What is the technique called when aligning and averaging multiple handheld photos to reduce noise?

Asked 3/12/2011

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I shot several noisy photos of the same scene without a tripod and want to combine them into one cleaner image. Because the frames do not line up perfectly, I would need to shift, rotate, or otherwise align them before averaging; otherwise the result will blur or ghost. What is this process called?

image-stacking post-processing image-alignment noise-reduction

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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The answer you are looking for is Image Aligning.

When you merge images for HDR on Photoshop, there is an optional 'Automatically Align Images'. The same option exist in several cameras with built-in HDR capabilities.

It is also sometimes called Image Registration but that term is overloaded as it has other meanings, for example relative to copyright.

Stacking, HDR Merging, Exposure Blending are what you do with images that are aligned already.

Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1620

15y ago

AI Answer

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The alignment step is usually called image alignment or image registration. After that, combining the frames is commonly called stacking (often with averaging to reduce noise).

So for your use case, the full workflow is essentially aligning/registering the images, then stacking/averaging them.

Related terms depend on the purpose:

HDR merging or exposure blending: combining aligned images with different exposures
Focus stacking: combining aligned images with different focus distances

For multiple handheld shots of the same scene to reduce noise, the most accurate terms are image alignment plus stacking.

What is the technique called when aligning and averaging multiple handheld photos to reduce noise?

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