Zerene stacker: PMax result can come handy for selective retouching to mitigate "halos"

Hi all

Zerene user speaking.

So I usually don't like the stacking result of the PMax images because of their "hardness". I prefer DMap for the more natural look.

With this stack, it turned out that the PMax result came very handy for selective retouching the halo zones in the DMap stack.


Left: halo zone retouched from PMax stack. Right: DMap stack with problematic halo zones.

Maybe this helps some of the readers.


"Softly bedded". Final stack, retouched. Fujifilm X-T4, XF 30/2.8 macro lens.

BR,

Martin

--
SmugMug - https://martinlang.smugmug.com
500px - https://500px.com/martinlangphotography
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/martininframes
Co-author on https://frickelfarm.de/

I do like the final picture, but ive no idea what it is ?

both helicon & zerene have 2 main stacking routes, and many shots will benefit from first stacking using both options, and then stacking the 2 output stacks into 1 final shot

so with zerene merge the pmax & the dmap outpouts using the dmap option

ditto helicon merge B & C using C

you can also retouch if the automation doesnt get it the way you want

I am a Zerene user. Personally, I prefer to retouch manually because I believe that I have more control with manual retouch.

I think that's what the OP is referring to - manual retouching. He's using the PMax output to retouch the DMap image.

It is a common technique & Zerene's how-to video touches on that.

jim mij said:

I do like the final picture, but ive no idea what it is ?

Click to expand...

Thank you. This is is a common puffball, a young fruiting body of Lycoperdum perlatum. It is still fairly small.

jim mij said:

both helicon & zerene have 2 main stacking routes, and many shots will benefit from first stacking using both options, and then stacking the 2 output stacks into 1 final shot

so with zerene merge the pmax & the dmap outpouts using the dmap option

Click to expand...

I merged small parts of PMax into DMap.

jim mij said:

ditto helicon merge B & C using C

you can also retouch if the automation doesnt get it the way you want

Click to expand...

I did this with manual retouching.

Clearly, nothing advanced what I did. IMO with a not too bad real life example.

Here's someone with this "halo" problem, https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68338672 and this report made me actually post my result here.

Best,

Martin

--
SmugMug - https://martinlang.smugmug.com
500px - https://500px.com/martinlangphotography
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/martininframes
Co-author on https://frickelfarm.de/

MacUser2 said:

I am a Zerene user. Personally, I prefer to retouch manually because I believe that I have more control with manual retouch.

Click to expand...

This is what I did.

Martin

--
SmugMug - https://martinlang.smugmug.com
500px - https://500px.com/martinlangphotography
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/martininframes
Co-author on https://frickelfarm.de/

Newbie Phewbie said:

I think that's what the OP is referring to - manual retouching. He's using the PMax output to retouch the DMap image.

Click to expand...

Yup

Newbie Phewbie said:

It is a common technique & Zerene's how-to video touches on that.

Click to expand...

Agree. It's this one, https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker/docs/videotutorials/retouching001/index

Martin

Rightsaidfred said:

Hi all

Zerene user speaking.

So I usually don't like the stacking result of the PMax images because of their "hardness". I prefer DMap for the more natural look.

With this stack, it turned out that the PMax result came very handy for selective retouching the halo zones in the DMap stack.

Left: halo zone retouched from PMax stack. Right: DMap stack with problematic halo zones.

Maybe this helps some of the readers.

"Softly bedded". Final stack, retouched. Fujifilm X-T4, XF 30/2.8 macro lens.

BR,

Martin

Click to expand...

As per a post in a photomacrography forum, someone stated that Affinity Photo does the Pmax correction for you:

Source: https://www.photomacrography.net/fo...295974&hilit=affinity+stack+pmax+dmap#p295974

"Affinity makes DMAP and PMAX (Helicon B and C) at once, and glues the results from the 2 methods automatically into a single photo, taking all the best (e.g. smooth surfaces with no noise and true color) from DMAP, and areas that are obviosly bad in DMAP are automatically added from PMAX! If you study carefully the images from Affinity and compare with Helicon B and C, that becomes obvious."

The post also implied that Zerene did not do this automatic correction either.

JSim said:

As per a post in a photomacrography forum, someone stated that Affinity Photo does the Pmax correction for you:

Source: https://www.photomacrography.net/fo...295974&hilit=affinity+stack+pmax+dmap#p295974

"Affinity makes DMAP and PMAX (Helicon B and C) at once, and glues the results from the 2 methods automatically into a single photo, taking all the best (e.g. smooth surfaces with no noise and true color) from DMAP, and areas that are obviosly bad in DMAP are automatically added from PMAX! If you study carefully the images from Affinity and compare with Helicon B and C, that becomes obvious."

Click to expand...

Interesting!

JSim said:

The post also implied that Zerene did not do this automatic correction either.

Click to expand...

That's correct to the very best of my knowledge with today's version of Zerene. With Zerene, each method, PMax and DMap produces its own output. The combination of their strengths relies then on the user's retouching skills.

I've not found retouching difficult to accomplish. But if the software does it automatically, I mean, that's an asset!

BR,

Martin