Aligning images - widely varying illumination types

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JW
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Location: New Haven, CT, USA

Aligning images - widely varying illumination types

Post by JW »

So, I took two stacks of the same subject, at 5X. First pass was with a UV-LW lamp, the second was with flash. Each stack is 22 images and each requires alignment. Ultimately, after processing each separately, they will be presented as fluorescent overlay over visible, so the user can slide or switch from one illumination source to the other while the images remain aligned. Now, I can do the final alignment with PS, but I was hoping that ZS 'align all frames' would go ahead and align both sets as if they were one stack, and then I could proceed and 'stack selected'. This didn't work. Below are an example of each illumination. Any thoughts or comments? (this is green fluorescent meta-autunite intergrown with non-fluorescent meta-torbernite, from the Ajax Mine, Nevada).
Attachments
vis.JPG
LW.JPG
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see - Henry David Thoreau

rjlittlefield
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Re: Aligning images - widely varying illumination types

Post by rjlittlefield »

JW wrote:
Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:59 pm
I was hoping that ZS 'align all frames' would go ahead and align both sets as if they were one stack
Sorry, it's not going to do that. The alignment method used by Zerene Stacker works by matching up the overall pattern of brightness, integrated across the entire frame. It does not look at individual features. So, it's great for focus stacking with stable illumination, where the overall pattern stays fixed despite that individual features come and go. But it totally sucks at matching up distinctive features even though the overall pattern of brightness is very different.

Manual aligning the two stacked results by eye is your best bet here.

Here's what I get, shown as an animated GIF with 50% fill transitions:

OverlayAnimation.gif

Did the fluorescent stack go back deeper than the visual? I can't figure out how else the red dots could look so crisp.

--Rik

JW
Posts: 249
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:38 am
Location: New Haven, CT, USA

Re: Aligning images - widely varying illumination types

Post by JW »

Rik - that's what I figured when ZS does alignment, very much appreciate the example. Back in the day I used a simple JavaScript snippet to effect a mouse-over to swap images. Also, I should have been more clear - the two images posted above were single shots from the middle of each stack. I haven't run the stacks yet. I probably will retake this at 10 or 20x to get more detail in the crystal - the composition zoning is barely noticeable in visible light but really 'shines' in LW.

regards
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see - Henry David Thoreau

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