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Exposure stacking/blending software other than PS

Permanently deleted user
Could someone please recommend an exposure stacking/blending (not HDR) software that can process Fuji X-Trans files without artifacts? PS is not an option for me due to their subscription model. I hope C1 will add this feature in the near future, they need to expand their feature set for a wider genre of photographers.
Many thanks.
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Comments

13 comments

Date Votes
  • Michael M
    Affinity Photo (non-subscription editing software). Check out:
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  • Permanently deleted user
    You might checkout Zerene Stacker or Helicon Focus. Though I'm not sure if they work with your particular file type.
    Mark
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  • Permanently deleted user
    Hi all,

    I figured I'd piggy-back on this thread as my question is relevant (also posted it here: [The Capture One forum has migrated to a new platform, as a result all links to Capture One related postsstopped working and have been removed])...

    Agreed that Affinity seems to be a good tool for merging exposure bracketed/stacked images. Given that, what's a good workflow for moving between the C1 and PS or Affinity? Here was my full question in the other thread:

    I'm new to landscape photography and am using a Fuji X-T3, so have chosen to use C1 for the RAF processing. I've also played around with LR + PS as I try to define a good workflow. One challenge I'm having is how to deal with merging exposure bracketed images.

    I understand that C1 does not do this (yet... maybe eventually with plugins), and that's ok. What I'm trying to figure out is what my workflow might look like if I need to do the merging (and possibly retouching) in either PS or Affinity. As I understand it, it would look something like the following:

    1.) Import RAFs into C1
    2.) Export RAFs (without any development) into either PSD/TIFF
    3.) Import the PSD/TIFF images into PS or Affinity and perform my merge, luminosity masks, retouch, etc and save
    4.) Import the generated file from PS or Affinity into C1 (I'm assuming I can't use C1's PSD round-trip capability - https://blog.captureone.com/psd-files-capture-one-now/ - since I'm working with multiple images that are being merged into one)
    5.) Develop in C1

    Does the above look correct? Also, and not to get into an image format debate, but is there a difference in the amount of original data that's preserved from the RAF between PSD or TIFF? In a previous post, Umberto mentioned loss of ability to recover some highlights, so I want to make sure I retain as much of the original IQ as possible as I move through my workflow.

    I'm lucky in that I haven't gotten used to a specific workflow or set of tools yet, so I'm hoping to start of with the "right" workflow for my use case, even if it involves a few manual steps.


    Thanks!
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  • Permanently deleted user
    You could save yourself a bit of trouble by using Helicon Focus for stacking. Assuming focus stacking is what you're doing. There's a plugin for C1 available that makes easy work of round-tripping a stack of images to Helicon Focus and back to C1 again.
    Mark
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  • Permanently deleted user
    Thank-you all for your suggestions. I was hoping Helicon Focus would be the answer also. It is a great focus stacking program however, their support page states their algorithms are for focus stacking and not exposure stacking/blending. You can certainly stack images with HF but would need different software for blending according to their support page. I will give Affinity Photo a try. Looking forward to learning more about the upcoming C1 Pro 20.
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  • Gary Steadman

    I'd be interested to hear if you've found a good answer to this question. I refuse to be swallowed up inside the pay wall Adobe has erected.

    Like you, I'm looking for an alternative tool to accomplish image stacking, NOT for focus stacking but rather to leverage stacking for blending purposes as is commonly done in astrophotography.

    Since leaving Adobe behind some four years ago this is literally the ONLY feature I find missing in my non-Adobe suite of imaging tools.

    Hoping to find something which will work well for round tripping with Capture One. Thanks.

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  • Permanently deleted user

    I tried affinity photo a few times for exposure bunny and it does a respectable job. DXO Photolab is getting good reviews. Have you looked at stacking software specifically for astrophotography? I’m getting increasingly frustrated with capture capture one as they not adding major features to the software like exposure blending. Their solution so far are plug-ins for 3rd party HDR and focus stacking software which cost more money. Let me know if you find a good solution

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  • SFA

    Ken,

    Would you be prepared to pay Capture One for a comprehensive image blending tool?

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  • Gary Steadman

    Ken,

    Yes, I have looked at, and used, applications specifically for astrophotography stacking. I felt my results were acceptable but also felt I was getting better results with a manual process/technique executed in Photoshop and leveraging it's blending modes.

    I hadn't heard of DXO Photolab so I'll have to give that a look. From what I can see in the information on their website I can't tell if it has something equivalent to the photo stacking and blending mode capabilities I've used in the past with Photoshop. Are you a user?

    Photo stacking is easy and there are tons of tools for that.

    Thanks for the response!

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  • Permanently deleted user

    Hi Gary,
    My apologies for the misspellings on my previous post I’m not sure how “blending” turned into “bunny”. Ha ha. To answer your question, I am not a DXO user. I do not think there is any software out there at this point that can beat PS for blending, unfortunately. However, PS does not focus stack as well as some others.

    To answer SFA’s question, I would gladly upgrade my C1 if a blending feature was added. Until then, my current version suffices.
    Thanks.

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  • Permanently deleted user

    Hi All,

    No real updates in terms of the "right" workflow for this. Currently, most workflows will require some manual steps. The general workflow that I use with Affinity Photo is as follows:

    1. Import into Capture One
    2. Perform preliminary edits: lens correction, exposure correction/highlights/shadows (to make sure you retain as much detail as possible)
    3. Export Variants (TIFF, in my case)
    4.  Open/merge exported TIFFs in external application (Affinity Photo)
    5. Export TIFF back into appropriate Capture One folder or manually import
    6. Complete edits in Capture One

    Thomas Fitzgerald Photography has a lot good Capture One tutorials and this one specifically, outlines the steps above in more detail, albeit for panoramas... but the workflow is similar for other merge-type outputs and I use it for exposure bracket merging.

    Hope this helps! (And hope Capture One eventually adds native merging!)

    -Teddy

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  • Gary Steadman

    Teddy,

    Thanks for chiming in. I'm not an Affinity Photo user (so far) so I'm wondering if you can confirm something. Are you familiar with using (Photoshop) Stacking Mode ---> Median? This is where the magic happens in using multiple exposures to vastly reduce noise. Step #7 of this online walk-through outlines it, https://www.naturettl.com/stack-star-photos-reduce-noise-photoshop/ I've worked through some alternate, more manual, techniques to reduce noise by blending images but haven't found any that can work the magic the "Median" stacking mode does in Photoshop.

    Is there a similar multiple image stack blending mode in Affinity Photo?

    I'm thinking the answer is no but you may know of tools in the app I wouldn't. Appreciate your feedback!

    Gary

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  • Jules
    • Edited

    I'm posting this 4 years later, in the future, at the end of 2024, for anyone else (like me) who has this question.

    The exposure blending app you need for use-cases such as astrophotography noise reduction, is called Long Exposure Stacker. It does a better job than Photoshop, uses dramatically less memory and resources, and is faster. While Photoshop splutters and chews up your disk space and memory, Long Exposure Stacker will be long finished.

    If your only barrier to using Capture One is this, then here is a great solution. It's one of the standard apps in the astrophotography world, but costs very little, and has companion apps for other stacking purposes. Mac only (I think) and available on the App Store. 

     

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