Macro Studio vs Shine Stacker

Macro Studio is desktop software for focus stacking and non-destructive editing in macro photography. It analyzes focus-bracket images and merges their sharp areas into one image, with automatic alignment and batch processing listed. The editor includes adjustments, masks, retouching, cropping, image comparison, and watermarks; it also supports RAW files and TIFF, JPEG, and DNG output. AI-assisted tools provide subject masks, species identification, and draft social posts. Macro Studio runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Listed integrations include Adobe Bridge, Lightroom Classic, DxO PhotoLab, and ON1 Photo RAW. Its Lightroom plugin works with Lightroom Classic, not the cloud-based Lightroom app. The maker says photos stay on the user's machine and are not used to train AI. The Macro Studio 2026 license is $59.00 USD as a one-time purchase, with a launch price shown as reduced from $99. It includes all features, use on up to three machines, and updates within the 2026 version. Free trials are invite-only, last 30 days, and unlock every feature.

Shine Stacker combines images captured at different focus distances to produce images with extended depth of field. It is intended for microscopy, macro photography, and computational imaging. The software offers Laplacian pyramid and depth map stacking methods, with automatic alignment, color or luminosity balancing, noisy pixel masking, vignetting correction, and final filters. For retouching, users can select details from individual frames to address dust, ghosts, and artifacts. Batch workflows can divide many frames into smaller groups before merging them into one focused image. Python batch processing and Jupyter notebook scripting are supported. Shine Stacker supports RAW files and lists TIFF, JPEG, and multilayer TIFF as output formats. It is open source under the LGPL-3.0 license and free to download. The listed platforms are Windows, macOS, Linux, and API. The maker offers a GitHub download and Python installation through PyPI with pip.