Stitching and Stacking

A lot of people have been asking for stacking and stitching functionality and I was thinking that this could be accommodated in the existing ViewPoint software. You could buy it and it would work both as a standalone as well as a plugin to PhotoLab.

I think this would be ideal for those who want the functionality as well as those who don’t.

What do you think?

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Do you think of focus stacking and/or averaging multiple images for noise reduction?

Anyway, I’d go for all of these:

  • Create HDR images from a bunch of input images shot with different shutter times
  • Create LARGE DOF images from a bunch of images shot at different distances
    (or distance settings, which will probably be more difficult to combine due to lens breathing)
  • Create LOW NOISE images from a bunch of seemingly equal shots
  • Create PANORAMA images from a bunch of panned shots (thanks for the reminder, Keith)
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Don’t forget panorama stitching too.

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Hey @KeithRJ, why don’t you post this as a feature request…?

Implementation as part of VP might be an option. The product needs a few new features :wink:

Hi @platypus, there are so many requests for these features so was interested to see what people thought of adding these features to VP which seems to me to be a logical place to put it. If people want it then they buy VP and for those who don’t want it they stick with PL and don’t clutter up their interface with unwanted tools.

I think this would be a win for all concerned.

This is an interesting concept. Is it being done in other software that you know of? I’m curious if it would work.

I’m also wondering for all of these different scenarios if merging a BUNCH of photos might not sometimes have a negative affect on sharpness, (pano’s excepted)?

Averaging a bunch of images reduces noise because it is variable, while signals are much less so. Astrophotographers use this trick to improve their images and “reach” of their telescopes. You’ll find applications specialized for this or you can use Photoshop for the so-called median blending.

Yes, this can happen…unless you don’t blend images, but use different portions of each image and combine them like in a jigsaw puzzle.

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Thanks Platypus. I just watched a video at Affinity on stacking for noise reduction. Quite good results! Might be interesting to do a comparison of a stack using Affinity or PS, and Deep prime on just one photo.

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Oloneo is software that does HDR and also merging for noise reduction.

www.oloneo.com

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If a camera can do built-in multi-shot on one image, does that help?

That depends on how the camera combines the multiple shots into one and for what goal.
Check the manual or try it out. Nikon cameras have a few options that might be worth exploring.

I’ve not yet heard of a camera that does median blending.

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Presently these techniques need to be done in external software, typically by exporting a TIFF file. IF they could be done in RAW using PL I can see some real benefit. Would not need the huge TIFF files and having to use other
software not to mention staying in RAW as long as possible.

If it is not feasible to do these things in RAW then I think I would prefer to see DXO’s limited funds applied to more editing features that can be done in RAW. There is lots of other software that can do a good job on all these functions. Why not expand the RAW capabilities of PL which is considered by many to be the best RAW Developer available by making it’s RAW functions even better. It would help to stay at the head of the pack!

Rod

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I understand that this is the section of the forum dedicated to VP, and so there are suggestions for adding this functionality there, but since HDR is already in the Nik Collection it seems to me that stitching and focus bracketing might better be added there. Perhaps a new Nik module.

As for VP, I have had it since version 1 but most of its functionality is now in PL and I suspect that Dxo does not have much interest in adding new functionality as it is a bit redundant.

I thought that too, but renaming my VP license showed, that the most essential and practical (imo) perspective correction tools are in VP.

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I suppose that it depends on just what you ask VP to do and how much you use it. As for myself, I used to use VP all the time to correct perspective but now find I almost never actually use it. The tools in PL give me all the perspective functionality I actually do use.

Interestingly enough the times I now use VP are generally when in tools like PS. Then I find VP to be essential.

Don’t forget, VP tools are integrated into PL so, in effect, you are using exactly the same tools, just not in the standalone version, which is meant to be a “plugin” for PS, etc.

If you were to completely remove VP, certain buttons/palettes/tools would disappear from the PL interface.

Are you saying that PL actually uses the VP app as a sort of hidden plugin? That if I remove the VP app from my system then some of the PL functionality will disappear?

That means that PL is not the same product if VP is not purchased as well, and I find that a bit upsetting. I have VP but I did not think I actually still needed it.

Not quite. You bought a licence for VP and entered the serial number into PL; this activated it in PL.

Then you had the choice to install it as a separate “plugin” standalone app for other software.

I was curious enough to try to see how my system reacts when VP is removed, so I removed the actual app from the Applications folder and renamed the support folder in the user library, rebooted the system and I do not see the issue you referred to. That is, all of the PL VP functionality is still in place. There are no missing or disabled buttons.

I will next remove PL5 itself and then reinstall it to see if I see the issue then, but so far I do not see any loss of PL VP functionality when VP is removed from my system.

None of this will make any difference. Once you have registered it in PL you would have to remove the licence file to disable functionality