Zerene Stacker

milster

milster

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Name
Gary
Edit My Images
Yes
I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but when I try to import images into Zerene Stacker the images seem to be of really bad low quality, nothing like the original jpegs, and when I try to stack them it seems to make the problem worse leaving loads of artifacts. As you can see in the images below, stacked in Photoshop they are quite a bit cleaner using exactly the same jpegs. This probably isn't the best example as it was my first attepmt at hand holding stack but I know Zerene should be producing much better than this.

Stacked in Zerene


Stacked in Photoshop


Any help much appreciated, cheers.
 
Check Options > Preferences > Input/Output > Pre-Processing. Make sure the check box isn't selected to resize the images before stacking.

Also, any noice will be amplified as part of the stacking process (P-Max results in a "noisier" image than D-Map, but is the one I tend to use more). Also, I usually use the retouching tool to paint in large areas (such as backgrounds) that don't have fine detail. So in the above as an example, just choose a single image from the input files and paint over the green bits.

A couple of things to try anyway, hope it helps but let us know if that's not the issue.

Nice hopper btw ;)
 
Ok, thanks Tim, that could be part of the problem as the images do seem to be pretty small after, forgot to mention that. Cheers.
 
I've had a quick go with your suggestions Tim and the done a couple of minor adjustments in lightroom. It seems to have come out better although some practice with the retouch tool is needed. I did notice the image seemed to look better in Lightroom after it had been save than it did in Zerene whilst retouching, would that be right?

 
Yes, all the images in here are stacks using exactly the same jpegs, I just cropped the last one slightly differently.
 
Hello Gary,

Just an observation, that whilst the second shot looks cleaner, it has also lost a lot of detail in the eye. If you don't want to go down the retouching route you could try it the reverse way. Ie use the photoshop composite as the main pic but clone in the subject from Xerene. Best of both worlds.

Good luck!
 
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