[AP] New stacking operator (mode/type value)

[swedishphotoguy]

Dear Affinity Staff,

 

Thank you so much for Affinity Photo for MacOS! The 1.5 update is absolutely amazing!

 

I hereby request the addition of another stacking operator, namely a mode (or type) value stacking operator. This operator would choose the most common value for each pixel in a stack. (I hope that I am not hereby double posting such a request)

 

Let me give a background: I am working with projects involving trying to remove moving subjects in city shots, for example a series of shots at a very crowded crossing in Tokyo. Even with 70 shots, median still gives a poor result. I am guessing that the fact that the crossing is almost black and white means that the median values will not always be one of the background pixels, but instead someones jacket, or what not, that is more middle grey in tone. Now I think that the possibility of having photos not choose mean or median, but the mode value (most common value), of each pixel, could be handy in such situations. 

 

Suppose that for a specific pixel in my stack, only 10% of the images would actually show the background, and that, moreover, it would be at an extreme value (either black or white). Then both mean and median would fall short, but a mode value would then probably still give the correct result, and remove the ghosts, since these would all be random values. 

 

Now, I guess there are some troubles here, of course, like the fact that most probably, the ”correct” background pixel value would be slightly different in each frame. But I guess that you guys could come up with some smart way of working around this, like allowing for an interval around the mode value to be distinguished from the other (incorrect) values, and then e.g. choose the mean value of of this range of values. Or something like that. 

 

I hope to see such an operator in a future update. 

 

Thank you again for a wonderful app, that just keeps getting better in a quick pace!

 

Best wishes from Sweden!

[swedishphotoguy]

Sorry for posting again, but I would enjoy to hear some other opinions on this idea. Do you find it promising, or stupid, or irrelevant, or interesting, or what? Is there anything I should explain more? I am interested in hearing the thoughts of other users, because I myself think that it could be a useful addition to the attacking operations now possible.

 

Best regards!

[swedishphotoguy]

Hi!

 

How does the new Outlier stacking mode compare to what I suggested above? I have only had limited time trying it out, and not in relation to the material mentioned above.