focus stacking a go on a landscape shot!! I hadn't really considered it before as I thought it was for the 'macro-mad' amongst us...
Thanks for focus stacking video Thomas ! it's good to see how you do it . I'm looking forwards to meeting you and seeing your work and talk in Belfast on Saturday ! on fortunately there's no places left on the workshop ! maybe the next time !
Exactly the video I need right now! doing a two image stack on a waterfall and thanks Tom for the guide! great video and inspiration for the starting out photographer!
I've just found your channel and I enjoyed this tutorial. I used to love surfing at this spot, and windsurfing at the north end of the bay. I'll go and explore your channel now.
Thanks Tom, I really appreciate the efforts you made on this one. Sometime people do not care about whats going on in the comments if they have reached certain position in RUclips posts. Taking pain to read all comments and posting another video very next day is something out of the box. Keep shooting and keep sharing. Have a great one.
Thank you for taking the time and showing this process. Actually watched a couple tutorials about stacking images but this quick tutorial was alot better!
Great technical video! I know this was supposed to be about focus stacking but I got a lot from your quick initial image setup as well. Would love to see more of you talking about the post processing decisions you make in Lightroom and PS.
Loved the video and watching how you create the images in post. I agree with other comments and would love to see more of these behind the scenes videos. Thank you for sharing.
Way Cool Shot! Great Video! This is a technique that I would really like to learn. They didn't tach this in photo school back in 1972. Oh, wait, digital wasn't invented yet. We had to stop down to f64 to obtain this type of depth of field! Keep up the good work. Enjoy all your videos thus far.
Auto Blend in Photoshop rarely works well. This is why I masked the images manually and yes, 'Weirdness' is a technical term. Xx
Fair enough. Your photo turned out great and however you got there really does not matter. Keep the fantastic videos coming.
Great shot pal. By any chance did you go down the auto blend route before opting for the masking option?
Composition techniques?
I use this lens too and I can see you suffer from the same problems as I do. I think the reason why the images didn't aline properly is due to focus breathing. You actually zoom the lens a little when you change focus - super annoying! And when you mentioned vignetting and compensated for it in post my experience is that lightroom/cameraraw overcompensates for the vignetting of this lens. I normally add 30-40% of the vignetting back into the picture :)
Aim and shoot.
Very nice Tom! I would love to see a little bit more behind the scenes videos like this. 👌 What do you guys think?
Yes I agree with you Ben, it's great watching the videos taking the images, but showing how the final image is created brings it from start to finish
Mark Walden I just know that these sort of videos aren't what Tom likes to make. He likes the great outdoors!
Yes, I would also prefer seeing more proper wild camping videos :)
I'm down
Cool. I Love your vídeos and it will be great if you add the post processing techniques to all of them.
Thank you for doing this! You might want to try and do this on a more regular basis, those kind of videos are what a lot of people are looking for. Especially when you find something interesting that you haven't encountered before. Again, awesome video!
8 months later, I saw your original video of taking this photo and thought, "I wish I knew he stacked that!" Lo and behold, others in the past wanted the same thing, and you delivered. Thank you!
By far the best explains focus stacking tutorial I've ever watched.
Kudos TH. I was trained in a fine arts program many decades ago. Your tech instruction here is proper but it's your inferences (grunt, Mordor) concerning tones, mood, etc for the desired "look" that impress as most valuable. Your process choices flow naturally from your eye. So I'm going to subscribe and see more of your work. You have a ton of editing with the goal of improving on realism, which is fantastic, it leaps past the limits of the camera. On the tech side you could shoot this faster with 3 focus points than taking the time to super carefully get full DOF, plus you can use a more open aperture reducing diffraction. That is important for setups in rough environments. A+.
Thanks Thomas, another example of how one of my favourite people on YT to watch responds and cares about their fans. You're brilliant, really pleased I found your channel.
There are times when I let Photoshop auto-stack. But sometimes I like to have more control over exactly which components are masked and where. It all depends on the artist's preference. Great vid as usual, Tom.
Are you for real ? After your how to use wide angle I wanted to search for Focus stacking ... But looks like I no longer need to search.. Thanks
I have watched a lot of youtube videos about focus stacking and most let Photoshop do it's thing without masking. I trust Thomas because he is the master! I'm a little conflicted on which way to go with this. I guess the only real way is to compare is by myself. Photography is so much fun! I enjoy shooting in the great outdoors and the technical aspect that we do with our computers. It's all about contrast! Outdoors and computers is as big a contrast that I can think of.
