A question: have you guys tried stacking images to increase resolution / sharpness of photos? At the moment I’m playing with PhotoAcute program, and while the stacked images indeed look more detailed, I’m curious whether the software really can extract some extra detail beyond the lenses’ resolving capability or it’s just some clever sharpening / differences of the raw converter?
Some examples, 100% crop:
1. Raw converted via ACR 6.3, no sharpening.
2. The same image from 1, but with massive (150%) sharpening.
3. Output image from PhotoAcute, 7 images stacked.
![[Image: euro_1.jpg]](http://snap-studio.co.uk/rokas/euro_1.jpg)
![[Image: euro_2.jpg]](http://snap-studio.co.uk/rokas/euro_2.jpg)
![[Image: euro_3.jpg]](http://snap-studio.co.uk/rokas/euro_3.jpg)
Hi,
I have played with it and found it useful if you need more pixels / details for big prints, otherwise impact was very small. Decided not to buy <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' />.
A.
AFAIK PhaseOne MF cameras (no idea which model) has this functionality built-in (for more saturated colors and better sharpness)... I guess this might be more practical. How is the performance of this software during the stacking?
Serkan
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I haven't looked at this software before so will do later. If the camera and scene remain unchanged, I think it would be tough to extract any significant extra information out, although you will get reduced noise. To potentially get extra detail out, some slight camera movement between each shot would be useful I think, so you can sample the same scene with a different pattern.
I have used stacking a lot for noise reduction in astrophotography. Total exposure times are typically in the hours here, and I still need more data to get the noise down! I'm not sure if the software I use does any clever stuff for resolution improvement though, but my less than perfect tracking means I do get pixel shifts which handily mask the effects of hot pixels. Far more features in the software than I've figured out so far...
On the medium format thing, I do recall reading about one system which could offset the sensor a pixel at a time and capture 4 images, so that you offset the bayer pattern and get full colour information at every site. Of course you need the scene to remain static while it does that...
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.
[quote name='PuxaVida' timestamp='1330516067' post='16288']
AFAIK PhaseOne MF cameras (no idea which model) has this functionality built-in (for more saturated colors and better sharpness)... I guess this might be more practical. How is the performance of this software during the stacking?
Serkan
[/quote]
Speed wise? Okayish I'd say - 4 minutes to stack 7 x 12mpix raw files (cpu i7 @ 4.2ghz).
By the way, as I shot a 5 euro note for this sharpness test, CS5 refused to open 2 files out of 7 saying "This application does not support the editing of banknote images". Considering that all 7 were taken with the same settings (at least I can't tell them apart visually), it’s sort of amusing that Photoshop had chosen to reject only two of them <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />
[quote name='popo' timestamp='1330518569' post='16289']
I haven't looked at this software before so will do later. If the camera and scene remain unchanged, I think it would be tough to extract any significant extra information out, although you will get reduced noise. To potentially get extra detail out, some slight camera movement between each shot would be useful I think, so you can sample the same scene with a different pattern.
I have used stacking a lot for noise reduction in astrophotography. Total exposure times are typically in the hours here, and I still need more data to get the noise down! I'm not sure if the software I use does any clever stuff for resolution improvement though, but my less than perfect tracking means I do get pixel shifts which handily mask the effects of hot pixels. Far more features in the software than I've figured out so far...
On the medium format thing, I do recall reading about one system which could offset the sensor a pixel at a time and capture 4 images, so that you offset the bayer pattern and get full colour information at every site. Of course you need the scene to remain static while it does that...
[/quote]
Good point regarding the camera movement, I’ll need to try that.
Anyway, I think you’re talking the Hasselblad Multishot cameras – I remember seeing some samples online, pretty impressive stuff for product photography, no colour moiré whatsoever. Would be fun having something like this implemented in some cheapo Sony A850 body – it does have the sensor stabilization anyway <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' />
[quote name='Lomskij' timestamp='1330519866' post='16292']
....
Anyway, I think you’re talking the Hasselblad Multishot cameras
...
[/quote]
Yep... sorry for confusion...
Serkan
[quote name='Lomskij' timestamp='1330519107' post='16290']
Speed wise? Okayish I'd say - 4 minutes to stack 7 x 12mpix raw files (cpu i7 @ 4.2ghz).
By the way, as I shot a 5 euro note for this sharpness test, CS5 refused to open 2 files out of 7 saying "This application does not support the editing of banknote images". Considering that all 7 were taken with the same settings (at least I can't tell them apart visually), it’s sort of amusing that Photoshop had chosen to reject only two of them <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />
[/quote]
The remaining 5 notes could be fake then <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='  ' />... So all in all it costs the price of the application + 25€...
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[quote name='Lomskij' timestamp='1330519107' post='16290']
By the way, as I shot a 5 euro note for this sharpness test, CS5 refused to open 2 files out of 7 saying "This application does not support the editing of banknote images". [/quote]
Interesting! I've not tried that, but I do recall seeing on TV (so it must be true!) that there is a law in the US that copying devices will refuse to work with banknotes there. I didn't know if it also applied to other regions.
I have used small parts of euro notes for extreme macro test before. The print is quite fine, but wasn't fine enough for my test though as I was picking up the fibres in the paper very easily.
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.
[quote name='popo' timestamp='1330536496' post='16301']
Interesting! I've not tried that, but I do recall seeing on TV (so it must be true!) that there is a law in the US that copying devices will refuse to work with banknotes there. I didn't know if it also applied to other regions.[/quote]
It’s the same in Europe as well. We used to have one of those monstrous colour laser all-in-one devices at work (Canon I think) and it didn’t allow banknote copies (at least pounds and euros, haven’t tried zimbabwe dollars for instance). However the machine had “scanning and then printing scanned files from the memory†function, which worked fine with notes as well – so much for the protection, lol <img src='http://forum.photozone.de/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />
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