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Author Topic: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?  (Read 3568 times)

Hening Bettermann

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Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« on: April 16, 2013, 07:10:36 pm »

Hi

Would anybody know of a way to combine Super Resolution AND Exposure stacking?
PhotoAcute purports to do this, but fails to deliver. The SR stacking works, but the "HDR" stacking does not. Neither if tried in one operation nor one at a time, regardless order. Nor if the exposure stacking is done on beforehand in ImageFuser, or the other way round.

I hope for a solution without having to buy PS Extended. And Mac preferred...
« Last Edit: April 16, 2013, 07:18:36 pm by Hening Bettermann »
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bill t.

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2013, 08:03:04 pm »

A camera like the D800e with a very wide dynamic range and a very sharp lens would free you from the need for both those techniques.  With any previous camera I would need a +- 1 to 1.5 stop bracket set to match the dynamic range of a single D800 exposure, and a few stitched panels as well.

But in any case, ordinary HDR exposure stacking tends to compromise definition in proportion to the brightness depth of the stack, as I have seen with every HDR program I have tried.  Fine details become rather vague over a range of several pixels.  To represent unusually high brightness ranges with maximum preserved detail, one needs to adopt a masking approach on an exposure stack where each part of the final image is derived as much as possible from only a single exposure (or super resolution set).
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Hening Bettermann

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2013, 06:58:14 am »

Hi Bill,

thank you for your reply.
I am aware of that the D800 would solve (a good deal of) my problem. I would have bought one long ago, if I was not still hoping for a full frame mirrorles (NEX), for weight reasons. I feel/hope that such camera will arrive in the not-so-distant future, and am reluctant to buy a new SLR at this time to replace my 5D2.

Wrt to exposure stacking, I have different experience. Exposure stacking with ImageFuser with Align_image_stack seems to me to improve IQ, not sure though if this would be measured resolution.

Good light!

hjulenissen

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2013, 07:33:31 am »

Nikon D7100?

Do you need to do automatic allignment? Or can you shoot e.g. N exposure brackets times M slight movements?

If you can, then perhaps you can fool Photoacute by feeding it M raw files that have been tampered with to include N merged exposure brackets?

Not saying that it will be easy or fool-proof, but might be a cheap solution.

-h
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Hening Bettermann

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2013, 10:40:37 am »

Hi hjulenissen,

thanks for your suggestions.

The D7100 is also an slr and no full frame - so that would be the combination of all draw backs. I would need SR stacking just to achieve the same resolution as I have with the 5D2. OK the DR would be larger. But I could just drop SR, and exposure-stack with ImageFuser.

I think I'll need automatic alignments. Apart from the time it might take, I would not even know how to do what you describe. I'm not a software developer...

For now, I am in contact with Eugene (PhotoAcute) hoping that he figures it out. After all PhotoAcute claims to do this.

Thanks for your concern though.

hjulenissen

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2013, 01:48:57 pm »

The D7100 is also an slr and no full frame - so that would be the combination of all draw backs. I would need SR stacking just to achieve the same resolution as I have with the 5D2. OK the DR would be larger. But I could just drop SR, and exposure-stack with ImageFuser.
You wanted more DR and more resolution than you can have with the 5Dmk2, and would also like less weight?

*The D7100 is 24 MP OLPF-less vs the 5Dmk2 21 MP (lense and technique probably is more important).
*The D7100 is reported at 13.72 EV of DR while the 5Dmk2 is reported at DR 11.86 EV of DR (both at 8 MP). Probably not the degree of improvement that you want.
*The D7100 weighs 675g vs 810g for the Canon

http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cameras/Compare-Camera-Sensors/Compare-cameras-side-by-side/(appareil1)/865|0/(brand)/Nikon/(appareil2)/483|0/(brand2)/Canon
Quote
I think I'll need automatic alignments. Apart from the time it might take, I would not even know how to do what you describe. I'm not a software developer...

For now, I am in contact with Eugene (PhotoAcute) hoping that he figures it out. After all PhotoAcute claims to do this.

Thanks for your concern though.
I think that the problem you raise is interesting. "All" fancy (multi-)image processing applications want to have access to native raw files. And most of them are "one-trick-ponies". So what if you (for some reason) want combinations of HDR, SR, pano, focus stacking etc? And fit the files in your regular raw development workflow with profiles etc? Are not most of these tools about:
1) Fancy image _analysis_ (e.g. alignment)
2) Using this analysis to merge, stretch, mask etc a set of input images to form a more complex output image
3) Possibly fancy processing to make the complex image "fit" (crop, tonemapping)


-h
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Hening Bettermann

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2013, 02:47:08 pm »

> The D7100 weighs 675g vs 810g for the Canon

...vs 900 gr for the D800...

This is not the weight difference I have in mind, it is this:
The weight of a mirrorless FF - the Leica M 240 weighs 600 gr, and it might be 500 if these retro-freaks had chosen aluminum instead of brass.
But more:
What is the weight of 3 good retrofocus wide-angles say 24-28-35 mm? compared to 3 ZM mount Biogons:
2.8/25 - 260 gr
2.8/28 - 230 gr
2.8/35 - 200 gr

> "All" fancy (multi-)image processing applications want to have access to native raw files. And most of them are "one-trick-ponies". So what if you (for some reason) want combinations of HDR, SR, pano, focus stacking etc? And fit the files in your regular raw development workflow with profiles etc?

Yes indeed. - PhotoAcute offers output in DNG, after all. If just it could do what it promises...
 

dgberg

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2013, 05:18:39 pm »

NEX 7 with Metabones speed booster. 90% of full frame for $500.00+

Hening Bettermann

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Re: Super Resolution AND exposure stacking?
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2013, 06:12:33 pm »

Thanks for your reply, Dan, but...

from the review on lensrentals.com:

"It does increase astigmatism a bit, although I doubt this will cause anyone problems unless someone is trying to shoot landscape photography with it."

Unfortunately, this is exactly what I want to do...

So I have my doubts if this will be 90 % of a D800...
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