How to Focus Stack in Landscape Photography (no tripod required!)

If you want sharp photos from front to back, you must understand focus stacking. Focus stacking is a concept where you combine multiple photos at different focal points, blending the sharpest parts of each photo into one final image.
This is one of the most commonly used techniques in landscape photography, and it's certainly one that you should learn how to execute.
Additionally, many photographers think you MUST have a tripod to focus stack. While it certainly helps, it is not a requirement, and in this video, I'll show you how to create a focus stack WITHOUT using a tripod.
0:00 - Introduction
0:50 - Camera Setup for Focus Stacking
3:04 - Focus Stacking in the Field
4:17 - Editing Focus Stacked Images (Lightroom and Photoshop)

[@mwilson315]

Why not use the Photoshop auto blend function?

[@AustinJamesJackson]

It doesn't work very well, especially on the more complicated blends.

[@richardberke4539]

Sometimes I set shutter mode to multi shot. If my pressing the shutter button isn't as gentle/smooth as I should, the middle of a 3 shot burst may be better than the 1st or 3rd.

[@AustinJamesJackson]

Yeah, that's a great idea!