Advice on image stacking

paddler4paddler4 Registered Users Posts: 976 Major grins
edited July 30, 2009 in Holy Macro
Any advice on which software is best for image stacking? I just did my first stacked images tonight with CombineZP, and it's clear I have a lot of practice in front of me. If anyone has opted for CombineZ, I'd be curious which of his macros you found best for bugs, and whether you modified it.

Thanks

Dan
http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/

Comments

  • Lord VetinariLord Vetinari Registered Users Posts: 15,901 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2009
    paddler4 wrote:
    Any advice on which software is best for image stacking? I just did my first stacked images tonight with CombineZP, and it's clear I have a lot of practice in front of me. If anyone has opted for CombineZ, I'd be curious which of his macros you found best for bugs, and whether you modified it.

    Thanks

    Dan

    Hi Dan , I've used both combine z5 and combine zm extensively and preferred combinez5. I did modify the do stack macro by removing the contrast/sharpening lines near the end. More recently I've been using zerene stacker which seems to be better giving less errors and cleaner stacks. http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/ I never really got into combine zp but it is supposed to be the best of the combine series.

    Brian V.
    Brian V.
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
    http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
  • paddler4paddler4 Registered Users Posts: 976 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2009
    Brian,

    Thanks very much. I will try zerene as well. Excessive sharpening was one of the problems I had with my first try, but it was also a very difficult merge.

    Dan
    Lord Vetinari wrote:
    Hi Dan , I've used both combine z5 and combine zm extensively and preferred combinez5. I did modify the do stack macro by removing the contrast/sharpening lines near the end. More recently I've been using zerene stacker which seems to be better giving less errors and cleaner stacks. http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/ I never really got into combine zp but it is supposed to be the best of the combine series.

    Brian V.
    http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/
  • IPClarkIPClark Registered Users Posts: 2,355 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2009
    I've had a go of Helicon Focus which I found gave a nice clean stack.
    Ian Clark
    My Smugmug gallery

  • bretbret Registered Users Posts: 61 Big grins
    edited July 30, 2009
    I've used Helicon Focus with some good results. Also, Photoshop CS4 has some new layer stacking and blending features which you might wanna check out.

    -bret
  • paddler4paddler4 Registered Users Posts: 976 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2009
    Thanks, everyone. I'll try zyrene and helicon. I noticed that they both take 16 bit images, which combineZP does not, and helicon takes raw files as well. I can't try Photoshop, as I don't use it--I do all of my basic editing in Lightroom and Paint Shop Pro and don't own photoshop (yet, anyway)
    http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/
  • GOLDENORFEGOLDENORFE Super Moderators Posts: 4,747 moderator
    edited July 30, 2009
    i use czm & czp, some stacks better on either 1 or other for some reason.
    prefer czm using" soft stack"
    phil
    Phil

    moderator - Holy Macro
    Goldenorfe’s Flickr Gallery
    Goldenorfe photography on Smugmug
    Phils Photographic Adventures Blog
  • paddler4paddler4 Registered Users Posts: 976 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2009
    Phil,

    thanks. Soft stack is on my list to try--so far, I have only used 'do stack'

    Dan
    http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/
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