Automatic slabbing

In some cases, you want to break a stack down into substacks, and then stack those. For example we had a user stacking 73 frames that were 100MP each, which takes an enormous about of RAM and disk space. It would be great if the software could analyze your available RAM and disk space and give you the option to automatically slab it for you.

Auto Button added to Adjustment Panel

wonder if you could consider adding an auto button/option to the adjustments panel in the advanced mode in Macro Studio so that users at all levels from beginners to experienced users could get an automatic adjustments option on fixing exposure, highlights, shadows etc? This will help beginners who may not have the knowledge to adjust individual sliders or to more experienced who will get a starting point for editing the sliders in the adjustment panel to improve their images. Lightroom Classic has this feature and I wonder if this was included in Macro studio it would make Macro studio more appealing to beginners who could click the button to experienced users who could use it as a baseline or use the individual sliders independently. This is a truly fantastic resource foo far or anyone doing Macro Photography. Making the system a real winner. I am absolutely impressed how easy this programme makes stacking etc.

Ability to pre-process source frames

Users have asked for the ability to pre-process source frames, e.g. to adjust things like exposure, white balance, and maybe sharpening. In general, they want to adjust one frame and then be able to apply that to the rest of the source frames, before stacking. There might be infrequent cases where they only want to adjust one or a few frames, though. We would need to be really thoughtful about the UX here, because this is starting to blur the lines between Editor and Library.

StackCheck - delete unused images

That StackCheck is outstanding, Ryan - you outdid yourself. An additional request: once the restacked shot is done - would it be possible to add a button to the banner: “like this version better - press this button to delete the unneeded images from your computer”

Blur Brush

would it be possible to create a Blur Brush. I usually would use this on something in the background that is distracting but perhaps close to the same plane as part of the subject so there are no blurry frames to paint in over the distraction

Peaking

A visual indication for source images showing what’s in-focus akin to a camera’s Peaking Display.

Masks

Sorry, me again 😂. I must sound like a frustrated client, but the opposite is the case. I’m super happy with Macro Studio, but seeing how much you care about feedback, I might go overboard with all those feature requests 😂. However, here’s some more: To almost fully replace Lightroom, or photoshop, I feel the MASKS section would need some fine-tuning. Here’s what I’m “missing” inverting masks especially the radial gradient mask is a great tool to darken the background around your subject to draw the attention to your subject. I know you could basically do the same by reducing exposure on the full image and then raising it for the mask, but for people who are used to their workflow, that’s another train of thoughts. having multiple masks of each type It seems I can only have one radial gradient and one linear gradient. I’m used to having as much as I want. Not that I need all that many for macro photography, but I think two - one for the eye and one for the subject might be helpful at times. Consider subtracting/adding/intersecting masks. Again, I don’t see nearly as much need for that in macro, than in other areas of photography, but maybe others think different. If you allow multiple masks, consider giving the option to name them Just some food for thought in case you ever get bored 😂

Add Histogram to Editor

It would be useful to add an RGB histogram window to the editor to aid in making adjustments and showing when clipping occurs. Also it would be nice to show tone regions (lowlight, midtones, highlights) which could be adjusted on the histogram like in DXO PhotoLab 10.

monitor colour profiles

Any plans on the horizon to be able to calibrate to monitor colour profiles

Dust map / dust reference

I just got Macro Studio and am really enjoying it so far. One feature I’d really love to see added is a dust map / dust reference. At very high magnification, even tiny residual dust spots can become curly lines or trails after alignment and stacking, and these can be surprisingly difficult to remove cleanly in post-processing. Being able to provide a reference image for automatic dust correction would be a very useful addition.

Option to not save Autostack finished stacks and not maintain a persistent Library

Currently, the options are to save finished stacks “Into one Autostack results folder”, or “In the same folder as the stack’s source frames”. I would like an option to not save them at all, unless they are explicitly saved via the editor. I often shoot multiple stacks of the same subject and only edit and save the best one(s). The ones I culled are wasted space at best and a source of confusion at worst. I guess my preference is not to maintain a persistent “Library” at all. I understand this depends heavily on wether the finished stacks are going on to Lightroom (or other), or if Macro Studio is the final destination. Perhaps if the user has indicated that the outputs are destined for editing in another editor with its own library (such as Adobe CC via Lightroom), then instead of a persistent “Library”, the list of outputs from autostack or loaded files can just be an output list based on temp files that disappear when the program is stopped. This is how I currently use that other (H) program. Thanks for considering.

Save automatically after stack has processed

Currently in my workflow I process multiple stacks at a time to be edited in Lightroom and I save every stack the same way. Natural look while changing the name so I can better keep up with the finished stacks. It would be nice to pre-set the name (and maybe options) and enable autosaving because I know I save the stack 99% of time. I also have autoimport enabled in Lightroom on a particular folder where I save the outputs of Macro Studio. It’s pretty neat

Remember the state of the Editor when exiting

When I exit the app, give me the option to save the current state of the Editor (which images are loaded) and load those back when I restart the app. Note, a more advanced version of this could introduce the notion of “Projects”, where a Project is a set of Editor images. It’s powerful, but it adds one more bit of complexity to the app, and I always want to keep it as simple as possible. I’m curious if users would prefer “Projects” or are ok with just saving the current state of the Editor at any given time.

StackCheck recommendations on the fly

For a high volume workflow, it would be preferable to set StackCheck to do it’s work the first time around: dropping unproductive or counterproductive frames (and especially off-time buffer-full trailing frames!) on the fly, rather than requiring a re-stack. Ideally, the initial output image represent’s Macro Studio’s best effort, in line with the philosophy of reducing the need for user input, retouching, etc. I realize that this might not be a trivial change.

