First time use of photo stacking and extremely disappointed with results

[masplin]

I have a D850 that takes a series of images that can then be photo stacked in PS. Thisis the first time I've done it, but the output is really poor with a very bad ghost of out of focus background around the subject.  Below I've included the layer that contributes ot it and you can see the auto-blend masking is really poor and selected what seems to be clearly out of focus background. 

Is there anything to be done about this?  I took 20 images at steps of 5 which seems ot have created sufficient doF overlap as the back of the subject looks very good. 

Appreciate any advice

Mike

[Sahil.Chawla]

Hi Mike,

Sorry to learn about this, as you're seeing some ghosting effects on the images created using stacking. Could you please let us know the version of Photoshop you're working with?

Also, what operating system are you using?

Could you please have a look at a similar discussion here and see if it helps? https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/problems_with_focus_stacking_in_photoshop_cc

Regards,
Sahil

[masplin]

PS CC 2019 on windows 10

[Chuck Uebele]

It looks like you use a very wide aperture. That is just basic optics: when you focus on the foreground, the background is blurred around the transition area. As you focus further back, the foreground blurs into the backgound, making it impossible to get a sharp image of the transition area. Try using a smaller aperture to reduce this. Also PS stacking isn't as good as some other products, like Zerene Stacker.

[masplin]

It was actually shot using f5.6 but its an f2.8 lens. 

To me its obvious that the auto blend has chosen a really poor mask including the desktop that is clearly blurred comapred to the coloured beads. 

[Chuck Uebele]

If the beads are also blurred, then you're getting what I got with PS. It has a hard time detecting what is sharp with areas of near solid color and textsure. That's why I started using Zerene Stacker.