PhotoAcute Studio is a leading edge tool for enhancing digital photographs quality.

PhotoAcute Studio processes sets of photographs taken in continuous mode to produce high-resolution, low-noise pictures. It increases image resolution, removes noise without losing image details, corrects image geometry and chromatic aberrations and expands the dynamic range.

Some PhotoAcute Studio features are tuned for the particular camera models to achieve the best results. Usage of these features requires availability of the profile for the certain camera.

PhotoAcute Studio produces combined image from a sequence of continuous photographs, thus acquiring more graphic information than it is available from one photograph. Using sophisticated proprietary algorithms it combines the individual frames to produce one large-sized and high-quality image. Such technique is usually called "superresolution processing".

Unlike the digital zooming and image sharpening, resultant photographs produced by PhotoAcute Studio do really have higher spatial resolution.

Small, thin and far away objects, traceries, textures and inscriptions become recognizable.

PhotoAcute Studio superresolution algorithms are tuned for the particular camera/lens model to achieve maximum quality.

source photograph (one of a set): camera resolution was not enough to capture the brickwork pattern	the strong sharpening does not reveal more details	superresolution applied to the whole set of photographs: the pattern is much more apparent, as if it was captured by the camera with higher resolution	sharpening applied to the result of superresolution processing, for comparision with the sharpened original

Usage: Superresolution processing is performed when the Combined 2x output with superresolution mode is selected in the processing options dialog. Superresolution processing reqires the availability of the profile for the given camera model.

It is highly recommended to use high ISO levels (e.g. 400) for superresolution processing. Camera automatically uses long exposures when ISO is low, and it leads to handshaking artifacts, that can significantly decrease the level of detail of the picture. At the same time, the noise caused by high ISO can be efficiently reduced during superresolution processing.

More information:
Read more about superresolution
Measuring the increase of image resolution (on PhotoAcute site)

By combining several photographs PhotoAcute Studio automatically reduces the noise in the photographs.

The main problem of the usual noise reduction techniques is that the more noise is reduced - the more image details are lost. This becomes extremely apparent on the low light scenes (e.g. night photographs or shadowy parts of the scene).

PhotoAcute Studio provides high noise reduction without losing the image details.

source photograph (one of a set)	photograph, processed by the noise reduction utility (one of the leaders on the market)	whole set, processed by PhotoAcute Studio with NO superresolution

Usage: Noise reduction is performed automatically.

More information:
Read more about noise and its reduction

PhotoAcute Studio corrects geometric distortion, caused by the camera optics. This gives photographs right perspective and natural look.

Usage: Geometry correction is turned on/off by ticking the corresponding checkbox in the processing options dialog. This feature requires availability of the profile for the given camera model.

Every lens focuses the light of different wavelengths on different positions. This causes chromatic aberration that is seen as "fringes" of color around the image. PhotoAcute Studio corrects this aberration, minimizing the circle of confusion.

source photograph	color fringes	resultant photograph

Usage: Color fringing correction is turned on/off by ticking the corresponding checkbox in the processing options dialog.

More information:
Read more about chromatic aberrations

By using the advanced weighting technique, PhotoAcute Studio is able to restore shadows and clipped highlights from the photographs taken in exposure-bracketing mode. It produces the image that could only be taken with the camera that had much wider dynamic range.

This feature becomes especially handy for objects photographed on back-lit background (e.g. window, alight snow, direct sunlight), or scenes that have important details in the shadow.

highlights captured, shadows lost	shadows captured, highlights lost	both shadow and highlight details are visible

Usage: Dynamic range expansion is turned on/off by ticking the corresponding checkbox in the processing options dialog. It is recommended to use brightness equalization in conjunction with this mode.

More information:
Read more about dynamic range

This feature is used to reveal the details in the shadows without overexposing bright areas.

Usage: Brightness equalization is turned on/off by ticking the corresponding checkbox in the processing options dialog.

This is the basic use of PhotoAcute Studio.

There are two main parameters of the digital image, determining the quality: the spatial resolution and the noise. Using PhotoAcute Studio, you can get pictures with higher resolution and lower noise than your camera allows.

To do this, simply take continuous photographs (4 or more recommended) of the scene, transfer them to PC, load into PhotoAcute Studio and start processing.

