tinusbum Loc: east texas

sometimes my stacks are washed out,anyone know why?the 1st and last were like that.i fixed them the best i could.

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rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

The answer you seek may be here, as it was asked before by this very weird person:
https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40150&highlight=

Good stack, anyway!

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Was it resolved for you Mark?

Mike

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

Yes. The lesson is: don't fiddle with the settings in ZS unless you know how to undo them.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I think I made the same mistake and got washed out images when I was starting. Not sure. So many mistakes, how am I supposed to remember them all!

Mike

tinusbum Loc: east texas

i didnt touch the settings,when my stacks are washed out its in ZS before i save them

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

I don't know much (nearly nothing) about the settings in ZS. But you could go into it and reset the program. The path is Options / Settings / Reset to Default. Then try to stack again from the original pix.
Its possible to touch up the image after stacking in an image editing program like PS or Gimp. For example with a Curves editing tool. But of course its best to not see this in the first place.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I learned the same lesson using Zerene Stacker in the PMax method and came to the same conclusion after reading the Zerene FAQ section.

I save my output files as 16-bit TIFF for it retains the most data which is evident by the size of the output file. I also shot my images as TIFF however the size of the stack was so large that it took over an hour at times just to get them off the camera card for it was pushing 60-Gig in folder size. I gave that up and shoot in the high JPEG mode now yet set output to TIFF 16-bit.

I turn on "Retain Dynamic Range" when the subject has lot of contrast, like a bumble bee or a Harlequin Bug otherwise there it clips the bright yellows and the blacks. Most often I can pull them back in using Camera Raw filter after converting the TIFF image to a Smart Object.

When I stage a cockroach or spider there is far less contrast and I turn "Retain Dynamic Range" off for I find with my lighting and diffusing it gives me a bit better result. I tend to be more of a Dr. Frankenstein in my gear experiments so what works for me may not be ideal for others.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Interesting subject, thanks Mark for the Link. I have not run into this problem but I will know how to correct if I run across. Something I started doing with my stacked images was to post process prior to running thru Zerene. I used Nik software where as I could process one image and then simply apply to all the images. Most of the adjustments were for the higher contrast areas. Of coarse my stacks are small in number, 30 or less, but found it improved my over all final image. Just a thought for you Tim.. P.S. I used Tiff files