Aligning a time series of photos

[dave2017]

I have taken a set of shots from my window at different times of day. Mostly they are very similar - same distance settings etc., but I didn't use a tripod.

Is it possible to trim the set slightly using Affinity Photo, so that I have a set of shots which are more or less accurately aligned?

I think it might be possible to do this using a stack operation. I have used stacks for panoramas and HDR in the past, but this is a slightly different application. I want a series of individual shots, but all lined up within reasonably accurate tolerances.

[walt.farrell]

You could try File > New Stack with the alignment option enabled.

After tweaking the stack (further alignment, cropping) you can turn the stack into simple layers. Then use the Export Persona to create slices and export each slice/layer as a new image.

[dave2017]

OK - thanks. Now successfully got a stack set up and aligned. Is there an easy way now to just get a sequence of shots - say Stack-1, Stack-2, Stack-3 etc, where Stack is the name associated with the photos taken as a whole? Or do I have to save each one separately, which would be tedious.

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, dave2017 said:

OK - thanks. Now successfully got a stack set up and aligned. Is there an easy way now to just get a sequence of shots - say Stack-1, Stack-2, Stack-3 etc, where Stack is the name associated with the photos taken as a whole? Or do I have to save each one separately, which would be tedious.

Once you've released them from the stack so they're normal layers (one of the options if you right-click the stack in the Layers panel if I remember correctly), then the Export Persona will let you create slices easily from the Layers panel. Then the Slices panel will let you export then.

I'm away from the computer right now, so I can't confirm the exact steps.

[dave2017]

Tried a few times.  Not at all obvious how to get each layer as a separate file with a sequence of names - say Name-1, Name-2 etc.

Slices were interesting, but didn't seem to be doing what I wanted, but rather slicing the whole image - with all the layers into different photos.

[John Rostron]

5 hours ago, dave2017 said:

Slices were interesting, but didn't seem to be doing what I wanted, but rather slicing the whole image - with all the layers into different photos.

But isn't that what you said you wanted?

John

[dave2017]

No it's not.

Let's start again. I have several photos which are roughly the same shot, taken from the same location, though not with a tripod.

The zoom settings are probably the same on each, so the major part of each photo will overlap with the others.

The photos were taken at different times of day or even on different days.

I want to align them all, then crop the aligned photos so that they are all then the same size.

Ideally I'd then like to call them Photo-1, Photo-2 etc. though might then replace the first part of the name with the Day and Time.

I can apparently do part of what I'd like using Stacks. I can upload all the photos to a stack.

What then?

The suggestion to use slices hasn't worked for me, though I can now see a similarity between slices and crops.

[David in Яuislip]

If you've used New Stack and are happy with the result, then Ungroup the Live Stack Group into individual layers
Now rename each layer "Photo-1, Photo-2 etc. though might then replace the first part of the name with the Day and Time."
Go into Export Persona
Select all Layers
Click the Create Slice button at the bottom of the Layer Panel
Click Export Slices button at the bottom of the Slices Panel

p.s.

1 hour ago, dave2017 said:

No it's not.

is somewhat terse. Understand that the two posters who have responded above are stalwarts of this forum

Hope that helps

[John Rostron]

Once you have your stack aligned, you may wish to crop the stack/document. Note that the crop is non-destructive, but if you export to a raster format, the crop will be maintained.

If you do not want to use the Export Persona and slices, then, after ungrouping the stack:

1. Ensure that the blend mode is set to Normal.
2. Export the document to a unlayered  format such as jpg or png. Only the top layer will appear in the export.
3.  Hide the layer you have just exported and repeat this export process for each layer.

John

[dave2017]

Hi - sorry wasn't able to get back to reply to David/Ruislip or John R yesterday due to password issues.

I finally got something to work, though it wasn't ideal, but at least made sense. I note that Walt had posted something about it being tricky way back in 2018.

One thing which is not obvious is ungrouping the stack. As I recall from a day or two back, one clicks on the Stack label in the Layers, then clicks on that with a CMD-Click, which causes a drop down menu to appear.

Ungroup is available from that. This causes all the individual photos - now hopefully aligned and maybe cropped to appear each as a separate layer - and the Stack disappears from the Layers display.

Then switch to the Export Persona and use the Slice feature - together with Export Layers.

I really do need to go through this again, taking notes as I go, as it is very easy to miss out a step and things which work and are needed operations in the Photo Persona don't work in the Export Persona, and vice versa.

Thanks to those who replied. I didn't intend to upset anyone, and even now I'll need to check all the steps.

When I've done that I'll come back and hopefully produce a definitive version of how to do this - though one of my shots came out completely the wrong size - I"m not sure why. I'll try to post details of a workable process anyway.

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by dave2017
update

[dave2017]

Getting back to this after a long while.

John's comment re cropping - yes I do want to crop through all the aligned photos. Each image has an area of interest which is the same in all of them.

So if the basic crop is non destructive - and reverts with other operations, then I will try the solution of exporting to a raster format which was mentioned.

It's a shame that the export only does one layer at a time if Export Persona is not used, but it's better than nothing.

There is a hint that the Export Persona might be able to do what I want -  but I've still not figured that out.

Slices in AP terminology seem to be almost the equivalent of several different crops done on the same image, so that was what I meant when I wrote earlier that was not what I wanted.

There may indeed be a way to use the Export Persona to do each of the aligned images, though sadly I've still not found it.

I am however getting close to something which serves my immediate purposes.

What would be really great would be if each layer could be associated with the Exif data from its original image, or alternatively if one could easily overlay a time on each layer.

Thanks for the answers - I'll see if I can make the final steps now.

 

[dave2017]

On 2/5/2021 at 6:34 PM, David in Яuislip said:

If you've used New Stack and are happy with the result, then Ungroup the Live Stack Group into individual layers
Now rename each layer "Photo-1, Photo-2 etc. though might then replace the first part of the name with the Day and Time."
Go into Export Persona
Select all Layers
Click the Create Slice button at the bottom of the Layer Panel
Click Export Slices button at the bottom of the Slices Panel

I wonder if there has been a change of behaviour with version updates.

Now I cannot see any way to Select all Layers from within the Export Persona.

Should that step be before the switch of Personas?

I have - some while back - seen different behaviour, but right now the steps in this sequence do not appear to work in version 1.9.1

 

Actually something has changed. There is now an option to add an Astro-Photography Stack - though I'm not sure that helps with what I'm trying to do, as I'm not doing astro photography right now. This is very confusing. I don't mind using an Astro Photography Stack or any stacking method which actually works, but this feels like trying to shoot for goal at a moving goal post in the middle of an earthquake!

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by dave2017
Change in Interface noted.

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, dave2017 said:

Now I cannot see any way to Select all Layers from within the Export Persona.

Export Persona, Layers Panel. Click the top layer. Shift+Click the bottom layer.