Taking pictures in low light conditions (e.g. night photographs) usually requires using long exposures and high sensitivity levels.

While allowing photographing of low light scenes, long exposure leads to handshaking artifacts (the longer the photograph is being taken - the more the camera is displaced), while high sensitivity level results in high noise.

To take better photographs in low-light conditions:
1. Set normal exposure and high sensitivity (ISO) level.
2. Take several photographs in continuous mode.
3. Transfer the photographs to PC and process by PhotoAcute Studio.
4. Optionally, brightness equalization feature can be used to increase the brightness

PhotoAcute Studio will automatically combine photographs and remove the noise caused by high ISO. You will get clear image, as if you took the photograph using a tripod and the camera with the extremely good matrix.

Some scenes happen to be constantly overlapped with unwanted moving objects. For example, people walking in front of a sight.

With PhotoAcute Studio, you can take photograph of such scene, automatically clearing away the unneeded moving objects.

1. Take several photographs in continuous mode (not less than 5).
2. Load the photographs in PhotoAcute Studio.
3. Process the photographs, using "Remove moving objects from the scene" option.

When taking photographs of a scene, containing both shadow and highlight objects (e.g., dark object on back-lit background), it is always a problem to capture both shadow and highlight details. Adjusting the camera settings to capture highlight details will result in losing shadow details and vice versa.

PhotoAcute Studio allows you to capture both shadow and highlight details.

1. Take several photographs in exposure bracketing mode.
2. Load the photographs in PhotoAcute Studio.
3. Process the photographs, using "Expand dynamic range" and "Equalize brightness" options.

Switch your camera to continuous mode. Please refer to your camera manual to find out how to do this (note that it may be also called as "burst" or "sequence" mode).
Choose a stationary scene and take a series of photographs.

This is usually done using cable connection to PC or reading the photographs from the memory card by a card reader.
Please refer to your camera manual or consult camera manufacturer/distributor for more information about transferring the photographs to PC.

Once transferred to PC, the photographs can be loaded into PhotoAcute Studio by clicking Open button and selecting the files, or by dragging and dropping the files from Windows Explorer to PhotoAcute Studio window.

Click Start button to open the processing options dialog and start the processing.
For the first-time usage you can use the default options. By default, PhotoAcute Studio will apply superresolution and correct image geometry (if the camera profile is available).

Once the processing is successfully completed, PhotoAcute Studio switches to the tiled mode, displaying one of the original images and the resultant image side by side.
When you drag one of the images (by mouse), the other one is moved correspondingly. You can drag single image without moving the other one by pressing [Ctrl] key while dragging.

Select the resultant photograph in the list and click Save button. Saving is available only in registered version.

To load pictures into PhotoAcute Studio, you can either:
• Click Open button and select files
or
• Drag the image files from Windows Explorer and drop them to PhotoAcute Studio window.

Sequential images, exported from PhotoAcute Mobile 2.x are associated with PhotoAcute Studio and can be opened by double-clicking them in Windows Explorer.

To remove the image from list, select it and click Close button.

RAW Images loading

PhotoAcute Studio supports Digital Negative (DNG) image format.

In order to read other RAW image formats you have to install "Adobe DNG Converter" utility (freeware) from Adobe.

You can download this utility from the following link:
DNG_Camera_Raw_3_4.zip

Unpack "Adobe DNG Converter.exe" from the archive and place it in the directory where PhotoAcute Studio is installed.

Click here to read Adobe DNG Converter license agreement

Viewing RAW Images

Previews of RAW data displayed in PhotoAcute Studio are calculated with default parameters. Have no worries about improper white balance or absence of control over image parameters, this is a RAW-in - RAW-out type of processing. You will be able to tweak all parameters of the final result later in your favorite RAW converter.

The Processing options dialog appears each time before starting the processing. You can either click Ok to proceed, or change the options.


Default settings are usually good for general shooting situations. So, if you're unsure of what the settings should be, just click Ok and give it a try.

Camera model and the focal length at which photographs were taken are displayed in the top left corner of the dialog. Camera model can be changed manually in Settings. For the cameras with interchangeable optics an additional selection list can appear. It is displayed when lens type cannot be detected automatically from EXIF data or a number of lenses has the same focal range.

