Movie 08

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Depth of field blending

Movie 8

Martin Evening

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Depth of field blendingThe Edit ➯ Auto-Blend Layers command now allows you to blend objects that were shot using different points of focus and blend them into a single image.

1 I began by going to Bridge to selected a group of photographs that had been shot at different points of focus. I then went to the Tools menu and chose Photoshop ➯ ‘Load Files Into Photoshop Layers’. This opened the five selected photos as a multi-layered image in Photoshop.

2 With all the layers selected, I then went to the Edit menu, chose ‘Auto-Align Layers...’ and selected the Auto projection option. This aligned the layers as shown here.

Martin Evening

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3 The next step was to merge the layered photos together, which I did by going to the Edit menu again and this time selected ‘Auto-Blend layers...’ Here, I selected ‘Stack Images’ and made sure the ‘Seamless Tones and Colors’ option was checked.

4 To get the best results it is important to carry out the Auto-Align step before you apply the Auto-Blend. As you can see, this last step carried out a pixel blending step on the individual layers and added layer masks to each image based on a calculation of where the sharpest detail was on each layer. The success of this depth of field blending will also be down to the care with which you shoot the original photographs.

Blending retouch tipDepth of field blending works reasonably well in most instances, but won’t always produce perfect results. You will notice in Step 4 there is an out-of-focus edge around the palm leaves in the bottom right corner. One solution is to preserve a duplicate layer group of all the aligned layers (before you carried out the auto-blending) add layer masks filled with black to each of these layers and place this layer group at the top of the layer stack. You can then retouch the image by carefully painting with white on the layer masks for these layers, filling in the gaps where the auto-blending did not work quite as well as you had hoped.

Martin Evening

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Adobe™ Photoshop™ CS4 for PhotographersThis PDF on digital capture is supplied on the DVD that comes with Martin Evening’s book: Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers. This latest update in the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers series contains 704 pages in full color, plus a DVD containing video tutorials. The book layout has been further improved to make navigation easier and contains updated advice on everything you need to know about using Photoshop, from digital capture to print output, as well as all that is new in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

PDF usageThis PDF extract is available to view and print. You may share this PDF file or any links to the PDF file with others, but the copyright of the material and images remain the property of myself. The contents may not be modified in any way, or used commercially without express permission from the author.

WebsiteThere is a website for the book from where you can find more information and download more PDF sample pages from the book.


To order the bookAdobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers is published by Focal Press.ISBN: 9780240521251The title is stocked in most major bookstores throughout the world and is also available to purchase from:www.focalpress.com as well as through the on-line bookstores: www.amazon.com and www.amazon.co.uk.

Movie 08

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