Game Changer: Keep Multiple Animals Sharp At The Same Time 

While Steve is worrying about getting multiple critters in focus I am still trying to get one in focus 😂

I'm glad to see you using the universially agreed-upon standard distance unit of a prairie dog width (pdw), the conversion I believe is 1 pdw = 1.78 cm:-)

Excellent technique Steve. The only thing I would add, to aid in manually aligning two images is to set the top layer to the " difference " blend mode. This allows you to visually see very easily the alignment of the two layers rather than trying to eyeball it with the upper layer having opacity set to low. Do give it a try 😉👍

I've learned SO much from your videos & e-books. I'm working through your focus stacking series now and it's just awesome. Thanks Steve! 🤓📷

Thanks for this tutorial. I recently purchased the Focus Shifting class and am now getting some great, well focused images.

So good Steve! I learn so much from your videos. Keep them coming.

Much easier way to align manually than you suggested - overlay the one image, set the overlay mode to difference - when aligned - the parts perfectly aligned go perfectly black... done!

I've used this technique in the past, but you have some nice refinements that will make things both easier and more precise. Thanks, Steve!

Hello Steve, What a great tip/method, Keep well, keep save and be happy.

You know, with mirrorless cameras getting better and better, I'm surprised nobody has made a dual stage eye AF for exactly this. Select the targets and shooting sequence, then just press the shutter release and have it shoot 1 or 2 super quick frames.

As the saying goes, another ‘eye opener’ for me Steve. Thanks. Much appreciated.

Brilliant, and expertly explained as always. Thank you!

Wow. That's amazing Steve.

Thanks Steve. I watch all your videos and it is very informative. It is also useful to sharpen photographic skill !!!

This will be good, thanks Steve.

Super video Steve. Very concise and helpful as always. Thank you.

Excellent video and technique. And your explanations are clear. Thank you!

Thanks for another great video, Steve!

Excellent tip, thanks a lot! I'll try it as soon as possible...

Totally agree with your presentation. Great post!

Short, concise and to the point!!

Thanks, need to practice this field workflow, remembering to take shift focus isn't something that comes without practice.

Excellent, super professional video thanks Steve

Happy New Year dude, u are great!

So this is to be done .Becoming a fan of you Steve

Steve, I am new to your site. It is amazing. I also like your instruction techniques. Thanks for your hard work.

Fantastic video on technique and photoshop education.

Unique and to the point content as always... thanks a lot.

Always is good to learn tricks, I knew this technique before ,for stacking long exposure waterfalls and getting the foreground sharp as well, then macro photography relies heavily on stacking up to hundreds of photographs... I think the post production presented in the video is the easiest part as for me, the hard part would be have the two subjects pretty well sharp captured, more over the fact I think your channel focuses on wild life... thats the real challenge. I was editing a picture with exactly this problem, was a family of 4 raccoon members... and they move fast... impossible to apply this technique... then experience teaches a lesson .... thanks for the video Steve.

Great Video!! Awesome tips!! Thank you!

Great tip, thanks Steve.

Top class, many thanks .

One little tip form macro focus stacking. When you use auto blend layers you can create a duplicate of the layers before stacking, and then use the base layers with a mask to very quickly touch up the portions which auto blend layers messed up. It would work brilliantly with a simple composition like this with two images. Or you can place one in relation to one of the blended layers and make positive or negative edits to the blend layer mask, though I tend to simply keep those as rendered by Photoshop. You can also technically edit the masks auto blend layers creates, but that ends up being a big fuss without normal layers to reference. Done properly this approach works quite brilliantly even for 5-20 layers of focus stacked images rendered with a simple rocking motion on a subject like a butterfly or even a snowflake.

I know nothin abt photos but i love to watch your videos ❤️👌

I have a different technique that you might appreciate. I use back button focus. Position my focus point such as to frame the SECOND bird, lets say mom. Then I shift my camera to focus on the first bird (Baby), then reframe again on mom, who is now out of focus. Take the shot for baby, then quick hit the back button focus, which should be on mom, then take the second shot. Basically I'm taking the first shot with the focus point already on the second subject. Then refocus for the second shot. I have found that this is quicker than the other method you have described here, and quickness in these situations can be the difference between getting something that I can use and not. Also when moving the photos around in Photoshop manually, I set the blend mode of the photo I'm moving and have lowered the opacity of, to "difference". Seems to help me line them up. Also I frequently use the arrow keys for fine adjustments. Thanks for the video!

Thanks Steve. I have tried this using Affinity Photo and it works great 👍

Thanks. Great stuff!

Great video, excellent tips.

Excellent tips...thanks.

Very nice, tnx for sharing.

Great tutorial as always 👌

Excellent.

Good learning brother ❤️

Rest of the world: use the metric system America: 1:35

Awesome as always..

Thanks Steve.

thank you very much this tutorial

Excellent Sir❤️

As usual, thanks for great conttent.

You are the BEST !!!!

Awesome tip 👌

You know where this works really well? Short Eared Owlets 😁

great tutorial!

very useful!

Thank u ❤️

Toller Trick danke!

