How do I combine two images with different depths of field?

Hello all, I am new to this forum and it looks like there is a lot of good info here. One thing that I have not been able to find is how one could combine two images together where one image has a nicely focused foreground and the other has a well focused background, so that the whole image is in focus. If there are any ideas whirling about out there, or if I am a numskull and didn't see this info posted somewhere, then could someone take me by the hand and set me straight? I am using windows xp home, and Photoshop cs2. Looking forward to some ideas, bye for now.

Basically, you'd need to mask the background of the photo with the foreground in sharp focus and place it in fron of the other background.

Check this thread out for masking and isolating he foreground:

< http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?7@@.1de5f905.3bb80e5 d/6>

In article , Mark_A.
says...

Hello all, I am new to this forum and it looks like there is a lot of good info here. One thing that I have not been able to find is how one could combine two images together where one image has a nicely focused foreground and the other has a well focused background, so that the whole image is in focus. If there are any ideas

whirling about out there, or if I am a numskull and didn't see this info posted somewhere, then could someone take me by the hand and set me straight? I am using windows xp home, and Photoshop cs2. Looking forward to some ideas, bye for now.

OK, I've been using Photoshop for a relative time of about 5 minutes compared to others in here but I can tell you all you gotta do is select the parts of one of the images that are in focus and paste them in front of the parts that are out of focus in the other image. Choose your selection line such that both images have about the same focus along that line and make the selection fuzzy by about 5-10 pixels. IF both images were lined up right to begin with then you should get what you want.

Keep in mind that it is going to look a little weird because there will be signs that the focus was going away as you got out of the depth of field for one part of the image then it will come back in focus as you get to the pasted on part of the image. Yes, it may be a smooth transition but the human eye is very discerning.

You might be able to add enough artificial sharpness to those in between areas but you will have to get someone else to tell you how to do that.

Also, if you didn't take these images using a tripod then you may have hours of work in resizing to do.

Hi mark, i am a photographer and i have used this technique from time to time. some things are very tricky to pull this off,like macro shots,but here is a guy who has some images done using this technique. its almost no different than combining different exposures except some things change more visually like i said. look at his techniques-depth of field section.

< http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-panoramas .htm>

Check out CombineZ: <http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZ5/combinez5.htm>

Hey folks, thank you for the responses. This seems funny to me, in an ironic sense. Donald, I got the idea to try this technique by looking at the work on "Cambridge in Colour", and in the tutorials on that web site, the technique that is used is never fully explained. This set me off on a search for information and along my way I found that piece of software that Mathias mentioned, "CombineZ5". I tried it out and it does work fairly well, but seems to leave a lot of noise on the final image. A different piece of software, "Neat Image" (recommended by the author of "Cambridge in Colour") cleans up the resultant image quite nicely, but at the end of the day I am just wondering if there is a way to do all of this work in Photoshop?

So, the one idea I have had is to cut the images and then stitch them together using only the areas that are in focus in the final image, but this becomes difficult when the foreground area lies directly in front or "over top" of the background area. This technique would only work if there is a relatively "in focus" area separating the foreground and background. When there is no in focus middle area, then I guess that would be a job for "CombineZ". Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

There are no automatic methods for this in Photoshop.

But I think Reindeer Graphics might have a plugin for it.

Mark,just use layer masks to blend the two and zoom in at the border area to get a seamless blend. no need for any other software if you shoot on a tripod and merge the two,unless you are trying to do countless images like this. i would reserve this technique for really extreme situations were you cant get what you want in one shot. most situations will be covered by stopping down and focusing properly. no need to cut anything,just drag one on tp of the other and brush in what you need.

Donald, thank you for the info, I didn't think of blending the two images. I am still quite new to Photoshop, but figured it out and the result is good. Thanks again.

Well if you are new to photoshop and figured that out already,you are a quicker learner than me. it took me more than a year till i got to layer masks.

Extended Depth of field is also possible via PanoTools (in extension PTAssembler, PTGui); <http://www.janrik.net/ptools/ExtendedFocusPano12/index.html>, which I keep recommending over and over again on this list. I hope someone is listening... AND Helicon Focus - examples on the link. Chris, how about a new filter?

I don't have time to write it right now.
But it is something that I've been looking into.