For users who use File—>Open (instead of the "Folders” section on the left bar) —- allow them to just select specific files in the Open dialog and bring those into Macro Studio, instead of having to bring a whole folder. (Thanks Stephanie B. for the suggestion!)

Ryan Cush about 9 hours ago

Hi Ryan, I made another comparison showing the eye of a robber fly. You might be interested to see how MacroStudio performs in contrast to ShineStacker and Zerene. In fact, MacroStudio shows quite some ghosting on certain portions of the eye. ShineStacker produced the cleanest image, followed by Zerene. It’s quite interesting to see how results can differ. Here’s the linke to the file, which can be opened in PS as it contains layers. Zooming in reveals the details. http://e.pc.cd/cOKotalK

Klaus Cinibulk about 13 hours ago

2

I have found out that probably all (Godox) flashes have quite a white balance shift when doing focus bracketing. Some shots are extremely “magentaish”, others green. When source cloning (particularly uniform areas like the edges where the subject meets the background), that can create very visible problems. Would there be a way that the software could correct that?

Wolf Amri about 22 hours ago

sometimes I later find that I would love to retouch (source clone) a stack. I think it should be relatively easy (if the source files still exist), to tell the software in which folder to find the source files and just reclone - additionally it might even be possible that the software remembers the source file of each finished/saved image and would automatically let you do that.

Wolf Amri about 22 hours ago

4

Sometimes you have two different output files (e.g. natural and enhanced), that have strengths in different areas - for example one has better eyes, the other has better hair. It would be amazing if we could stamp from one over the other. So similar as compare mode one left, one right - and you can choose which image you want in the left window.

Wolf Amri about 22 hours ago

Hi have found that sometimes when the insect moves, stacking a stack with less images (and therefore basically reducing the step with/focus differential in post production) creates better results as particularly the hair are not sharp in 2 or more images. I usually use the finder to only select every second image in a stack and copy these into a separate folder. It would be amazing if that could be done automatically. That obviously only works when there are more than enough images, so that info kinda needs to be there too, or in the documentation somewhere. There are two ways I could think of how you could go about this: add a second button in the library bottom right to “stack selected images” called “motion compensation stack” or something similar. add an option above the film strip next to select all “select every second image” Finally it would be amazing if it would be possible to combine both stacked versions and take the best from each file - ideally automatically with a “refine stack”, or with clone stamping from one final image over the other.

Wolf Amri about 22 hours ago

I’m personally a huge fan of small fonts, but I know people who absolutely dislike them and since some of them have bad eyes, they may not be able to use your software properly and give up on it. I’d add a font size choice in your preferences. That’s probably a lot of work in regard to UI, but I think it will be worth it in the long run ;).

Wolf Amri about 23 hours ago

I know we already talked about it, Ryan, but I can’t remember whether you said it was possible or not. I would love to feather the stamp tool when retouching. I’m extremely used to this from photoshop and lightroom, and I assume others are too, so that is an incredibly important feature in my opinion 😉.

Wolf Amri about 23 hours ago

I love that you give us control over some keyboard shortcuts. However, muscle memory really is hard to overcome, and I constantly press the wrong keys 🤣 . Is there a way you could give us access over all the keyboard shortcuts and behaviours? I know that might make things more difficult for you when people ask for support, but it would be so incredibly helpful.

Wolf Amri about 23 hours ago

2

Would it be possible to save two different versions of the same image (with unique names) rather than overwriting the original? Thanks

An Anonymous User 3 days ago

1

In the Retouch tool, on each source frame thumbnail, show which areas were taken from that particular frame during stacking. This helps you know which frame to jump to, to get to a particular part of the image.

Ryan Cush 3 days ago

In some images, the background is noisy or has contour lines or other artifacts. It’s more pronounced in Enhanced look than Natural. I want to improve this part of the algorithm.

Ryan Cush 4 days ago

1

In a recent release, I added the ability to send anonymized data whenever a stack runs too slowly or meets other conditions. I want to broaden this to allow users to opt in to sharing anonymized stats on all stacks, which will help me continue to optimize performance and memory management, and catch errors before they need to be reported.

Ryan Cush 4 days ago

When you add a Subject or Background mask and then move a slider, the mask disappears. But then when you zoom or pan too much, it incorrectly reappears.

Ryan Cush 4 days ago

A big challenge for all stacking programs is edges of flowers, leaves, stem. I generally see artifacts here, which I believe arise from combinations of different out-of-focus choices for background. By identifying the ‘deepest background’ with significant in-focus material and applying that to all areas for which no good focus exists, a sharp, realistic border could be created around areas of interest, and would approximate what an eye sees. ***Not sure how to deal with the fact that some OOF is in FRONT.

An Anonymous User 5 days ago

1

A big challenge for all stacking programs is edges of flowers, leaves, stem. I generally see artifacts here, which I believe arise from combinations of different out-of-focus choices for background. By identifying the ‘deepest background’ with significant in-focus material and applying that to all areas for which no good focus exists, a sharp, realistic border could be created around areas of interest, and would approximate what an eye sees. ***Not sure how to deal with the fact that some OOF is in FRONT.

An Anonymous User 5 days ago

1

I don’t know if it’s only on my machine (MacBook Pro M4 48GB), but the spot removal tool generates strange artifacts. It reminds me of the Pucker Tool in Photoshop’s Liquify filter. The fundamental question is to what degree MacroStudio should provide general editing capabilities—like dust removal or masking—which already work seamlessly in LR/PS and other (free) platforms like Affinity (e.g., the Inpainting Brush Tool). Certainly not everyone uses these programs, but those who do will inevitably draw comparisons. I am a big fan of the UNIX philosophy: “Do one thing and do it well.” If there is a need for retouching beyond traditional, macro-specific tools, it might be worth considering a “Send-To ” shortcut for more general editing tasks.

Klaus Cinibulk 5 days ago

1

Hey Ryan, it seems that the images load in the order they were shot, which sometimes takes a while. It would be amazing if the ones selected would load first, and then the ones around the selected image. I hope that makes sense 😁

Wolf Amri 5 days ago

4

I received feedback from non-native English speakers—specifically German speakers—who are struggling with the English-only UI. The request is to make the interface multilingual, supporting at least the most widely spoken languages.

Klaus Cinibulk 5 days ago

In the Editor, we have the Natural vs. Enhanced look. Enhanced adds localized sharpening and clarity (more precise than what the Adjustment sliders can do). Some people think it’s too much. I’m considering adding a slider in between Natural and Enhanced with, say 5-6 “notches” so you can apply a partial Enhanced look. Alternatively, to keep the UI simple, I could keep just the existing Natural vs. Enhanced buttons and lower the intensity of the Enhanced to, say, 50% of its current value. What do you think??

Ryan Cush 8 days ago

1