Stacking

[MikeFromMesa]

I thought I had posted this question earlier, but I can not find it so perhaps the question never made it to the forum.

Is there any stacking functionality in PhotoLine? I did some searching through the GUI interface and could only find the alignment commands, and I do not think that they are for stacking. I looked in the user guide, but the word "stacking" but I could not even find the work in a search.

I was wondering if there is anything in PL that would allow me to do either Focus Stacking or normal stacking automatically without having to load each image in, add it as a layer and then try to manually align the layers.

[Herbert123]

No, unfortunately not. A HDR stacking option is available, but macro focus stacking or automatic alignment of photos is not supported.

I hope it will be added at some point as well - it would give PhotoLine a boost in the photography tools department, and commercial tools are quite expensive. Most of the direct competition offers this feature, so PhotoLine is lagging behind in this department.

Perhaps the Hubers could have a look at this open source bash script collection that utilizes dcdraw (which I believe is used in PhotoLine as well) and create a nice implementation.
https://github.com/pulsar123/Macro-scripts

[bruce1951]

But isn't the 'problem' in the capture? HDR requires the camera/capture of a set of images. (Yes I know you can tonemap modified files). So to be correct the user first needs to capture the images. Then maybe Photoline can stack those images. But again are we asking for more 'fluff' in PL that wont be used by any/many users?

bruce

[PhilM]

A "Minimalist" function to be able to align (displacement scaling and rotation) a layer with the layer just below, on the basis of the image would be a great plus.
It would open the way for some new action ...
Together with the "Color filter" it would make HDR easy.

[MikeFromMesa]

But isn't the 'problem' in the capture? HDR requires the camera/capture of a set of images. (Yes I know you can tonemap modified files). So to be correct the user first needs to capture the images. Then maybe Photoline can stack those images. But again are we asking for more 'fluff' in PL that wont be used by any/many users?

Two comments.

First, I suspect that "fluff" is in the eye of the beholder. Stacking, as a tool for removing unwanted parts of the image, and as a tool for expanding the DOF, does not seem to me, at least, to be "fluff" as I use both of those not infrequently. I do not know what the usage for others may be, but it is not something I would consider to be an unnecessary extra tool.

Second, what other extra functionality requests are out there for PhotoLine? It is pretty complete as it is, so if there are no other competing requests, why would they not add that functionality? I suspect that most users expect new functionality along with new releases, and that the new functionality would be more than just supporting new cameras. Why would stacking not be one of those new features?

[bruce1951]

MikeFromMesa I only raise the point of 'fluff' as I've seen other software go down the same path. And it's not a pretty path!

bruce