Diddly om...

... pomme pomme...

[finished version on my [url=http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1366424]Kinda Horrigans[/url] journal]

If you ignore the groan-worthy title of this blip, this is one of those images which looks a lot more straightforward than it is. In fact, most of my images are like that - I kinda don't like them to look like they've been messed with too much. If you didn't see this before shot, you'd probably look at the finished version and think it was pretty much straight out of camera.

So... the technical stuff. This shot is only half of the final shot. The final one is two images put together using a technique called 'focus stacking'. The problem with the shot above is that the apple to the left has the rest of its leaf missing. However, if I used the shot with the complete leaf, the focus on that apple isn't sharp enough. The solution is to focus stack them.

I opened both in Photoshop, then, selected one and copied it onto a new layer in the other - so both shots existed in the one file but on separated layers (if that makes sense). You then select both layers, click Edit > Auto Align and then with the images aligned, select both layers again and click Edit > Auto Blend and select 'Focus Stacking'. Photoshop then takes the areas that are most in focus and combines them to become a single image.

I then flattened the layers and cropped any bits of the image which hadn't been blended. I had to clone just a little of the canvas out because the crop I wanted meant I lost a little of the image to the top and bottom. After that, I duplicated the background layer and applied a blend mode of multiply - set to approx 20% opacity to give the shot more depth. Used a warm photo filter and then a little bit of dodging and burning to bring out just a smidge more depth.

Sharpened and saved.

It sounds really complicated, but actually - once you get your head around focus stacking, then the rest is just fiddling and finishing off!

Tip of the day:
There's a video on YouTube which takes you through how and where to use focus stacking. It's a great technique to keep in mind and although you can be very proper and exact about it - you can get away with something less than perfect with results that are just fine too!