Combined 2x output with superresolution
Normal operation of the program. The output is a single superresolution image resolved from a set of input photographs.

Combined 1x output (no superresolution, noise reduction only)
The resultant image size equals to the size of input photographs. This mode does not provide the superresolution, but is useful to greatly reduce noise with no loss in details.

Output individual aligned images
Only the highly precise alignment of the input images is performed in this mode.

Auto-crop output
Automatically trim output image to avoid artifacts on the edges.

Correct image geometry
The program will fix lens-specific geometry distortions, camera-model dependent.

Fix color fringing (chromatic aberrations)
Use this option if you see color fringing around contrast edges. Usually you'll want to leave this feature turned off, as it will slow-down the normal processing.

Expand dynamic range
This option makes sense for a series of exposure-bracketed photographs, where some objects are overexposed in some photographs and/or some objects are underexposed in other photographs. More useful results are produced when 'Equalize brightness' option is turned on.

Equalize brightness
Used to reveal the details in the shadows without overexposing bright areas.

Messages
Please pay attention to the message area below the progress bar. When attempting to perform an action that cannot be done with the current set of images (e.g. removing moving objects with just 2 photographs in the set) the corresponding message will appear in red.

On the right pane either the currently selected image or all the marked images (in Tiled mode) are displayed.

The thumbnail of currently selected image is displayed in the bottom of PhotoAcute Studio window. The red rectangle in the thumbnail designates the area being shown in the right pane. You can drag this rectangle to scroll the image.

Tiled mode

PhotoAcute Studio provides you with an easy and effective method of comparing the result to the original images.
Mark the resultant photograph and one or more original photographs in the photographs list and check the "Tile" box. The source photographs will appear in the View Area along with the resultant photograph. Source photographs are scaled to the size of the resultant photograph.
You can drag the images with the mouse. When you drag one of the images, all images move together so that you can easily compare the matching areas of the images.
Adjust individual images by dragging them holding [Ctrl] key pressed.
Use mouse wheel or scale listbox to change scale.

By default, the images are scaled using the fastest yet less accurate algorithm - "nearest neighbour" interpolation.
You can change it by altering Interpolation option in Settings.

Viewing RAW Images

Previews of RAW data displayed in PhotoAcute Studio are calculated with default parameters. Have no worries about improper white balance or absence of control over image parameters, this is a RAW-in - RAW-out type of processing. You will be able to tweak all parameters of the final result later in your favorite RAW converter.

To save the resultant image, select it in the list and click SAVE button. Saving the resultant images is available only after registering the application.

To open the Settings window, click SETTINGS button.

It is highly recommended to use high ISO levels (e.g. 400) for superresolution processing. Camera automatically uses long exposures when ISO is low, and it leads to handshaking artifacts, that can significantly decrease the level of detail of the image. At the same time, the noise caused by high ISO can be efficiently reduced during superresolution processing.

There is yet another reason to use high ISO when performing superresolution. Most consumer-level and some pro- cameras have built-in sharpening, that is turned on at low ISO. This sharpening is very simple and imprecise. Unwanted artifacts (oversharpening halos) and the loss of some details may appear in the final result.

Images are aligned automatically, it means that you do not have to be rock-solid while taking them.

The following keyboard shortcuts are available:

F1	Help page
O	Open images
S	Save selected images
Del	Remove images from the list
E	Edit Settings
G	Start Processing
T	Toggle Tiled Mode
F	Fit image(s) to window
+	Increase scale
-	Decrease scale

Trial mode of PhotoAcute Studio allows you to use all the image processing features in full.
Trial mode is time-unlimited.
The only limitation of the trial mode is that saving the resultant images is disabled.

To obtain the registration code online, please refer to:
http://www.photoacute.com/studio/order.html

Upon obtaining the registration code, click SETTINGS button, then Registration button. Enter the name and registration code in Registration window.