Lightroom plugin - how should it work?

I’m building a plugin that lets you stack straight from Lightroom Classic — select your frames, pick a menu item, and the finished stack appears back in your catalog next to the originals. The basics are working. But in testing, I hit a design fork that I'd like user input on, because it comes down to how you like to work. The decision to make When you send frames from Lightroom to Macro Studio, we can hand over one of two things: Option A — Macro Studio receives TIFF files as Lightroom shows them. Lightroom renders each frame with your edits applied (exposure, white balance, profile, crop) and passes those as TIFFs to Macro Studio. What you see in Lightroom is what gets stacked. The catch: what arrives into Macro Studio is a finished picture rather than the original sensor data. Your sharpening and noise reduction are already applied, and the brightest and darkest tones have already been settled, so Macro Studio is stacking images that have been developed once already, and can't reach back past that. Also there would be some limitations on Retouching: you could retouch in that session, but couldn’t open the DNG later and Retouch again. Option B — Macro Studio receives your original RAW files. Macro Studio reads the RAW files directly, exactly as it does when you use it on its own. Color is fully preserved, quality is the best we can produce, and you can retouch and re-blend the result afterwards. The catch: your Lightroom edits to your source frames aren't applied. Any exposure, white balance, profile or crop work you'd done gets left behind, because we're going back to the untouched RAW file. Neither is universally better…hence the question! What I'd love to hear from you: Answer any or all — even one-line answers help. If you've got a workflow that doesn't fit either option, tell me that too. Which matters more to you: your Lightroom edits carrying through, or maximum image quality and colour? If you had to pick just one, which? Would you rather the stack happen quietly in the background in LrC and just show up in your catalog, or open “live” in Macro Studio so you can retouch, adjust and fine-tune before sending it back? Or does it depend on the shot? Do you edit your stacks anywhere besides Lightroom? DxO PhotoLab, Capture One, Photoshop, ON1, something else? This affects what file format we should send back. Macro Studio has two looks — Natural and Enhanced (extra sharpening and local contrast). If getting the best possible color and file compatibility meant the returned file arrived without Enhanced baked in — you'd apply your own sharpening in Lightroom instead — would that be a fair trade, or a dealbreaker? How do you do this today? Export TIFFs by hand? Stack outside Lightroom and re-import? Not stacking from Lightroom at all? Knowing the workaround you've settled on is helpful input. Thanks for helping make Macro Studio the best it can be!

Start Autostack on selected folder

Today, when you click the Autostack button, it opens with the Source Folder set to whatever you used last time. Some users expected it to open with the Source Folder set to whichever folder is currently selected on the left of the screen (in the FOLDERS or FAVORITES sections), which probably more intuitive since it’s likely a different folder that you’re autostacking each time. How do you think it should work? A) Just like today, but add a right-click menu on the Folders for "Autostack this folder" B) Autostack should pre-populate the Source Folder with whichever Folder is currently selected on the left C) Something else

Suggest frames to exclude from a stack.

Sometime a stack looks better if you exclude frames that are strongly misaligned from the rest. It would be great if the app could suggest specific frames that, if removed, might produce a better result. Either because they have a lot of movement relative to their adjacent images, or maybe the lighting is different than others in the stack, or even that there is nothing in-focus (thus they are "wasted). And give an easy way to take the suggestion and restack.

Calculate a "focus overlap" metric

@Wolf Amri suggested having the software show the user a metric of how much in-focus overlap they have in their frames. This could be used for things like: Tell them when they need MORE frames to get a better image Tell them when they have TOO MANY frames, and could set their camera to a bigger differential, or suggest that they remove frames with too much movement, lighting change, etc. and still get a good result.

Capture One plugin

Adjustment sliders: use arrows to live-adjust

In the Adjustment sliders, if you click the text box next to the slider, you can use the up/down arrow keys to change the value, but it doesn’t apply until after you move off that slider. It would be better if it applied “live” as you’re adjust it, and the slider should adjust at the same time. LrC lets you hover your mouse over the slider and use the arrow keys in the same way, which we should also do. Originally suggested by Glenn A.

Keep hot pixels from turning into squiggly lines

Related to (but separate from) https://feedback.macrostudio.pro/p/dust-map-dust-reference Hot pixels get turned into squiggly lines during stacking. We should detect these and keep that from happening.

Actions on multiple Folders

Add the ability to select multiple folders at once in the Folders section in the Library, with options to perform things on the selected folders via the right-click menu: Remove from browser Delete from disk Remove from Favorites And if multiple folders are selected, maybe we could even show the combined set of images in the filmstrip. Different but related: an option to remove all Folders from browser that are no longer on disk, with one click.

Same masking tools for the clone stamp of "Spot Correct", like in the "Retouch" tool

I just wanted to stamp the area between the antenna and the wing in this butterfly shot. It can’t be addressed in the “Retouch” tool, as there is no area that has a “clean” background. That’s why it would be great to be able to use the great “paint: background” tool, that we now have in “Retouch” “

User Interface themes

I’m having trouble reading the text, as it is small and quite dim on my calibrated monitor (2560 × 1440 pixels). 'I suggest thinking about creating and making available several different themes: E.G., a ‘gray’ and a ‘light’ theme in addition to the ‘dark’ UI already available. Also, it would be advantageous to provide small, medium and large sized text. This is not a frivolous request, as I believe this software could have a very long life and predominate over its competition.