By Bob Catlett

THE SHOOT

            Set your camera on a sturdy tripod and lock the camera  in place.

Set the camera focus for the part of the subject ant is closest to your camera and take a shot. Then move the focus to the next part of the subject. Take as many photographs of the subject to insure sharpness to the whole image. (Warning: avoid the wind)

THE PROCESSING

            Open the first image of your subject in Lightroom and make to your liking. Then (HOLD down) the shift key and click on the last image of the set. Then hit the (Sync) key. Then (Right click)  your mouse on the monitor and click on the bottom of the popup  ( open in Photoshop in Layers).

            Once you are in Photoshop,  Click on the last layer in the set with the Shift Key depressed so that all the layers are highlighted.  Then go to the top of your monitor and click EDIT tab  and go down the column to AUTO-ALIGN-LAYERS. Then return to the Edit tab And then  select AUTO-BLEND-LAYERS. After that flatten the layers.

            I go to layers and use either Levels or Curves and darken the layer and then put a Black Mask on the Layer. Then I go the Brush and paint on the Mask with a White brush and paint around the image on the sides and the part of the image that is not sharp. I usually do not paint at 100% but I use several brush strokes at a lower opacity and build up to the density I desire.

            I often make another layer and put a blur on the layer and put a BLACK MASK. Once again I paint with a White Brush on things that are distracting. Then flatten the image and size it. For printing I save the image as a TIFF 16 bit, for competition I save it as an 8 bit JPG.