Zeren Stacker Sales

georgetsmurf · Post by **georgetsmurf** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 9:57 pm

I have currently a trial version of Zerene Stacker but am rapidly nearing the end of the trial period without getting much use as my setup as been held up because of other bits that have been ordered (eg a shutter remote for my D300s ordered in December) and not turning up. Is there a recommended website to purchase Zerene from or should I just hunt around? It seems that there are lots of sites offering the program?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 10:51 pm

Hi. I'm the author of Zerene Stacker, and I assure you that you should pay a lot of attention to what it says at the product's home page at
http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/:

What about “shareware” versions?

No, you really don’t want those. Pirated versions of Zerene Stacker can be found these days on lots of “shareware” sites. But don’t be fooled. Those sites are in the business of ripping us all off. Despite their assurances, the versions that they offer contain stolen keys, are NOT full functionality, are not eligible for future upgrades, and may even come equipped with malware added by the pirates for their own purposes. If you send them money, you lose it. The only versions of Zerene Stacker that we can stand behind are the ones you download from Zerene Systems’ own web site, and licenses purchased through us and our reseller Plimus.

The short story here is that some unknown hacker decided to add Zerene Stacker to what seems to be a "most popular hits list" of the software pirates' community. The product was still in free beta when it started appearing on a couple of hundred "shareware" sites that I had no relationship with. Shortly after the first licensed version appeared, somebody used a stolen credit card to buy a license key, then rebundled that key with my own installers and who knows what else, and pushed that version up to their own sites. When I brought out the next numbered version, the same thing happened. I have no idea what else is bundled with those versions. I do know that while merely trying to find out, and despite two layers of antivirus software on my own machines, I caught a nasty little sniffle that required several hours to get rid of.

I appreciate your desire to save a buck. Times are tight. But you get what you pay for. Sorry for the bad news.

To purchase a real license, go through http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/docs/P ... censes.php .

--Rik

georgetsmurf · Post by **georgetsmurf** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:38 am

Rik says

No, you really don’t want those. Pirated versions of Zerene Stacker can be found these days on lots of “shareware” sites.

Thanks for that Rik-I suspected as such. I have now purchased a version based on your instructions. All done.
Cheers George.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:52 am

Thanks, George. Most appreciated...

--Rik

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:47 pm

I'm trying the software but i can't select all pictures to load...it only lets me do one at a time? is this right?

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:10 am

Seeing how it's -11 out there and there isn't a bug in site I resorted to scavenging the basement for a subject...
I didn't know stacking was this easy now..here I've been doing it manually in layers all along....

all i can say is WOW..

WAY COOL!

here is my first shot with my dried bug..lol...what can I say..winter

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 1:08 am

SONYNUT wrote:all i can say is WOW.. WAY COOL!

Yep, this new technology will change your life.

I take it you got past the loading issue? The usual approach is to select the whole set in a file system browser and drag/drop them all at once into ZS. That lets you take advantage of image thumbnails as managed & shown by the operating system.

--Rik

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 1:14 am

no I loaded them on at a time....i couldn't c&p from outside browser either

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 1:37 am

Click on the first file to highlight it. Shift-click on the last file to highlight the whole bunch. Hover over any highlighted file, press the left mouse button and keep it depressed. Keeping the button depressed, move the mouse over the Input Files panel of ZS, where it initially says "Drop files here to begin". Then release the button. All the highlighted files will get added at one go.

You can do the same click & shift-click technique inside ZS's own file chooser, reached through File > Add File(s). In that case the files won't get highlighted, but they will all appear in the "File name:" list, from which they will all get added when you click Add.

If you still can't get it to work, send email to support@zerenesystems.com so we can figure out what's going wrong.

--Rik

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 1:40 am

got it...

...usually just highlight but hey this works too

thought you were going to bed...

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:38 pm

is it better to start stack process from front or rear image in the program?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:01 pm

Doesn't matter.

First thing the software does is to look at the images, figure out which end has the narrower field of view, and start stacking from that end. That avoids streaky edges. You can change settings and make it process in the reverse order, but aside from streaky edges that usually doesn't have any bad effect either.

In general, there's nothing in the software that uses the distinction between "foreground" and "background" -- everything is just based on what's sharper.

--Rik

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:26 pm

how do you judge were to set the slider?

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:14 pm

I presume you're asking about the "contrast threshold" slider that appears half-way through DMap.

A good rule of thumb is to slide it right until the preview image shows black everywhere there is out-of-focus background, except right next to in-focus subject. This is discussed further in the online documentation for DMap (HERE), and in more detail in the 2nd video tutorial on retouching (HERE).

--Rik

SONYNUT · Post by **SONYNUT** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:30 pm

THANKS