This is my try at focus stacking. I wanted both the lily pads and the tree reflections to be in focus, so I stacked the two frames. I blended them by hand in PS, as this is not something that I’m planning to do a lot (so I didn’t want to learn new software). It was challenging because of the very irregular shapes of the lily pads. We’re talking masking at 200% with a 3 px brush. I will not be doing this again. 
FINAL:
Lilypads:
Tree Reflections:
What technical feedback would you like if any? ### What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Oh, anything that strikes you. This was just for fun, so I’m not too concerned with further editing. I’ll put a screenshot of the PS layers in the comments.
Here’s the PS layers, if anyone is interested.
I like the final image Bonnie, although I’ll have to agree with you after having read your description and viewed your layers . . . .this boards on sadistic. Great job.
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Bonnie, the end results looks very good. I like the big V of the spatterdock. Getting both the floating plants and the reflections sharp is something that I’ve done a few times, but since I’ve owned and used Helicon Focus for 6 years, it takes much less effort. Assuming that you had your camera on a tripod for both shots, you could also load them into Photoshop as layers, align the layers and then let PS combine the layers. That always leaves some soft areas, but I think that fixing them would likely take less work than all of your masking. I do know who to call if I need some detailed masking work done… 
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Great results, Bonnie, but I do agree that it’s not something I’d want to do for a living.
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