First Impressions and questions

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dkperez
Posts: 48
Joined: 22.03.2014 02:30

First Impressions and questions

Post by dkperez »

I've been playing with three tools for stacking - Photoshop CC 2014, Zerene, and HF6. I tried Combine ZP, but it crashed 100% of the time on anything larger than about 2048 on the longest side...

HF seems to do a good job, although the depth map doesn't seem to work very well for what I typically shoot, flowers with a lot of fine detail. Pyramid gives me better results....

There are a couple things I think I"m not doing well... After I render a set of images, and save it, I want to bring in another set. I want everything from the previous set to go away... So far, I'm having to remove all images then remove all outputs, and I have to CONFIRM each of them. I figure there's got to be a way to get rid of some of these steps - at least be able to set preferences so I don't have to confirm things. Even better would be a "clear everything"... Is there a setting I"m not aware of for doing that?
MR H
Posts: 15
Joined: 13.07.2014 23:42

Re: First Impressions and questions

Post by MR H »

Curious to hear what you think between the 3 software...........

I found PS (I use CC 2014) does a bad job, I import stack as layers via bridge, align layers, stack layers - After align it is often obvious things are not going to stack well.....and then they don't!

HF - For flowers I think "c" is the correct option - I have to look up which is best as that is still new to me........I did some flowers last night, outside! in the wind!!!

and clearing I do exactly what you do, Im also new to HR / HF.

Zerene I only heard about last night, What's your impression?
dkperez
Posts: 48
Joined: 22.03.2014 02:30

Re: First Impressions and questions

Post by dkperez »

I've had problems with Photoshop too. I can get good stacks, but it involves a LOT of fiddling with layers and masks. Both Zerene and HF do a better job on their own from what I've seen.

I liked Zerene Stacker, but their pricing is even more out-of-line than Helicon's. Unfortunately, Zerene got rid of their free for personal use version of the software, so since I didn't find the user interface any better, and the speed and quality are about the same as HF, I figured I'd give this software a try.

If CombineZP worked it wouldn't be an issue, but so far I haven't been able to get it to stack even a small stack from a D800.
jimshirey
Posts: 39
Joined: 05.07.2011 22:26

Re: First Impressions and questions

Post by jimshirey »

i do a lot of flowers with fine detail, and i use method B most of the time. that's because i find retouching C-rendered images to be virtually impossible. when C does work it is wonderful.
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Stas Yatsenko
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Re: First Impressions and questions

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Thanks for your feedback. Could you explain why retouching C-method-results are "virtually impossible"?

In the latest version we added possibility to use other result (e.g. method B) as a source for retouching current result
(e.g. method C). Have you already tried this?
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