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Save the stack source files?

Posted: 03.09.2015 00:55
by mike_mccue
Hi,
It is time for me to to do a regular photo file backup and I have to decide if I want to save the stack photos I used in Helicon or if I should just save the Helicon Focus output .dng.
I know that the choice will largely reflect a personal opinion but I thought I'd ask if there are any remarkable processes etc. that may become available, to end users such as myself, in the near future.
I have been generally very happy with the results I am getting but I do put in a lot of hand work to make the photos seem as clean as possible. It seems like there aren't any truly effective ways to deal with overlapping features and so hand work is required to make the image seem natural etc. I think that I would be comfortable deleting the source files for the stacked images which I have that I think were successfully completed.
In other words, I am thinking that the stack files I have collected are a huge amount of data to archive and that it is unlikely I will use them again so I will probably be satisfied with just saving the composite .dngs.
Will future technology make me wish kept all the stack data?
Does anyone have any informed opinions about this subject?

Thank you.

Re: Save the stack source files?

Posted: 04.09.2015 11:39
by Stas Yatsenko
We do not have any revolutionary ideas that will make you reprocess the stacks. So most probably you will not need source image if you are happy with (retouched) results. Still, no one can tell this for sure. I would invest $100 into separate HDD to keep those not so important source files. Just for the case.

Re: Save the stack source files?

Posted: 05.09.2015 13:14
by mike_mccue
Thank you.