New Stack - Perspective vs. Scale, Rotate and Translate

[Euffinity]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to Affinity Photo and have been using it to try and stack different types of images. Some for noise reduction, some for blending lunar images, etc. I would like better understand when to use the Perspective option over the Scale, Rotate and Translate option when adding images to the stack. I read the manual and it states:

Choose a Perspective or Scaling operation from the menu to allow for successful auto-alignment. The former applies a perspective adjustment to each image; the latter repositions and/or sizes the image layer.

If taking images on a tripod of a still subject, you would choose perspective? If taking images hand-held of a still subject you would then use scale, rotate, translate? I'm trying to get a feel as to what each does and if there are any drawbacks to using scale, rotate, translate all the time?

What would you use if you were taking 30 images of the moon on a tripod? Thank you.

[sfriedberg]

2 hours ago, Euffinity said:

What would you use if you were taking 30 images of the moon on a tripod?

Scale, rotate and translate.  The moon is basically at infinite distance, therefore perspective effects are insignificant.  If you are taking a series from a tripod, all you really need is translate.

[Euffinity]

7 hours ago, sfriedberg said:

Scale, rotate and translate.  The moon is basically at infinite distance, therefore perspective effects are insignificant.  If you are taking a series from a tripod, all you really need is translate.

Thanks, I searched youtube and google on anyone trying to explain these options but it seems everyone bypasses it when talking about creating a new image stack. Is there a way to only use translate?

If someone was shooting hand-held a burst of images but the object was closer in a few shots, is that when the scale option comes into play? Just trying to understand the use cases for these options.

[Granddaddy]

My post from a couple of years ago illustrates perspective alignment. My example involves a subject moving away from me at an angle while I panned the hand-held camera to follow the subject. I also included a link to a video tutorial about using stacking to create panoramas.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/114815-create-an-action-sequence-by-stacking-panned-photos/&tab=comments#comment-622750

I concluded that APhoto's stacking is very robust. Other editors I've tried could not stack my images.