Can Photoshop Elements Do Focus Stacking (Merging)? Focus stacking, AKA merging, has the potential to be very useful for landscapes when enough DOF cannot be achieved with camera...

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

Focus stacking, AKA merging, has the potential to be very useful for landscapes when enough DOF cannot be achieved with camera settings for the entire image to be in focus. I have PSE 14 and can find no mention of this feature in the programs menus or in the three manuals I have on PSE. Am I correct in assuming that PSE doesn't have this feature? Thanks for any info on this.

I just got a free trial of Affinity and the first (and so far only) thing I have tried was a merge of three photos of a landscape taken in three focus planes. Despite my photo editing ineptness Affinity did the merge with no problems and I was impressed.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I got a new camera for Christmas that does it internally. Curiosity lead to a google search for "photoshop elements focus stacking". Lots there, but one description seemed concise. Other links make it look more difficult.

https://jtunney.com/focus-stacking-with-photoshop-and-elements/

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

bsprague wrote:

I got a new camera for Christmas that does it internally. Curiosity lead to a google search for "photoshop elements focus stacking". Lots there, but one description seemed concise. Other links make it look more difficult.

https://jtunney.com/focus-stacking-with-photoshop-and-elements/

Thanks for the very useful link. The Elements process described sure is more complicated than it was in Affinity. However, I just tried the dehaze feature in Affinity, something I've found very useful for landscapes in PSE 14, and the Affinity dehaze didn't seem as effective. First and only trial so far however and I may not used it entirely correctly or to its fullest effect.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

I also have Elements 14 and it does not do focus stacking, its 'merge' feature only deals with dynamic ranges. I use combineZ for stacking which is a free and reliable program. Some of the photographers on here who stack regularly use Zerene stacking software which can be purchased at a reasonable cost.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

EnglishBrenda wrote:

I also have Elements 14 and it does not do focus stacking, its 'merge' feature only deals with dynamic ranges. I use combineZ for stacking which is a free and reliable program. Some of the photographers on here who stack regularly use Zerene stacking software which can be purchased at a reasonable cost.

Thank you for this useful info. I've never heard of either of those programs and will check on them. The number of photo editing programs available is astounding to me.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

It seems that the CombineZ site is shutdown and apparently the program is no longer available for download. Zerene is available in 4 versions and the cheapest available to me is $89 ( a student version is available but I hardly qualify!) I have purchased Affinity Photo at their reduced holiday price of $39.99 and will try it's photo merge feature further - as I said above my one trial use of their focus merge was impressive.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Teton Viewer wrote:

It seems that the CombineZ site is shutdown and apparently the program is no longer available for download. Zerene is available in 4 versions and the cheapest available to me is $89 ( a student version is available but I hardly qualify!) I have purchased Affinity Photo at their reduced holiday price of $39.99 and will try it's photo merge feature further - as I said above my one trial use of their focus merge was impressive.

I have looked on the net and it appears that CombineZM is still downloadable, it is a freeware program, one download for USA and one for UK.

Wanderer2 Loc: Colorado Rocky Mountains

Can you please send me a link to download it? I got repeated messages that the Combine website could not be accessed and in a google search a statement by someone that the website is no longer operational. Thanks.

EnglishBrenda Loc: Kent, England

Teton Viewer wrote:

Can you please send me a link to download it? I got repeated messages that the Combine website could not be accessed and in a google search a statement by someone that the website is no longer operational. Thanks.

I think this is where I got mine http://combinezp.software.informer.com/download/. I hope this works, I know it did a couple of months ago when I downloaded onto another computer.

toxdoc42

I have PS Elements 2020. When I do a google search, I find statements and videos reportedly showing it can focus stack. I can't for the life of me get it to work for me, I can't find the drop down choice to stack or merge! Does anyone have any experience?

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

My PS Elements 2018 does not have "photomerge" in the Enhance menu (bsprague's link). However, it is one of the features in the Guided Edit section. However it is for combining different photos - such as for a group shot - or for exposure stacking, along with a couple of other items. But no focus stacking.

For focus stacking and much more, see the $12 plug-in called Elements+ here: https://elementsplus.net/

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