The resolution (commonly means spatial resolution) of a camera determines the smallness of image details it can capture.
The higher resolution - the more details the image contains (smaller details are apparent), and the larger size pictures can be printed.
Read more about image resolution at dpreview.com
Read about effective resolution measurement at imatest.com

Superresolution is the method of enhancing the resolution of an image or of an optical system.
This can be done by either acquiring more graphic information (e.g. taking and merging several images of the same object) or by reconstructing the details lost due to the faultiness of the optical system (applying the knowledge of the optical system properties).
PhotoAcute Studio uses both ways to achieve the maximum image quality. It also enhances the dynamic range and the tonal range as well as the spatial resolution.
Read more about superresolution at Wikipedia

The image noise is the additional signal, generated by the electrical activity in the sensor.
Noise is mostly visible on the uniform surfaces (like blue skies).
Noise increases with sensitivity (ISO), exposure and temperature.

The main problem of the noise reduction is that due to the impossibility of exact division of image data to useful signal and noise, the noise reduction leads to the loss of image details. This becomes mostly apparent in low-lit areas of the image, where details are indistinguishable in noise, and the noise reduction removes both the noise and those details.
The noise reduction feature of PhotoAcute Studio, based on combining several photographs of the same scene, reduces the noise while leaving the image details.
Read more about the image noise at dpreview.com
Read more about the noise reduction at dpreview.com

Every lens, to a greater or lesser extent, focuses the light of different wavelengths onto different focal planes and magnifies it differently. This causes, correspondingly, the so-called "Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations" and "Lateral Chromatic Aberrations". Chromatic aberrations are visible as the fringes of color at the contrasty edges.
Read more about chromatic aberrations at dpreview.com

Dynamic range (or luminosity range) of the scene is the ratio between the largest and the smallest values of luminosity in the scene. Dynamic range of a sensor is the ratio between the largest and the smallest signal it can generate. When the dynamic range of the camera is not enough to capture the dynamic range of the scene, shadow or/and highlight details are lost (clipped).

The exposure determines the amount of light, received by the sensor. It is the combination of the duration (shutter speed) and the width (aperture) of diaphragm opening.
Read more about exposure at dpreview.com

ISO indicates the camera sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity - the less light is needed to capture the scene. High ISO allows taking photographs in low-light conditions and using faster shutter speed to avoid handshaking artifacts. However, since the higher sensitivity is achieved by amplifying the sensor's output, it leads to an increase of the noise.
PhotoAcute Studio highly suppresses the noise when processing a set of continuous photographs, thus eliminating the problem of high ISO, allowing its usage for low-light scenes capturing and taking sharp photographs with fast shutter speed.
Read more about sensitivity at dpreview.com

Continuous mode (also called burst or sequential mode) is the camera mode, when the images are taken immediately one after another.
Different cameras provide different speed of taking continuous photographs (frames per second or "fps") and maximum number of photographs in one sequence.
Some cameras are capable of taking and saving continuous photographs only in JPEG format, while the others are capable of taking continuous photographs in RAW.
A number of modern mobile phones support continuous mode.
Read more about continuous mode at dpreview.com

Exposure bracketing is a technique of taking several photographs of the same scene with different exposures.
Bracketing is used when it is difficult to obtain good image from single shot, e.g. when the scene has both very dark and very light areas (the dynamic range of the scene is much wider than the dynamic range of the camera).
The photographs taken in exposure bracketing mode can also be combined together into one image with both dark and light areas normally exposed (the dynamic range of the image becomes therefore wider than the camera can capture).
Read more about exposure bracketing at dpreview.com

Interpolation is the method used to scale the image to the different size.
Nearest neighbour is the method of interpolation, which simply enlarges each pixel (when upscaling the image) or throws some pixels away (when downscaling the image). This method is very fast, but produces rough, pixelized image.
Bicubic interpolation computes each pixel color as weighted average of the nearest 16 pixels. This method provides smoother edges but is slower than the nearest neighbour method.

Two PhotoAcute Studio features - superresolution processing and geometry correction are tuned for particular camera/lens models.
To apply these features for processing certain photographs, the application needs the information about the properties of the camera model which was used to take these photographs.
This information is stored in the so-called camera profiles. The camera profile is a .dll file, which is placed into PhotoAcute Studio installation folder and loaded automatically at application startup.
Profiles are available for download at http://www.photoacute.com/studio/download.html

The image data in RAW format contain the image information as it comes from the sensor. Comparing to JPEG format, the RAW format provides more graphic data that can be used for applying sophisticated processing and thus producing high quality picture.
Read more about RAW at dpreview.com