Stacking.

[JohnP]

This may be a daft question but I'm going to ask it anyway. I have tried stacking a couple of times using some free software, I can't remember what it was called as it was on my old XP computer. My question is could I use Photomatix to merge three images and get a similar effect to stacking. If instead of taking three shots of different exposures I took three shots at different focus points and aligned them with photomatix what would be the effect? I might give it a try in due course, it could prove interesting.

[Guest]

I'm no expert but I would say no as when you alter focus close up the image size changes slighty and photomatix would not take this into account but I may be wrong so try it and see.

[JohnP]

I'm no expert but I would say no as when you alter focus close up the image size changes slighty and photomatix would not take this into account but I may be wrong so try it and see.

 

You are probably right... my mind does wander sometimes, I thought about trying it some time when I was using Photomatix last evening.

[Graham]

I know this can be done in Photoshop but it involves the software creating multiple layer masks to 'extract' the unsharp areas leaving the sharp bits merged together, very clever. I know Photoshop is a huge layout to buy, I couldn't afford to buy Lightroom and Photoshop so I subscribed to the Adobe Creative Cloud. Costs just over £8 a month but you get both Lightroom and Photoshop to download both of which update automatically if they do any changes. Still not cheap if used over a long time, I think the contract is 12 months but it helps the cash flow no end. Well worth it in my opinion to have them both.

[Black Pearl]

HDR software won't do it as it isn't designed to look for sharp areas as the focus stacking does.