Photo nonsense

In the previous post I mentioned I ran into the limitations of Photoshop when processing focus-stacked images. Again. I downloaded the program Zerene Stacker to see if it really could handle this better. First, what is the problem? In this first image, Photoshop used the wrong part of the stack for some of the leaves, and the result is blurred leaves. (Look at the tips of the three leaves closest to the camera.) In the second image, Zerene Stacker handled it much better.

Zerene Stacker also introduced some weird artifacts into the image, about five randomly-placed short diagonal lines. (They aren't in frame in the above image.) I cleaned them up with the Photoshop Remove tool, but if that happens all the time it would be a problem. The result was clean enough to replace the Photoshop version in the previous post. I also did another test using one of the cactus images, and there were no artifacts. It's always fun trying to figure out intermittent problems.

One definite deficiency with Zerene Stacker is it cannot handle Canon RAW files. I have to feed it either JPG or TIFF. Since I routinely have the camera save images as both CR3 and JPG, I already had JPGs to use for the test. In theory this is bad, but in practice I really don't see any difference between the two above images in the parts that are in focus. I process JPG files in Photoshop RAW filter all the time, and that's what I did with this one from Zerene Stacker, using the exact same settings as with the PSD file Photoshop made from the RAW CR3 files. If I had to convert to TIFF to preserve some image quality, that would be an onerous extra step; in practice I don't think it would be necessary.

I still have to give Helicon Soft a try. Helicon says it handles RAW files, including Canon CR3 files, but internet chatter suggests that the implementation may have some flaws. Something for tomorrow.