Auto focus stack from darktable

nwinspeare · October 17, 2024, 5:16pm

Hello,
I’m trying out the lua scripts to focus stack images using some of the most common apps around. I’m on an 2019 Mac Intel.
I can’t get to the end of a single script without a problem!

a) Using imagestack : the images are created, aligned and then I get the following error in the log :

Run called

Inner 1024 16357376: 512 5728 - 512 3648

Starting 1024: 512 5728 - 512 3648

Starting 512: 512 5728 - 512 3648

Starting 256: 0 5728 - 0 3648

Starting 128: 0 5984 - 0 3904

Starting 64: 0 6112 - 0 4032

Starting 32: 0 6176 - 0 4096

Starting 16: 0 6176 - 0 4096

Starting 8: 0 6176 - 0 4096

Starting 4: 0 6184 - 0 4104

Starting 2: 0 6184 - 0 4104

Starting 1: 0 6186 - 0 4106

Set crop size to 0,0,6187,4107

Written aligned images to files with prefix "/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_"

185,2827 LUA image list is '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (45) X-H2S.jpg' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (46) X-H2S.jpg' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (47) X-H2S.jpg' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (48) X-H2S.jpg' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (49) X-H2S.jpg'

185,3150 LUA convert command is '/usr/local/Cellar/imagemagick/7.1.1-39/bin/magick' -quiet -define tiff:ignore-tags=40965,42032,42033,42034,42036,18246,18249,36867,34864,34866 '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0000.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0001.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0002.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0003.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0004.tif' -evaluate-sequence Mean '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (45) X-H2S-2024-10-16-12h20min30s (49) X-H2S.jpg'

magick: The value of field_readcount and field_writecount must be greater than or equal to -3 and not zero.. `TIFFMergeFieldInfo' @ error/tiff.c/TIFFErrors/592.

185,3445 LUA image list is '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0000.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0001.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0002.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0003.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_0004.tif'

I can’t find anything about field_readcount and field_writecount…

b) focus-stack (FOSS)
Dowloaded and setup the app. Works fine from a list of exported jpg or tif files. Result not as clean as helicon. Can’t find a lua script to create temp files, stitch and reimport.

c) Helicon.
I use the heliconfocus.lua script from GitHub - ChristianBirzer/darktable_extra_scripts: Additional lua scripts for darktable that won't be included in the official repository or only tailored for my own personal needs
Works fine, files saved to a tmp folder, list of input and output files is correct, helicon launches and the outputs are saved.
Problem : unless the output files are saved into the source folder, the file is not copied back into the source image folder. I have a skull in the lighttable “the file is unavailable”
Here is the end of the lua log

 1309,7415 LUA commandline: '/Applications/HeliconFocus.app/Contents/MacOS/HeliconFocus' -i '/tmp/lua_8leFuNdarktable/inputfiles.txt' -o '/tmp/lua_8leFuNdarktable/outfiles.txt' --preferred-output-path '/Volumes/Crucial/photos/shoots/2024/10/16'
  1309,7415 LUA starting helicon
2024-10-17 18:24:35.781 HeliconFocus[36309:6211633] +[IMKClient subclass]: chose IMKClient_Legacy
2024-10-17 18:24:35.781 HeliconFocus[36309:6211633] +[IMKInputSession subclass]: chose IMKInputSession_Legacy
2024-10-17 18:24:42.920 HeliconFocus[36309:6211633] The class 'NSSavePanel' overrides the method identifier.  This method is implemented by class 'NSWindow'
  1340,3126 LUA helicon returned 0
  1340,3127 LUA helicon wrote file /tmp/lua_8leFuNdarktable/2024-10-16-12h20min30s (48) X-H2S(C,S4).tif
  1340,3589 LUA group with: 2024-10-16-12h20min30s (45) X-H2S.RAF
  1340,3589 LUA stacking: 2024-10-16-12h20min30s (48) X-H2S(C,S4).tif to 2024-10-16-12h20min30s (45) X-H2S.RAF

d) Zerene Stacker
Script found here : GitHub - fjb2020/darktable-scripts: Some Lua scripts for darktable