I suppose the auto focus stack capabilities on the D850 (from a tripod) would be more cumbersome in post perhaps, and would possibly still have blending issues requiring some manual work anyways. Great video, Steve, per usual. Many thanks.

I have heard that in some of the latest Nikon you have an automated focus shift mode that will help to create the photos with the different focus position. Is that true and have you try it for this purpose ? Thanks! Edit: I saw the answer in one of the comments. Sorry 😅

Thanks

wow, it is cool!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐thanks for the tips

As usual, one word : BRILLANT Full stop.

Is there a kind of “short cut” to activate the foto stacking? As it is kind of deep in the menu, it’ll take same time to select and set up?

Brillant!

Great video Steve! I've never tried focus stacking but you've inspired me to try. Looking forward to the next video!

I would like to request you to make a specific video tutorial for - 'Shooting small birds from a distance '.

In product photog we often use a tilt/shift to drop the focus where its needed. For wildlife its probably less practical than focus stacking. Q: Do you use the stacking function in the D850?

Super video thank you so much, and a question please, what do you think about mirrorless new cameras? Do you recommend them?

When do you give us a review of bif with the z7ii/z6ii?

When lowering the opacity on top layer change blend mode to difference then when lined up it turns black.

Mind ....blown

Hi Steve, I am an eager follower of your channel. As always, tremendous content. Are you planning to do the Z7ii? I would love to hear your take about the improvements you saw and how close it is now to D850?

What's time now in your contry. ..? Please tell me

For Nikon Z users: touch focus.

I was hoping for something else: A control of the depth of field when you take the image, not the post process. I "cut the cord" from Adobe, as I am not willing to subscribe to software, so these recommendations in your video are merely a directive to me. Once upon a time, behind seven hills and rivers, there was a happy company called Canon. They used to have the "depth of field automatic" in their cameras. Now we do not have it anymore. This worked in EOS-3 as follows: Focus center on close element, press shutter. Focus center of far element, press shutter. Compose the image, press shutter. The camera focused on a place between close and far element, and closed aperture so that they both were in focus. Super! Later on the consumer grade Canons used to have something simpler: Any element in the center group of sensors was measured in their distance and aperture was closed so that they all were in focus. Great for spontaneous snaps of groups of people, sitting in a different distance from each other. Personally I see the depth of field as the most difficult aspect to control in photography, especially when speed of composing is a factor. Such automatic would greatly support you in your quest to get a group of animals in a perfect focus.

Would just swapping eyes work on some shots?

I have to do this for my macro shots. But not with Photoshop

THANKS A TON STEVE FOR THIS VIDEO I was birding in eastern Himalayas and came across a pair of Hoary throated Barwings. They were not in the same plane and event with f18 (D500+200-500mm) I couldn't get both on focus. Took some 50+ shots. Luckily I saw this video and this idea came to my mind and holding the hand steady I focused male & female separately and took pictures. Bingo it came so well. Thanks & all credit goes to you. Game changer indeed. Following is the link to the post instagram.com/p/CNzyvlng_zC/

There's actually a slightly better way. 1st compose photo with the af point on one of the eyes. then move the CAMERA until the point is on the second eye and then activate AF on it. Recompose to the original composition with the af point over the blurry eye. take a frame WITHOUT activating AF and immediately fire another shot WITH AF activated. the result will be almost identical framing with both frames taken at around your fps apart.

Stuffed animals are the way to go no move

SIR I RAMAKANT KANITKAR FROM INDIA AGE 60÷ DOING SOME WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY I WANT TO ASSIST PERSON LIKE U. SIR IS IT POSSIBLE.

I recently ran into the same situation, while shooting two small birds ( scaly-breasted munia ). Both were in a very interesting posture and I wanted to get both of them to be sharp....but it was tricky...tried several shots & only two came out to be good enough. Had I known this photoshop tecnique, I would have been in a good peace of mind. Thanks Steve for such a nice & useful game changer TIP.

Hi uncle. ..my name is Ahan kiran from India. ..my age is 9 years. ..always I watching your youtube video with my dad. ..I love you. ..my question is why don't we use clone toll for this. . (My dad is don't letting me to use his phone. ..I doing little bit photo shooting. That's why I always watching your video. ..thanks you Uncle. ..by Ahan kiran. .India

Perry Mr autofocus.

Focus stacking 🤷‍♂️

I use helicon for this

Its a nice idea but I doubt in reality you would get away with this very often, by the time you shifted from one animal to the other and re focused I think they would have moved. Even a tiny movement of the head would make this process impossible to achieve. Interesting though Steve, how many times have you used it succesfully? Stay well buddy :-)

LOL

To me that is a lot of faffing around. I guess you used single point focus and single point metering. Instead in this instance use matrix with auto area or even 9 point. Use an F stop of between f11-f16 and treat several animals as if you are doing landscape where everything needs to be in focus. This is what I do when I have several animals in the frame and I get them all perfectly clear and no need to mess around on a computer editing the photos after.

Hi Steve, you are the best wildlife photographer in youtube but do you regret locking yourself in Nikon universe? Things are not going well for Nikon as many others suggest. Do you plan to move to Canon or Sony?

I subscribed your chanel. ..don't tell my dady