LR Enfuse Plugin for stacking picture

In my article [post id=77]LR Enfuse Plugin for Lightroom[/post] i already reported about the plugin, but in the mentioned article enfusing HDR images was the topic. In the todays article i report about enfusing focus stacking images.

Introduction

I already compared Photoshop and the free software CombineZP for combining stacking images. Photoshop has the disadvantage to produce halos, depending on the picture taking and lightning situation. CombineZP to me is better on this issue, but only produces 8-bit tiff images, which isn’t the ideal basis for image processing later on.

Usage

The LR/Enfuse plugin there is another candidate producing stacking images, and the export can be done in 16-bit tiff, so there is no qualitiy reduction.

Like already stated LR/Enfuse is donationware, so you have to donate a small amount to get rid of the export limitation of 500px

Criticism

If the single images are not perfectly aligned (you can bet on that the higher the reproduction ratio is), the plugin can do the alignment for you.

Doing this you have to deal with extreme processing length.

Processing 15 images from a 5D MK II and switching alignment on can last somewhere between 15-30 minutes, depending on cpu power.

Photoshop and combineZP are significant faster on that one.

Conclusion

The plugin serves two different setups, since it can blend either HDR or stacking images. Taking this into coinsideration and keeping in mind the low price, i think to play arround with stacking, you’ll get over the lack of speed while processing the images

As an alternative you could use the open source software EnfuseGUI, which is described by the author on his page.

LR/Enfuse will stay installed, since it is an alternative to CombineZP

What do think about the plugin, do you use it? Just leave me a comment, telling me your experiences or place an suggestion or any question, if you like.

ciao tuxoche