For those that get a buzz from Thomas' videos you really should be sure to check out his recommended video too. The upper left window right at the end. Always a good watch and keeps that buzz going just a little longer. You're welcome 😉
Hi Tom, One tip I got from Bryan Peterson at the Out of Acadia conference on depth of field: For lens with focal length 24mm or less, set the focal distance manually at 1 meter and f/22. the minimum focus distance then is 7" ( 16cm). He told us to not worry as the defraction is not an issue for super wide lens. I tried it and found that my image was sharp from front to back.
Cheers Tom for the bonus video. You answered my question about vignetting on your wide angle lens. I must go out and buy myself a whole new 100mm filter system. Looking forward to your next video.
I was stunned by the effect. I never suspect you unsaturate your image during post process, that was really a good choice here.
Very informative. Thank you Tom. Very few famous photographers are showing their actual work like this in detail. Thank you again.
I've started doing focus stacking myself recently and noticed some weird stuff happening around the edges and was wondering what it was. This video has provided me with some answers! Many thanks!
Thanks. I have seen this in the past on other RUclips videos and when I tried it I failed, but the way you explained it really made sense.
That Mordor feel, I've been enjoying your videos but that took it to the next level!
Thanks Thomas, after watching your last vid I wanted to know how to process this type of image capture. I have looked at some very long winded and complicated versions of how to do it in PS. You, once again demonstrated the HOW TO without making it complicated. Now ready to give it a go and learn a new PS skill. Cheers!!
Mr Heaton...all my gratitud to someone who lives his job with so passion, so inspiring than just watching your videos, I need to run outside and do a lot of practice to know exactly, what I want to explain with just one picture...with Nick Pahe and few others, you are one of my inspiring heroes!
I absolutely love how you kept the post production simple! Simple pp = great job on location! You're the best!
Great video Tom, clear and concise instruction on how you work. I prefer the manual blend like you demonstrated rather than the Photoshop function because then I'm in control.
Simply amazing photo .. I have book marked this for future use as I also learned a few things about Lightroom.
Thank you so much! ...
I got Lightroom recently after a shoot I did in the mountains. Love these quick tutorials you do! They show me features I didn't know about. Thanks!
Having never bothered with focus stacking, this was a great help- thanks!
Fantastic work thanks for sharing . I am now planing on going out there and capturing images to do stacking like this ! Can't wait
Thanks for this one Thomas. Nice to see how you think about and execute your processing workflow. I think this helps others break out of their standard routine by giving them ideas they otherwise may not think of. Keep these kind of videos coming.
Found you through Nigel's channel and have been sitting here watching videos for like 4 hours now. Absolutely phenomenal channel! Thank you so much for all the tutorials, the awesome B-Roll stories, and man, I am blown away on how amazing your work is. Not just the photography, but the freaking RUclips videos as well. Thank you so much for this. I'm still saving up to get a camera, but doing all the homework I can ahead of time.
Mr. Heaton your videos are always a highlight of my day/week. Thanks for making photography enjoyable.
Thanks Mr Heaton. This will really help me with a location I keep visiting, but struggle on this very subject. Feeling a bit less dim than I did before.
Love all your videos. Just listened to your podcast,thought that was great and informative. You just keep doing what your doing and how your doing it. I had no idea how rough viewers could be. Only positives from this viewer. Thanks for everything you do.
Woo, thank you! I just got the 16-35 today and am going to do some landscape photos this weekend!
I just saw a video a couple of days ago on the Nikon D850 showing some of its features, and stacking was one of them, but I didn't get the whole concept of the idea. Thank you Tom, you made it easy to understand and to make me curious to try it!!!
pdonoso55 The D850’s focus stacking mode automatically makes a number of shots (you determine the amount in the menu) from nearest focus to infinity. Let’s say you set it to 30, the first shot is closest focus and the last shot is infinity. All shots in between gradually shift focus from near to far. Next you can load the images as layers into Photoshop and actually you can use a automated script called ‘autoblend all layers’. This way you don’t have to manually paint in the layer masks.
