Have just been playing with Image Stacking using CS4. extremely easy to use.

This is my first attempt using seven stacked images using CS4 and I must say I'm very pleased with it. The attached photo is just a very quick and dirty attempt. Will now go and try something a little more sophisticated.

Harry

Pretty good for a ' quick and dirty ' effort Harry. I look forward to more.

I cannot afford CS4 so have not looked into it but I assume from this post it includes image stacking.

Stevie just gave me a dig in the ribs and pointed me at our Christmas cactii so I will have to give that a go but in CombineZM. :)

Don

Don when you've impressed Stevie with your skill and the magic of CombineZM, tell her that you could do an even better job with CS4 :) I talked my family into buying me CS4 as a Christmas pressie.

Here's a second attempt http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...840&ppuser=150 each of the photos were taken at 1/25 @ f/5.6 using the Canon 5D + Canon 100mm macro lens

:D :D

A bit late now Harry. Big spends recently - Stevies D300, and then for me, two primes to replace my mid range (28-105) zoom that she bagged :rolleyes:.
So I am now on bread and water, and CombineZM will have to do me for a while.

Don

I have been trying out image stacking (CS4) with non macro shots. here are two examples.

The Bluebells photo comprises 7 images, with the Belton House consisting of 5 images.

Whoops uploaded the wrong bluebell photo, so please disregard that on. I cannot find a way to delete the image so will make another post with the correct photo.


Harry

edit: wrong bluebell photo deleted.

Hopefully I will locate and upload the correct photo this time.

Harry

Its given them a wide angle feel even though the exif says you've taken them with a 70mm lens

Hi Clive, yes both photos where taken at 70mm as I wanted close-ups of both the plant pot and also the bluebells.

The actual lens used was the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8

Harry

Hi all, I got Helicon focus a while back, but following a catastrophic hard drive failure, I've only just found the program again among some previous system files. What do people find best - Helicon or stacking with CS4?

Andy I tried Helicon Focus sometime ago and found it to the best available at the time, but wasn't prepared to pay the asking price, so remained with CombineZM. That was until I bought CS4.

CS4 is excellent at aligning and blending, but is very resource hungry, often bringing my old PC with Dual Core CPU with 4GB of ram to a standstill.

I now have a new self build pc with AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core Processor 2.6GHz. 4Gb ram on Vista Ultimate 64 bit.
Have just done a speed check stacking 8 images. Aligning images 15 secs, Blending images 35 secs.

Helicon Focus is a stand alone product and is marginally better than CS4, but please bear in mind it's probably two years since I used Helicon.

IMO though for convenience CS4 is better due to the fact that you can send images direct from either Bridge or Lightroom direct into layers in Photoshop ready for aligning and blending.

Harry