Merging with Focus Stacking

You can use focus stacking to merge a series of images with different focal distances. By combining multiple images with different areas in focus, you can create a new image with a greater depth of field.

To Use Focus Stacking:

In Manage Mode

  1. Select the images in the File List pane.

    2. You must select the images according to the order of their focal distance. This means that the area that is in focus in each photo must move consistently in one direction, be it from front to back, or back to front, or right to left, or left to right. Use culling, renaming, or ctrl + click to achieve this order of selection, as necessary.

    Your selected images must have the same dimensions.

  2. Do one of the following:
  3. A warning dialog will pop up. If you have selected your images according to the order of their focal distance, press Proceed. If your image selection is not in order, press Cancel and change your order of selection.
  4. In the Save Image As dialog, choose a location, enter a name, and choose an image format from the Save as type drop-down menu.
  5. Press Save. Your stacked image will be placed in the location of your choosing.

In Edit Mode

  1. In Manage mode, select the images in the File List pane.
  2. Do one of the following:
  3. In Edit mode, choose Layer | Focus Stack...
  4. A warning dialog will pop up. In the Layers pane, your layers must be arranged according to their focal distance. If the layers are arranged according to focal distance, press Proceed. If the layers are not arranged properly, press Cancel, and rearrange the order in the Layers pane.
  5. In the Focus Stack dialog, configure the settings as described below.
  6. Press OK. If you have disabled Keep Layer Stack, all other layers will be removed and the focus stack layer will be the only remaining layer in the Layers pane. If you have enabled Keep Layer Stack, the focus stack layer will appear as the top layer in the Layers pane.

Focus Stacking Options

Merge

All Layers: Performs focus stacking using all layers in the Layers pane.

Selected Layers: Performs focus stacking on the selected layers in the Layers pane.

Focus stacking cannot be performed on a single layer.

Auto-Align Layers

Aligns the images in the stack. For best results, keep this option enabled.

Keep Layer Stack

Disable this option to delete all other layers, keeping only the resulting focus stack layer.

If you have accidentally disabled this option and deleted all other layers, press Ctrl + Z after the command has run.

 

The Focus Stack command will ignore all masks, text layers, and adjustment layers.

Running the Focus Stack command on large images will require a significant amount of memory.

See also: