| Blessed art those who read thy documentation and thy FAQ to completion, followed by dutiful attention to thy tutorials. |
The documentation can be downloaded in HTML format on the program's website (see the documentation front page for the URL).
There are multiple versions of the program corresponding to various architectures and Mac OS versions. Note whether you are attempting to run on a PPC or Intel mac and whether you are attempting to run on OS 10.4 and below or on OS 10.5 and above. Then check the version of the program you are attempting to run by selecting the application in the Finder, choosing Get Info under the File menu, and looking at the Version string of the info box. If the program does not specify the correct architecture/OS combination, download the correct version of the program (see the documentation front page for the URL) and try again.
If the problem persists with the correct version of the program, contact me. Maybe we can sort it out together. My contact information is on the documentation front page.
Images come in two forms, individual image files and Quicktime movies. Either kind can be drag-and-dropped onto the application's icon in the Finder or in the Dock, and either kind can be opened via the relevant menu option under the File menu.
Have you read the RAW image documentation yet, as referenced from the documentation front page?
There are two forms of image alignment: translational (sliding around) and rotational. Translational alignment can be done in three different ways: difference, centroid, and cross-correlation. If you want to keep things simple, just use the difference method and don't sweat the details. Rotational alignment can only be done using the difference method.
The first thing to do is define an Operation Bounds Rect. This is a rectangle that specifies an area where the frame being aligned will be compared to the reference frame (the first frame in the Clips Window). Start by making sure no clips are selected (Deselect All from the Edit menu). Then shift-click one clip. Conventionally one would use the reference frame, so shift-click the first clip in the Clips Window. Move to the Frame Inspector Window. If it is blank, you don't have exactly one frame selected. Try again. Otherwise, click-drag a rectangle in the Frame Inspector Window to define the Operation Bounds Rect. I recommended that you keep the Operator Bounds Rect small (to speed the alignment process up) and include edges and other interesting areas of the image in the Operation Bounds Rect (this will make alignment perform better).
Now you are ready to align the frames. Deselect all the frames (Edit menu). To align a single frame, hold down the '1' key (large distance difference alignment) and click one clip in the Clips Window. It will autoalign. If the alignment isn't very good, give a second or third try, it may converge on the proper alignment over a series of repeated attempts. Alternatively, you might consider defining a different Operation Bounds Rect or manually nudging the clip closer into alignment (sloppily and quickly) before running autoalignment again.
To align multiple frames at once, shift-click or shift-click-drag a selection of clips in the Clips Window. To align all the frames choose Select All from the Edit menu. In either case, multiple or all, hold down the '1' key and click on any selected clip. They will all autoalign.
To perform rotational autoalignment, use the '6' key. Rotational autoalignment will align minor rotational misalignments better if the Operation Bounds Rect is not near the center of the image. Think about it, it makes sense.
Have you read the dynamic range documentation yet, as referenced from the documentation front page?
It is true, the number key commands are rather confusing. My apologies. Let's go through it slowly.
All number key commands use the same basic interaction: you press and hold down a number key. Then, while the number key is down, you perform a second operation (mouse click or tapping a second key for example). This behavior is similar for some other keys as well. For example, to delete a clip you hold down the 'D' key and then click a clip with the mouse. So the question is, what are the commands that can be performed with the number keys?
Let's consider autoalignment first. Make sure no clips are selected (Deselect All from the Edit menu). Hold down the '1' key and then click a clip in the Clips Window. A translational autoalignment using the difference method is performed. This is also true for the '2' and '3' keys. The only difference is the distance over which the three numbers autoalign the fastest. '1' is fastest on 15+ pixel misalignments, '2' is fastest on 5-15 pixel misalignments, and '3' is fastest on 0-5 pixel alignments.
To autoalign multiple clips at once, select them by shift-clicking or shift-click-dragging a set of clips. Hold down the '1' key and click any selected clip. All selected clips will then be autoaligned.
The '4' and '5' keys also perform translational autoalignments and work exactly like the '1', '2' and '3' keys: hold '4' down and click a clip or any one of a selected group of clips. '4' uses the centroid method and '5' uses the cross-correlation method. If having five options for translational autoalignment confuses and bothers you then simply ignore all of them except the '1' key method. It is simple and staightforward and will handle almost any situation adequately.
The '6', '7', and '8' keys perform rotational autoalignment and work just like the three difference-based translational alignments, with '6' being fastest for large misalignments and '8' being fastest for small misalignments. Again, if this is too complicated, just use '6' all the time.
The number keys are also used for red/green/blue individual channel alignment when manually translationally nudging clips. To nudge just the red channel of a clip, select Align RGB Channels Separately from the Operations menu. Deselect all clips. Then hover the mouse over any clip in the Clips Window. It is not necessary to press the mouse button. Now, hold down the '1' key and tap an arrow key. The red channel will be nudged. Hold down the arrow key to continuously nudge the red channel. '2' nudges green and '3' nudges blue. This works with a selection of clips just as you would expect. By the way, separate RGB nudging also works on the final stack, not just the clips prior to stacking. Try it.
