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1.

To create the photomerge shown here, I started by selecting the four photographs shown here in Bridge. I then went to the Tools menu in Bridge and chose Photoshop Photomerge…

2.

This opened the Photomerge dialog, where you'll note that the ‘Auto’ layout option was selected and the four selected images were automatically added as source files. All I really needed to do here was to check the three options at the bottom and click OK to proceed.

3.

In most cases, the Auto option is usually the best one to select, and as you can see here, it aligned the four photos automatically, applied a blend step to blend the tones and colors between the layers followed by an auto layer mask step in which the individual layers ended up being masked so that each part of the Photomerge image consisted of no more than one visible layer.

Blending options

The ‘Blend Images Together’ option completes the Photomerge processing because it adds layer masks to each of the Photomerged layers (see the Layers panel view in Step 3). You can always choose not to run this option and select the Auto-Blend Layers option from the Edit menu, later to achieve the same end result (see page 499). ‘Vignette Removal’ and ‘Geometric Distortion Correction’ are optional and can help improve the result of the final image blending, especially if you are merging photos that were shot using a wide-angle lens.

Depth of field blending

The Edit Auto-Blend Layers command allows you to blend objects that were shot using different points of focus and blend them to produce a single image with optimal focus.

1.

I began by going to Bridge and selected a group of photographs that had been shot at different points of focus. I then went to the Tools menu and chose Photoshop Load Files Into Photoshop Layer.

2.

This opened the five selected photos as a multi-layered image in Photoshop. With all the layers selected, I then went to the Edit menu, chose ‘Auto-Align Layers…’ and selected the Auto projection option. This aligned the layers as shown here.

3.

The next step was to merge the layered photos together, which I did by going to the Edit menu again and this time I selected ‘Auto-Blend Layers…’ Here, I selected ‘Stack Images’ and made sure the ‘Seamless Tones and Colors’ option was checked.

4.

To get the best results it is important to carry out the Auto-Align step before you apply the Auto-Blend. As you can see, this last step carried out a pixel blending of the individual layers and added layer masks to each based on a calculation of where the sharpest detail was on each layer. The success of this depth of field blending technique is also down to the care with which you shoot the original photographs. The more photos you shoot, bracketed at different focal distances, the better the end result will be.

Working with multiple layers

Layers have become an essential feature in Photoshop because they enable you to do all kinds of complex montage work, but as the layer features have evolved there has been an increasing need to manage them more efficiently.

Color coding layers

One way to manage your layers better is to color code them, which can be done by selecting a layer and choosing ‘Layer Properties’ from the Layers panel fl y-out menu. This opens the dialog shown in Figure 9.32, where you can rename a layer and pick a color label. The downside is that you can only adjust the label color coding one layer at a time (unless you are changing the layer properties for a layer group as a whole).

Figure 9.32 Layers can be color coded. Choose ‘Layer Properties’ from the Layers panel fly-out menu and pick a color. Alternatively, you can double-click a layer to open the Layer Properties dialog shown here.

Layer group management

Multi-layered images can be unwieldy to navigate, especially when you have lots of layers placed one above the other, but they can be organized more efficiently if you place them into layer groups. Layer groups have a folder icon and