What technique are you using to adjust the layers? I gave up on photoshop a long time ago for focus stacking because I could not figure out how to make the same mask adjustment to multiple layers.
Something very time intensive and I will probably get tired of.
I'm looking to see where are major errors. Usually it's because the foreground object has "too much image" around so I deleted the excess from the mask then I figure which layer is surrounding that object and I fill the mask from that surrounding layer.
I'm not sure how else to explain it, keep in mind I lack basic knowledge in PS.
The problems with this approach:
- I have to keep changing the visibility of layers to figure which is which
- there are blending issues with this, I need to use some cloning
- when I click on a mask it doesn't always select the mask, sometimes it selects the layer ( this was my duh! moment when I realized why it was not working)
I would be interested in a simpler different approach. And I think I need some Photoshop videos, the books are comprehensive but are extensive and more than I need, my current Photoshop needs are: panorama, convert to smart object and apply Nik filters, content aware fill and now focus stacking. Everything else happens in Lightroom.
Either way macro focus stacking looks fun for the first time but I wouldn't do it on a regular basis unless I'm getting paid for.