Observe that these number/key mappings (1:red, 2:green, 3:blue) also match the options in the View menu for viewing channels of the stack individually (this only works on the stack, not the clips). This similar number/key mapping is intentional and should assist comprehension.
To see your stack in other environments such as other image processing programs or on the web, you will need to convert it to a conventional image format such as tiff or jpeg (there are literally thousands of image formats). To do this, save the stack as PICT. Then open the PICT with Preview, which is a free program provided by Apple. You can find it in your Applications folder. Once the PICT is opened in Preview, choose Save As and convert it to the format of your choice.
The problem is, all conventional image formats are 32 bit, 8 bits per red/green/blue component and 8 bits unused (or used for the alpha channel). Your stack will probably have a much greater dynamic range than this and saving to PICT destroys that information. To save your stack with all of its information perfectly intact you should save it as FITS or RAW, both of which can perfectly preserve your stack without any loss. The cost, of course, is that not very many programs can open FITS or RAW files, and even programs that can open some FITS or RAW files may not open them all. For example, some programs can open 16-bit-per-component RAW files, but Keith's Image Stacker can read and write both 16- and 32-bit-per-component files.
Here's what you should do. Save your precious processed stack as FITS or RAW and archive it forever so you can come back to it with Keith's Image Stacker anytime you want without suffering any loss of quality. Then, additionally, save your stack as PICT and convert it to jpeg for viewing on the web.
The menus provide commands for Dark Frames, Hot Pixel masks, Fourier thingies, Wavelet something-or-others, and generally lots of fancy technical sounding stuff. If you want to know what they're about you must read the documentation (and probably need to learn more about astrophotography in general). On the other hand, if you don't already know what these commands are for then you probably don't need to understand them. They are rarely required, instead offering improved results at the power-user level, so just ignore them. When you become a totally leet user and are ready to expand your horizons, they will be there waiting for you, with associated documentation.
Figure out how to align a set of images and generate a stack. That's 90% of image stacking as a whole. Then learn about dark frames, and maybe, just maybe, about flat fields. Then, when you're ready, read about all the other stuff.
Four sorting methods are provided: difference, value, value range, and power spectrum distribution. Although the menu options provide a description of each, they don't actually prescribe one over the others. Bottom line, under most circumstances, sorting by power spectrum distribution is the best idea since it favors in-focus images over out-of-focus images. However, it is also the most complicated since it involves a user interface which must be used properly to get good results. To prevent noisy images from being preferred, pull the high frequency cutoff down to remove high frequency noisy grain from ruining the sorting results.
Sorting by Power Spectrum distribution requires an Operation Bounds Rect that is a perfect square with sides of length 32, 64, 128, or 256 pixels. No other Operations Bounds Rect is permitted for sorting by this method. To create such an Operation Bounds Rect, set the desired size from the corresponding submenu of the Operations menu. Then, while defining an Operation Bounds Rect, hold down the Control key. You will get a perfect pow-2 square that you can place anywhere you want in the frame. Note that if you move too close to the edge of the image, the square will disappear until you move back toward the center.
If you want to keep things simple, ignore this menu forever, although learning a little about it may help you speed the program up significantly.
If you are ready to learn the way of the thread, then read the relevant documentation, as referenced from the documentation front page. You will want to understand concepts like multi-processor and multi-core before attempting to use threads. Otherwise save yourself the trouble and leave it alone.
Grrr, my apologies. Please contact me and let me know about the problem. My contact information is on the documentation front page. It would greatly assist me if you could characterize the bug as precisely as possible. What is the minimal circumstance under which it occurs (minimum number of images brought into the workspace, minimum number of operations performed to trigger the bug, that kind of thing). If you can generate a perfectly reproducible, yet relatively small, example, and wouldn't mind sending me the input images and a description of how to reproduce the bug, I would greatly appreciate it. Lastly, please tell me your system configuration (PPC/Intel, OS X version, Keith's Image Stacker version). Thanks.
First, have you read the documentation and worked through the tutorials? Yes? That's a great start, I am truly sorry you are having trouble. I am always welcome to questions by email and will attempt to help in any way I can, but I reserve the right to respond in a condescending tone if the answer is in the docs. You can find my contact information on the front page of the documentation.
I would consider it, although I don't make much money off this program so my time is hardly justified...In fact, I probably won't do it. The program is getting pretty old and mere maintenance is justified at this point. A complete rewrite is in order, but I'm doubtful that I will ever invest the time and effort. Sorry.
Ask your question on one of the many astrophotography discussion groups. I don't have time for this kind of nonsense.