Stacking in V5 Criteria ?

[G8DHE]

Is there a write-up on Stacking at all in V5 ? I can't see anything in the quickstart PDF's ?
I'm wondering what the criteria is for deciding that images are stacked?
Imported a folder this morning and two sets of images came up marked as stacked, which was unexpected, the images were taken several seconds apart and other than they were visually similar and in sequence had no relationship. This could be awkward if taking shots in continuous mode at 10's of images per second, unless there are some parameters that can be adjusted or the option can be set not to stack (as in "Import to Catalog" but not available in "Import Folder"

[Mke]

I'm wondering what the criteria is for deciding that images are stacked?

There's a setting in Preferences » Catalog » Stacking that can be changed to automatically stack images taken within a certain time of each other.

[G8DHE]

Ah thanks, shall dive in shortly!

[G8DHE]

Oh right, another meaning for "stacking" different from HDR exposures or Astro photography.
I would call this "Grouping" but hey its only a word, sure we can get used to it

Is there a list of all the % parameters that can be used in creating detection masks anywhere ?

[Username]

Under Setting this the de default mask
%yyyy-%mm-%dd %hh:%nn

it looks like it's within the same minute?

[Rhod]

Plus one for a quickstart pdf on stacking. I'm playing with it at the moment and can't quite get my head around how it works. For example, is there a way to change the order of the stack so that a particular one is always on top? I photograph a lot of artwork in different sizes and ratios, so there is always 'spare' space around the frame which I need to crop out. I want to keep the original RAW file as well as the cropped TIFF but I want the TIFF to be always on top. How can I do that? Also, how does stacking relate to versioning and should I use both or just one? Thanks

[Username]

There are some recent changes to stacking in the last couple or revisions.

• Build 2423; Default for "Apply Stacking" for a new import profile is now OFF
  Build 2423; Improved performance for %secondsbetween macro variable (Stack Detection)
  Build 2401; %secondsbetween for version detection can now also be float value (you must use the period as decimal separator)
  Build 2392; Added a new preference for default stack display style (stacked or unstacked)
  Build 2392; Implemented %secondsbetween{seconds} macro to be used for VersionDetection

[Mke]

I want to keep the original RAW file as well as the cropped TIFF but I want the TIFF to be always on top. How can I do that?

Your TIFF image is a version of your RAW file, so you would version them - no need for stacking.

To display your version set, you have 3 choices:


To display them TIFF-first as a set everywhere
You need to change configuration settings:

Setting 1:
You can control which image is displayed first (except when browsing in folder view) using the configuration settings:
Hamburger menu » Preferences » Catalog » Versioning » Main version detection method
To display TIFFs on top, you'd need a custom file mask: *.tiff,*.cr2, for example, would display TIFFs before CR2s

Setting 2:
Set 'Version set display' to 'Always together as a set'


To display them TIFF-first as a set in category view only
Setting 1
As above

Setting 2
Set 'Version set display' to 'As a set in categories'

Under this version, if you keep your TIFF + RAW files in the same folder, you'll see two sets; one with the TIFF on top, the other with the RAW file on top.


To display them TIFF-first as a set in category view + in the Event/Project folder
If you want to see only one set in folder view, with TIFF on top, you need to use the file system. If you use this folder structure:
|_Event/Project Folder (TIFF files in here)
.........|_RAW (RAW files in here)

...then when you click in your Event/Project folder, then you'll see a TIFF-on-top version set.
If you move to the sub-folder then you'll see one set with the RAW file on top.

Some users prefer this version:
|_Event/Project Folder (nothing in here)
.........|_RAW (RAW files in here)
.........|_TIFF (TIFF files in here)

[Mke]

Also, how does stacking relate to versioning and should I use both or just one?

If your TIFF is the result of combining multiple source images, you may wish to combine those source images in a 'stack' - which is just a group of images.

For example, you might use focus stacking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_stacking) to produce a single image with an increased depth of field using multiple RAW images (the origin of the name 'stacking' in PSU). Or you might combine multiple images RAW images to produce a panorama. Or, as mentioned above, generate a single HDR image from multiple RAW files, perhaps in astrophotography

And, if you wish, you can create a version set that combines one or more processed images (TIFFs, for example) with the 'stack' of multiple RAW files used to create that image / those images.

[Rhod]

Wow! Thanks for that really clear and thorough explanation Mke! Really excellent!

[Mke]

You're welcome Rhod

[G8DHE]

Right another interesting problem, using multiple cameras on Friday, all the images are loaded external from PSU from the cameras into a single folder for import into PSU, however with the Stacking criteria based only on time alone lots of shots from other cameras are included in the Stacks when they happened to coincide time wise, which makes for a time consuming process to eliminate images in the wrong stacks
There doesn't appear to be a way to prevent Stacking from looking at all images in a given folder, as opposed to using either selected images only or based on Filename or some other camera dependent criteria ?
I'm thinking along the lines of Detection Mask that could be based on Time and other criteria;
%SecondsBetween{1} AND left(%filename,3) : I.e time between shots and leading characters of filename
%SecondsBetween{1} AND %exif:SerialNumber :i.e. time between shots and the Exif BodySerialNumber of the camera

Otherwise it means separating the images from different sources into multiple folders to prevent the Stacking process mixing them all together ...

Edit: added as feature request 3409 https://mantis.idimager.com/view.php?id=3409

[endre]

If you think of stacking as a horizontal set of photos (e.g.,.panorama, HDR, focus stacking, blending etc., as mentioned before), then version sets are vertical edits such as B&W, color graded, *. afphoto, *.tif, *.jpeg etc.

Pano1.raw, Pano2.raw, Pano3.raw, Pano4.raw, Pano5.raw etc. (stacking)

Pano.afphoto
Pano.tiff
PanoBW.tif
Pano.jpg
(version set)

Did you know that you can manually set which photo to be the top one on the stack? When the stack is open, click the little stack icon on the photo you want to make the top one, it will change its color to amber.

Did you know you that can stack versions together with photos? First make your version set, then select the photos and stack them manually with the stack command from right click.

Did you also know that you can mark the version set to be on the top of the stack? When the stack is open use the same stack icon as above.

[G8DHE]

Thanks
Yes I have read the help and the other discussions but none of them resolve the problem of separating different sources in the same folder