Managing files w/ focus stacking

[Michaelpage]

I use focus stacking to produce close ups of flowers, starting with raw files in Lightroom and exporting tiffs to Zerene. I generate 10 - 15 original images to produce a final product. I'd appreciate some guidance on which image files I should save, in addition to the final:

- The original RAW files?
- The TIFFs exported to Zerene?
- The Zerene Project folder, which seems to contain a third set of files in JPEG?

A second question: if Zerene is converting the individual images to JPEG is there any reason to export using TIFF? Is there any reason to continue generating the original images in RAW?

Thank you.

[ray_parkhurst]

[JH]

Raw have more colour information than jpg. In a few ocassion I have got problems with jpgs - some kind of ”banding” that was much less of a problem with raw. Therefore I use raw BUT I also wants to stack the picture ”live” in Zerene, therefore I take jpg and raw at the same time.

Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg
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Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hphoto.se

[rjlittlefield]

[ray_parkhurst]

[rjlittlefield]

[ray_parkhurst]

[Michaelpage]

for helping me understand my options here. Looks like once again I'll have to make some judgements on my own. I'm learning.

[SONYNUT]

I try to keep everything...till my memory is full and i go on a dumping binge ;-)
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Just shoot it......

[Deanimator]

My process:

1. Shoot stack in RAW.
   
2. Import RAW files into Elements which saves them into dated folders. I rename them as necessary for multiple stacks on the same day.
   
3. Adjust exposure, contrast, etc., in Elements.
   
4. Save adjusted images as TIFFs in C:\Users\user\Pictures\Camera\T4i\Macro\day-month-year Stack n.
   
5. Import TIFFs into Zerene.
   
6. Run stacks in Zerene.
   
7. Save stacked images as JPGs in C:\Users\user\Pictures\Camera\T4i\Macro\day-month-year Stack n\Output.
   

If I'm unhappy with the results, I delete the RAW files and stacks and containing folders.

If I like what I did, I keep the RAW files at least for a while, and the TIFFs and JPGs of the stacks. I might eventually delete the TIFFs.

[Beatsy]

More often than not, I just keep the end results. But for some of my better subjects, I keep the RAW files. Exported TIFFs are deleted because they're much larger than the RAW files - and can easily be regenerated anyway.

FWIW: I find Capture One "sessions" are a very natural way to maintain/keep images from stacking sessions (all files in one folder - one session per session, so to speak).

Final output images are imported into Capture One "catalogs" (database model like Lightroom uses) but the individual sessions themselves, with their large collections of source images, are easily managed, archived and restored just like any other files. No need to clog up finished-image portfolios with those nor any need to use (slower) photo-related tools to access and manage them.