Just subscribed because of this video. Please do more series like this where you show your process before, during and after taking the picture and editing it! I'm just getting into photography and photo editing and have been watching a bunch of photography channels. Your videos are great!
Thanks for the video Thomas!
For those who upgraded from ancient Lightroom to Capture One Pro for the better quality, there's a hidden menu item to open the files as layers in Photoshop. It took me some weeks to see it, so that's why I'm hoping to make you happy with it. You can find it in Capture One Pro under the Scripts menu and then Stitch With Photoshop. That opens the files as layers in Photoshop, with an incredible amount of detail.
Really well explained. Good to know my workflow isn't too dissimilar to a pro like you!
thanks for sharing how you edit it. I love learning new ways of editing. love your videos and they have become a weekly task to watch them. inspiring to live happier
Thanks Thomas. This is great. I've often thought (but hadn't mentioned) that I'd like to see more of how you handle your wonderful images in post-processing. This quick overview is pretty much exactly what I'd hoped to see!
Awesome thanks for sharing. Best example I've seen of this. I'll use it for my first try at focus stacking soon
This is definitely the best way especialy when you have three to five images to stack. Recently Ive had a few problems with auto blend layers after using scrips and had to resort to this way with layer masking anyway. Great video Thomas spot on.
Jim
fantastic Tom - quick and easy and learned heaps. Especially good to see how you dropped saturation. would love to see more like this
THANK YOU!!!!! This helps so much and I really appreciate you listening to the fans!
Nice tutorial. I have tested focus stacking few times but used auto blend layers feature in Photoshop instead of manual masking.
Just so you know, Thomas, you’re my favorite landscape photographer ;) I started doing it because of you.
Thanks for sharing your editing techniques Thomas always great to see how images like this are acheived.
Tom, you should really do more Lightroom tutorials, this was fantastic. I learned more about Lightroom in 5 minutes from your video than I have done in 6 months just playing around! Never knew about the sharpness masking tool, that's great stuff.
Thanks Tom for the quick tutorial. Being new to photography, I have a tons of pictures and still haven't gone thru any of them because post processing seems so overwhelming. Cheers!!!
Thanks for the video, as a keen beginner its good to know that not all great pictures come straight from the camera and quite a bit of post processing is involved. You have a new subscriber, I’m looking forward to seeing some of your other videos
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills. You have a perfect presentation style which is allowing me to understand more about photography. Keep up the great videos.
Great video: I've used this method myself. Autoblend is hit or miss as you said. However, I have found that once autoblend creates masks - I can use those masks as a starting point and then correct as needed. Saves a bit of time in painting in the mask.
Great Video Thomas. Very clever the result you have from stacking the images. It certainly gives that Cartier Bresson moment. When everything comes together within the image. Thanks again for your excellent tutorials they have certainly made me take a look at the way I have been approaching my photography. And how I am now going to approach it.. it is true all roads do lead to Rome. Just the way you eventually get there. Cheers Steve
Thanks for the quick tip Tom! Can I make a suggestion when cropping....? If you use a solid colour layer the same colour as your desired photoshop background you don’t have to commit to the crop until your finished editing as the crop will exist as a layer. This has been such a great change to my work flow as cropping before spending time editing has always screwed me over! Love the channel, Lee
Solid colour - make a marching ant selection of your crop and full with background colour - invert to see crop and then you can change mask at any time, hope this make sense
Bravo, I love this very detailed video along with the wide angle companion video too. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. This is exactly what I've needed. I just got back from shooting Acadia National Park in Maine and took lots of Focus Stacked shots, and now you have very much helped me in showing where to go from there. More of these step by step tutorials would be great in showing how you got the shot. Thanks Again, Ray J.
I have never done this before, things are making more sense now :) Will try to remember to do that on my next trip, thanks!!
Great duet of videos, definitely going to brush off my wide angle and go and play!!!
Fantastic! I am going out tomorrow to try this workflow out. Thanks Thomas.
A nice explanation in your workload and many thanks for showing the focus stacking.
Great to see how you stacked your Photos Tom.Hopefully will try my first attempt soon.J.
I really liked this video as well. I do a lot in LR but PS is a bit overwhelming. Seeing this workflow helps me understand a little more!
Thanks Thomas, it's great to occasionally see how you've processed the image if it involves something less common. You've inspired me to give focus stacking a go on a landscape shot!! I hadn't really considered it before as I thought it was for the 'macro-mad' amongst us...
