Tools for processing macro photography images
This repository houses a command line tool for processing macro-photographic images. The emphasis here is on effective (scripted) processing of images that form focus stacks, Multi Light Image Collections (MLICs) and panorama tiles. Everything relies on open source image processing tools and a UNIX like operating system (e.g. Linux) or a compatilbility layer (e.g. WSL) is assumed.
Tested under Python 3.8.10
Python packages: numpy, scikit-learn, cv2
enfuse (a command line HDR and focus merging program)
focus-stack (an advanced command line alignment and focus merging program)
Hugin (for panoramic stitching, bundles all necessary PanoTools programs)
Relight (optional, only needed for photometric stereo (of MLICs) for creating light point files through highlight detection on spheres)
The main paradigm of this tool is that images are organized in directories, reflecting their role.
- all images forming a panorama are located in one directory
- all images forming a focus stack are in one directory
- all images forming a Multi Light Image Collection (MLIC) are in one directory
Multiple commands are bundled within one command line program – the python file focus-pano.py.
To make effective use of the program without pointing to the location of the .py file, it is possible to create a shell alias.
The retrieval of normal maps works through photometric stereo, for which there are multiple implementations varying in their ability to process images of reflective surfaces. The python implementation of RobustPhotometricStereo is forms the basis of the normalmapper command. The files psutil.py, rps.py and rpsnumerics.py were directly retrieved from the respective repository.