photos has taught me patience and attention to detail, both of which
are things I need to have more of. Focus stacking is not for the faint
of heart. Anyway, you have been warned.
More Notes on Retouching
When I was just starting out in focus stacking I was not about to
have to retouch my stacked photos. It was enough trouble to focus
stack in the first place, much less have to go and essentially
Photoshop the damned things. It was too much trouble and crossed
the line from where I was willing to go. Live and learn.
I no longer feel that way or try to assert my demands on what focus
stacking has to be or not be. The simple fact is that focus stacking
is a sampling technique much like digital music or movies and
sampling anything by definition means something is left out or un-
sampled. Most of the time what is ignored or not sampled is not
missed and does not cause a problem for the eye when we look.
But in many and perhaps most stacked photos you will find
unwanted artifacts that result from the sampling process, the most
common being what are called “halos” or motion echoes around
objects that stand out from their background.
For the longest time I tried very hard to ignore the halos or to
pretend they just don’t matter, but they do. For one, the halos were
pointed out to me until I allowed myself to see them too, but I still
did not retouch them. What I told myself (and it was true) is that my
every photo is a trial, an experiment, and not a finished piece. I felt I
was learning the technique and did not have the time to fix every
artifact. I would never get anywhere.
So, after several years of training in the technique of focus stacking
I have gotten around (finally) to the stage where I want to produce a
finished photo. Not every photo is worth retouching, so I allow
myself that. Otherwise, I would be up all night and for no good
reason. The really good photos are worth removing the artifacts. My
point is that you may want to wait until you are sure you like the
technique before you spend the time removing artifacts because
retouching is time- consuming, really tedious, and that alone might
put some of you off the technique.