Awesome video Thomas. Keep it coming. Love the clear easy to follow instructions.
Thanks for focus stacking video Thomas ! it's good to see how you do it .
I'm looking forwards to meeting you and seeing your work and talk in Belfast on Saturday !
on fortunately there's no places left on the workshop ! maybe the next time !
Exactly the video I need right now! doing a two image stack on a waterfall and thanks Tom for the guide! great video and inspiration for the starting out photographer!
I've just found your channel and I enjoyed this tutorial. I used to love surfing at this spot, and windsurfing at the north end of the bay. I'll go and explore your channel now.
Thanks Tom, I really appreciate the efforts you made on this one. Sometime people do not care about whats going on in the comments if they have reached certain position in RUclips posts.
Taking pain to read all comments and posting another video very next day is something out of the box.
Keep shooting and keep sharing.
Have a great one.
Learned a lot. Thanks for the tips. With a little care and practice you don’t need built in camera features to pull this off
Thanks! I just watched the wide angle lens video yesterday and was wondering how focus stacking worked.
I've just watched two of your videos and I've already learned so much. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Thomas - I was also wondering this so I'm glad everyone else asked! :)
Thank you for taking the time and showing this process. Actually watched a couple tutorials about stacking images but this quick tutorial was alot better!
Thank you for taking the time to show us how you did this ☺💙📷
Great technical video! I know this was supposed to be about focus stacking but I got a lot from your quick initial image setup as well. Would love to see more of you talking about the post processing decisions you make in Lightroom and PS.
Thank you very much you are really generous to share your workflow ...bye from Canada 🍁
Great work again. My fav photographer on RUclips. Keep up the vlogs, tips and tricks. The Landscape world is better for you being in it.
Now I know how it works🙏🏻Thanks so much for sharing! Love your Image a lot💯it’s so beautiful
Great image Thomas, really enjoy your enthusiasm when you work and the add-on vid a nice touch to sum up.
Loved the video and watching how you create the images in post. I agree with other comments and would love to see more of these behind the scenes videos. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Thomas!! I was wondering after your last video how I can try this, can't wait to take some shots soon and try!
Nice and simple, and the image looks great. Sooo envious right now. Little steps padawan!
Love your style Tom....very clear guidance and a lovely attitude
Excellent guide Tom, you make it look so easy.
Thank you for posting, your videos are really inspiring.
Thank you very much for this video! I can't wait to go out there and try this! I am very much enjoying all your videos!
This is the earliest I've been on a Thomas video yet.
I was just thinking I would like to try some focus stacking. Now I know one method to perform it. Thanks!
Excellent work Tom, you really do look after your viewers superbly so thank you.
Take care and stay safe.🍀👌
Def be good to see more videos like this! Can't wait to try it, Inspirational!
As always excellent video you make it all sound so,easy thanks Tom.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge Thomas. I cant wait to try this out.. 😀👋
Awesome , you make it look so easy (and I'm sure it is for some ) thanks for sharing !
You make it look so easy and quick thank you Thomas.
Great video Thomas. I found these types of videos so invaluable when I was learning to stack and exposure blend. love it!
Way Cool Shot! Great Video! This is a technique that I would really like to learn. They didn't tach this in photo school back in 1972. Oh, wait, digital wasn't invented yet. We had to stop down to f64 to obtain this type of depth of field! Keep up the good work. Enjoy all your videos thus far.
Excellent video Thomas. You made a scary sounding subject look so easy. I can't wait to find a nice landscape to try this out on!
Really enjoyed this, I add to others the behind the scenes video are very helpful to us, aspiring to try some of these things!
This may be the most helpful tutorial I have watched yet, thank you good Sir
Very simple technique Thomas, and with awesome results ;) thanks a lot for sharing it!!!
I'm about to try focus stacking for the first time - you told sold me on using Lightroom over Photoshop!
Great tutorial. You are a great find on RUclips you speak a great deal of sense to a beginner landscape shooter like me. Keep up the good work. Thanks
What a star! Thank you for doing this. More videos like this please as well as your usual excellent content.
Very good and quickly explained. Saw many videos of others explaining the same; yours I understood direct.
Directly got your channel an abo.
Great