In the lua options, there is a config folder called Zerene Licence folder but I do not know what it refers to.
The script exports correctly, opens Zerene and I get an error related to the ZereneBatch.xml file and referring to the Stacker Staging folder.

e) EnfusedAdvanced
Script crashed with this log

    85,8584 LUA AIS decimaal sanitized command is '/Applications/Hugin/Hugin.app/Contents/MacOS/align_image_stack' --corr=0.8 -g 5 -t 3 -c 8 -a '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-14h24min12s (92) X-H2S.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-14h24min12s (94) X-H2S.tif' '/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/2024-10-16-14h24min12s (93) X-H2S.tif'
WARNING: Spread of exposure values is very small.
         Disabling sorting images by exposure value.

Written aligned images to files with prefix "/private/var/folders/c9/klvhmjj53sb95vs400xs7sh40000gp/T/aligned_"
    97,9924 LUA ERROR : ...rs/nick/.config/darktable/lua/contrib/enfuseAdvanced.lua:321: attempt to compare nil with number
stack traceback:
	[C]: in metamethod 'lt'
	...rs/nick/.config/darktable/lua/contrib/enfuseAdvanced.lua:321: in upvalue 'UpdateENFargs'
	...rs/nick/.config/darktable/lua/contrib/enfuseAdvanced.lua:469: in function <...rs/nick/.config/darktable/lua/contrib/enfuseAdvanced.lua:425>
darktable(36573,0x700006d23000) malloc: *** error for object 0x60000786e100: pointer being freed was not allocated
darktable(36573,0x700006d23000) malloc: *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
Abort trap: 6

A problem with memory allocation ?

So there we are, not a very successful afternoon!
The only clue I have is that Imagemagick is not enabled on startup, it is installed however (with brew).

  Bit depth              -> 64 bit
  Debug                  -> DISABLED
  SSE2 optimizations     -> ENABLED
  OpenMP                 -> ENABLED
  OpenCL                 -> ENABLED
  Lua                    -> ENABLED  - API version 9.4.0
  Colord                 -> DISABLED
  gPhoto2                -> ENABLED
  GMIC                   -> ENABLED  - Compressed LUTs are supported
  GraphicsMagick         -> ENABLED
  ImageMagick            -> DISABLED
  libavif                -> ENABLED
  libheif                -> ENABLED
  libjxl                 -> ENABLED
  LibRaw                 -> ENABLED  - Version 0.22.0-Devel202403
  OpenJPEG               -> ENABLED
  OpenEXR                -> ENABLED
  WebP                   -> ENABLED

Any help would be useful!
I started trying out these scripts for a tutorial I’m preparing on focus stacking with darktable… I think it is still some way off !

Best regards to all,

Nicolas

wpferguson · October 17, 2024, 5:57pm

image_stack doesn’t do focus stacking. Which operation did you choose?

Can you give me the information on focus-stack?

How many images did you have selected when you ran enfuseAdvanced?

Can you provide me the images (or some of them) that you were using?

nwinspeare · October 17, 2024, 8:27pm

Thanks for your reply Bill,
Read your script description too fast after trying all the other solutions. Probably a bit desperate for a success!
I’ve tried 3,5 and 10 images with mean,median and abs.
I’d like to get that script up and running, could be useful to remove people from a scene if I now understand correctly what it is for.

Tried something different with (c) Helicon. If I save the output tifs in a “final” folder (not in the tmp/ with the working files), they get imported back into the lighttable and all is fine. I can move them afterwards to their definitive place.

Here are 5 files from a stack I’m using to test, all licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

2024-10-16-14h24min12s (94) X-H2S.RAF (22.9 MB)
2024-10-16-14h24min12s (93) X-H2S.RAF (22.9 MB)
2024-10-16-14h24min12s (92) X-H2S.RAF (22.9 MB)
2024-10-16-14h24min12s (91) X-H2S.RAF (22.9 MB)
2024-10-16-14h24min12s (90) X-H2S.RAF (22.9 MB)