Which Software...?

[NorthernFocus]

... do you use to stack images with the intent of removing noise and/or removing things like people walking by etc. Is it the same software for focus stacking? Astro photography? HDR?

[JohnRostron]

This problem was aired recently. The best solution seems to be median merging in Photoshop. Stack the images as layers, align, convert to smart object an then use the median filter in the layers menu. For each pixel it will ignore the unusual items such as noise or people.

John

[IzzieK]

Be careful of Photostacking using LiveView on your D810 -- I nearly lost my camera doing that. Two hundred and fifty dollars later + shipping and handling, I was told I burned the circuit board inside it and had to be replaced. Then I did a research of mirror-up problems and found out that apparently mirror-up error existed since the D300 sytem.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the info, John. Unfortunately I don't use PS.

Izzie, thanks for the heads up. I'll have to research that.

[JBW]

... do you use to stack images with the intent of removing noise and/or removing things like people walking by etc. Is it the same software for focus stacking? Astro photography? HDR?

Gimp can be used to remove objects. Capture 1 also has the ability to remove objects. Gimp also has a basic depth merge which you might find useful

[billtils]

Dan, You don't say what computer you use, but if it's a Mac, you should take a look at Affinity Photo which does these things rather well. There is a Windows version in the works but no release date.

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for additional input Brian and Bill. I'm a PC user.

[DanK]

... do you use to stack images with the intent of removing noise and/or removing things like people walking by etc. Is it the same software for focus stacking? Astro photography? HDR?

Dan,

Different tools for different jobs.

The method that John mentioned, median merging, removes atypical values for any given pixel in a stack. That makes it useful for removing both people and noise. For removing noise, you can also take the mean. There is a tutorial on this site for a method for the latter that should work with any program that has layers: https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...ging-noise.htm

This is not what is done for focus stacking. Imagine a stack of images of a flower, with the top image focused on the nearest part and the last image focused on the part furthest away. Now, think of a stack of pixels at each location in the image. Averaging them or taking the median wouldn't work. Rather, the software has to scan the image, pick out the areas that appear in focus, then move to the next image and do the same, etc. You can actually watch this happen in the second stage of the DMap process in Zerene, which I use for stacking. The frame with the image will go black, and as the software works through the stack, pieces of the image will appear.

Exposure fusion, which is what I use instead of HDR, in essence works similarly to focus stacking; it scans each image in the stack for regions that are within the appropriate range of exposure and retains them. It doesn't average. I use LR Enfuse, a Lightroom plug-in, for this.

Dan

Dan

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, Dan. I remembered reading that tutorial but forgot that it was right here on CiC. My main interest is to remove passers by from urban scenes, parks, etc. Typically when I have noise issues it's not in a situation that I can take multiple frames.