Layer stack, people still visible

[Ludwig E.]

I used the stack function to eliminate people from a scene. However quite a number is still visible, albeit translucent, ghostlike. Some are completely eliminated. Those who did not move are clealy visible as they should. How can I get rid of the ghosts?

[John Rostron]

@Ludwig E. Welcome to the forums.

What blend mode did you use to merge the images? To eliminate ghosts, you should be using Median. Choose the option that looks like an x with a tilde ~ on top.

Bcause your ghosts are dark, you could also try min (Minimum) mode.

If your  people are in the same place in all your images, then you wil not be able to get rid of them in this way.

John

 

[Ludwig E.]

Thanks John, it is Median blend mode. Using Min brings all people frpm all images together and darker. In Median some are gone, but the shadow group remains. They have been walking around.

Ludwig

[Old Bruce]

 I would start turning off layers until I eliminated the ghosts. Or you could just make some copies of the pictures and cut out the people and stack those results.

[Ludwig E.]

Thanks Old Bruce, I can't eliminate them all and if I reduce them, other people will appear on that layer that are eliminated by the app. In that picture, it would be no issue to work with the stamp tool, but if the surroundings are buildings for example, then I have a problem with this app. It just does not make sense to me that it completely eridicates most of the people but leaves those shadowy figures.

[John Rostron]

On 12/27/2020 at 7:23 PM, John Rostron said:

Because your ghosts are dark, you could also try min (Minimum) mode.

Sorry, I should have said max (maximum) mode.

John

[NotMyFault]

If you want to fully eliminate ghosts, you could use HDR merge instead of simple stack.  This allows to automatically remove ghosts. Just uncheck the actual HDR merge option. 
 

If you need the stacking for other purposes,  e..g. smoothing the water or noise reduction, you may process the picture with both methods separately and combine and mask required  parts in a later step. 

[Ludwig E.]

2 hours ago, John Rostron said:

Sorry, I should have said max (maximum) mode.

John

Thanks. Max mode eliminates half of the ghosts and makes one figure walking appear 3 times that had been eliminated before.

[Ludwig E.]

Thanks for all your help. I think I just have to live with the fact that the app does not what I had hoped for and use other methods. It looked so simple in the tutorial video - all people milling around just gone.