How to select unsharp areas in a picture

I have taken several shots of the same motive each with a different plane of focus (I used a tripod).
In Photoshop CS3 I have taken the resulting pictures and put them in different layers and aligned the pictures. Now I would like to mask the unsharp image areas on each layer in order to get a composit picture of all the sharp areas in all the layers.
Is there a way to select or mask everyting on a layer that is unsharp?

For those who are interested, one try (that is not satisfactory for my taste), can be seen here:
http://img.fotocommunity.com/photos/13638169.jpg

Regards from Bern, Switzerland
Ruedi

"ruedis.ch" wrote: (clip) For those who are interested, one try (that is not satisfactory for my

taste), can be seen here: (clip)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
First, let me say that I like the picture very much. Second, I fail to see what you find wrong with it. I think maybe the problem is that you are concentrating on the overlap areas where you are working, so your attention is on a level of imperfection that is imperceptible to others. Show the picture to someone else without mentioning the technique--do they notice anything other than the pictorial quality?

I have never done this, but I would like to try. This is the technique I would use: 1.) Be sure to shoot images in which the depth of field is greater than the portion you intend to use. 2.) Stack then in order. 3.) Erase, with a soft-edged brush, the blurred portions of each layer.

When you refocus the camera for the different distances, you change the image size slightly. This might mean that you have to resize the layers to make them fit perfectly. This would be more critical in an image with cleraly defined shapes with sharp edges--probably not too important in this case.

Is this how you did it?

"ruedis.ch" wrote in message

I have taken several shots of the same motive each with a different plane of focus (I used a tripod).
In Photoshop CS3 I have taken the resulting pictures and put them in different layers and aligned the pictures. Now I would like to mask the unsharp image areas on each layer in order to get a composit picture of all the sharp areas in all the layers.
Is there a way to select or mask everyting on a layer that is unsharp?
For those who are interested, one try (that is not satisfactory for my taste), can be seen here:
http://img.fotocommunity.com/photos/13638169.jpg

Regards from Bern, Switzerland
Ruedi

me I like the natural drop off from the lenses
but
I see that you wish the entire sharp

the left facing us between the flower and grass has one part a little blurry and a few sunflowers at the right middle
put a mask on the layer with blurry area
put the sharp focus image under it
paint with black on the mask

as for how to select that jagged edge area
if you don't want to just free-hand brush

I would use the pen tool to make the select (the polygon select is also good here) in a zig-zag around the blades
feather it a little then(click mask thumbnail) fill with black

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:18:27 -0700 (PDT), ruedis.ch wrote:

In Photoshop CS3 I have taken photos at different focus points and put them in different layers and aligned the pictures. Now I would like to mask the unsharp image areas on each layer in order to get a composit picture of all the sharp areas in all the layers.
Is there a way to select or mask everyting on a layer that is unsharp?

There is an automated way to do this that works pretty well. The principle is to subtract each layer from a blurred copy of itself, and use the resulting image as a mask. Here's the procedure:

Copy and paste layer 2 to a new image, convert it Lab, dupe to a new layer, blur the upper layer, set it to difference mode, and flatten. The Lightness channel of the resulting image will be black, or nearly so, for the blurred parts of the image, and lighter for the less blurred portions. Use levels to bump the contrast, and paste it into the layer mask of layer 2. The black areas of the mask are where the background layer will show through.

Repeat for layers 3, 4, etc.

As I mentioned, this method works well for most images, but there are some details you may need to deal with. Particularly for macro and other relatively close up work, you may run into fringing or double outlines. This is due to the fact that the lens to sensor distance changes slightly. To deal with this, juggle the levels of the masks to select one layer or the other, use a Photoshop's transform tool to align things better, or use the brush tool to manually touch up the mask.
--
Mike Russell - http://www.curvemeister.com

On Jul 24, 4:18 am, "ruedis.ch" wrote:

mask
the unsharp image areas

There is free software designed to do this called CombineZM written by Alan Hadley. It may be worth checking out if you will be doing a lot of this type of work.

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/Manual/combine zm_help.htm

On 24 Jul., 18:37, "Leo Lichtman" wrote:

I have never done this, but I would like to try.  This is the technique I would use:  1.)  Be sure to shoot images in which the depth of field is greater than the portion you intend to use.  2.)  Stack then in order..  3.) Erase, with a soft-edged brush, the blurred portions of each layer.

Is this how you did it?

Yes, thats how I did it. But I thought there might be an easier and mor exact way.
Thank you for your reply and I'm glad you like the picture anyway. Regards from Bern, Ruedi

On 25 Jul., 02:05, Mike Russell wrote:

On Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:18:27 -0700 (PDT), ruedis.ch wrote:

In Photoshop CS3 I have taken photos at different focus points and put them in different layers and aligned the pictures. Now I would like to mask the unsharp image areas on each layer in order to get a composit picture of all the sharp areas in all the layers.
Is there a way to select or mask everyting on a layer that is unsharp?

There is an automated way to do this that works pretty well.  The principle is to subtract each layer from a blurred copy of itself, and use the resulting image as a mask.  Here's the procedure:

Copy and paste layer 2 to a new image, convert it Lab, dupe to a new layer, blur the upper layer, set it to difference mode, and flatten. The Lightness channel of the resulting image will be black, or nearly so, for the blurred parts of the image, and lighter for the less blurred portions.  Use levels to bump the contrast, and paste it into the layer mask of layer 2.  The black areas of the mask are where the background layer will show through.
Repeat for layers 3, 4, etc.

As I mentioned, this method works well for most images, but there are some details you may need to deal with. Particularly for macro and other relatively close up work, you may run into fringing or double outlines. This is due to the fact that the lens to sensor distance changes slightly.. To deal with this, juggle the levels of the masks to select one layer or the other, use a Photoshop's transform tool to align things better, or use the brush tool to manually touch up the mask.
--
Mike Russell -http://www.curvemeister.com

Thanks Mike, this is exactly what I was looking for. Only in the case of my sunflower picture it's not working too well. But as a technique I will keep it and try it.
Regards from Bern,
Ruedi

On 25 Jul., 07:22, "" wrote:

On Jul 24, 4:18 am, "ruedis.ch" wrote:

mask
the unsharp image areas

There is free software designed to do this called CombineZM written by Alan Hadley. It may be worth checking out if you will be doing a lot of this type of work.

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/Manual/combine zm_help.htm

I tried it and it worked quite well!
thanks for the tip!
Regards from Bern, Ruedi