Shine Stacker

What Shine Stacker is

Shine Stacker combines images captured at different focus distances to create an image with extended depth of field. Its maker describes it for microscopy, macro photography, and computational imaging. It offers Laplacian pyramid and depth map stacking methods, plus automatic alignment and color or luminosity balancing. Other listed processing functions include noisy pixel masking, vignetting correction, and final filters. Users can select details from individual frames to address dust, ghosts, and artifacts. For large sets, frames can be divided into smaller groups and merged into a fully focused image. Python batch processing and Jupyter notebook scripting are supported. Shine Stacker accepts RAW files and lists TIFF, JPEG, and multilayer TIFF as output formats. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with API access also listed. The maker offers a free GitHub download and Python installation through PyPI with pip. The project is open source under the LGPL-3.0 license.

Who it suits

Shine Stacker suits people working in microscopy, macro photography, or computational imaging who need to combine frames at different focus distances. Its batch, Python, and Jupyter support may also suit users processing larger image sets or scripting workflows.

Getting started

1. Visit https://shinestacker.wordpress.com/.
2. Download Shine Stacker from GitHub.
3. Install it on Windows, macOS, or Linux.
4. Python users can install it from PyPI with pip.
5. Use the listed stacking methods and processing functions on frames captured at different focus distances.

Verdict

Shine Stacker covers focus stacking from alignment and image processing through manual retouching and batch workflows. Its free, open-source offering may suit users who need its listed desktop or scripting tools.