Help with focus stacking

Hi.

I'm just starting with focus stacking and I keep running into the same problem. Using my 7D and my EF-S 60mm macro I take my shots. I'm using a tripod with remote shutter and manual focus. I've tried shooting at different apertures, f/2.3, f/5, f/8. But each time when I go to stack the photos in PS CC, the software always selects the bottom layer about 95% of it, and masks out all the other layers. The other layers make up the the very fringe of the photo.

The process I'm using is first take the photos while adjusting the focus manually. The tripod is set so the only difference in the shots is the change in framing due to different focus points. I then go to File>Scripts>Load Files into stack. The I check the auto align layers. Then I shift click the first and last layers to select all the layers. I then go Edit>Auto Blend Layers and select stack and check the box to match tones.

Yet after all this only the bottom layer is pretty much all there and all the other layers are masked out. For some of these shots I've taken 10-15 images, so PS should have enough to work with to create a decent image no?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

You should be doing the selecting of all layers>"auto align">"auto blend" by stacking...in that order only!

I was doing the auto align layers when I import the images to be stacked. I also tried importing the images and then aligning after importing. So I've tried both ways of aligning the images. But I've always aligned before trying to blend the layers.

Assuming that what you're saying is accurate...I would suggest that you link-up with "Adobe chat room live" and have them do a "screen-share" to solve the problem.

I got good results (stacking up to 100 photos with 16 bit colors) with free software enfuse:

http://blog.patdavid.n​et …-macro-photos-enfuse.html

It does both aligning and stacking steps.

chauncey wrote in post #17133394
Assuming that what you're saying is accurate...I would suggest that you link-up with "Adobe chat room live" and have them do a "screen-share" to solve the problem.

Thanks, most of the instructions I read seem simple enough, I was just wondering if it could be the images themselves that are the problem. Does it make a difference with a wider DOf vs narrower? Of course I would have to make sure to get enough shots to cover the area I want in focus.