Tutorial 12.9: Auto-Align and Blend to Achieve Maximum Depth of Field

Sometimes it is just impossible to get everything completely sharp within a photo, even if you stop down to the smallest aperture (such as f22 or f32). This is often due to using a longer focal length lens, focusing on a subject that is very close, or a combination of both. In this example of Aspen trees, I was using a 200mm lens to visually compress the trunks and remove unwanted background. This resulted in a composition where it was physically impossible to get all of the trees sharp. When faced with this type of situation, the solution is to shoot several images, with each focused on a different area of the frame, and then use Photoshop to blend them together. Figure 12.81 shows the three separate images. In the first image, I focused on the front tree. For the next exposure, I focused on the second tree back. The last shot was focused so that the far tree was sharp. Each image was made at an aperture of f16 to spread out the depth of field.

Figure 12.81. Three separate images with different focus points.

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