I posted another image of the same general frame from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in User Critiques. Wmchauncey asked me a question about photo stacking, which I did not understand. Then he posted a topic here in this area on
super-resolution, which I read and got to thinking. Now this may be dangerous, but I thought I would post it for C&C and pose the question as to whether it could be generally applied to landscape photography.
My reading suggested that I'd inadvertently taken an image that would enable me to test this idea: Nine frames, same image, tripod, same exposures, opened as separate files in PS CC, File>Scripts>Statistics>Mean, and I let it crank away. I should add that the nine DNG files had all been reset in LR before opening in PS. The resulting "Mean" image definitely had less noise as might be expected, but to my eye, there was also more detail when compared to one of the single frames or to an image produced by choosing "Median" rather than the average. The image was saved as a TIFF to be processed in parallel with one from a single frame in LR. For comparison, I include two 500 pixel crops from the finished images, one from the "Mean" (left) image, the other from the single frame (right). Mind you, these crops were taken
after I processed them in LR and then opened in PS for creative processing and sharpening. The reason I shot the series of nine frames was because the light was changing so very rapidly that I'd hoped to catch one with just the right illumination of the peak. The creation of the TIFF was not difficult or cumbersome as I had written an action to take care of it. I apologize for my ineptness in cropping and guess that the differences in appearances might be due in part to the rapidly changing light condition; it could also be that I screwed up somehow in LR, but I don't think it changes the conclusions. Finishing in PS was the same for each.
Regarding the comments by wmchauncey and the discussion on "super-resolution" I would be curious to see if this might comprise an easy DIY method for obtaining not only lower noise* but also greater detail in images. To wit, select the files in LR, open in PS, run the "Mean" action, and save as TIFF to create the digital "negative." Perhaps others have already discovered this approach.
*Nikon D800E, 28-300 zoom at 28 mm, 1/8 sec, f/16,
ISO 100