Manual Method

The Manual Method tab of the Align dialog box allows you to access controls that you can use to manually align images listed in the Selected Images list box to each other.  Through this tab, via the Adjust tool, you can access controls that allow you to manually shift an image horizontally and vertically, rotate it, and/or resize it to optimally align it with another image in the stack.  

This tab also allows you to view the shift x, shift y, rotation, and scale values currently defined for each image listed in the Selected Images list box.  Once defined, these will appear in a table in the large panel of the Manual Method tab.

In the table, row 1 corresponds to the first-listed frame/image in the Selected Images list box, row 2 corresponds to the second-listed frame/image in the stack, and so on.

Detailed descriptions of the tools on the Manual Method tab are provided below.

Reset:  Click this button to reset all translation, rotation, and scaling values for every image in the stack (i.e., every image listed in the Selected Image list box).  When you click this button the table of alignment values is displayed with all values set to their neutral value.

Adjust: This tool allows you to access controls that you can use to make manually translation, rotation, and scale adjustments to the images listed in the Selected Images list box in order to align them with other images listed in the Selected Image list box.  When you click on this tool, the Manual Alignment dialog box is displayed.

This dialog box always shows a comparison between two frames.  The two frames being compared are referenced above the Frame slider.  For instance, if it says, "Frame 1/2", it means it is showing a comparison of frames 1 and 2. Frames 1 and 2 are the first two frames/images listed in the Selected Images dialog box. Frames 2 and 3 are the second and third frames/images listed there, and so on.

The comparison between the two frames is rendered in the display area in one of four ways, depending on what is selected in the Composition pull-down list box. If the "Red Green Pseudo-color" option is selected, frame 1 is pseudo-colored green and frame 2 is pseudo-colored red. When they are superimposed on top of each other, the extent of the misalignment is apparent by the solid red and green pixels.

Being able to visualize the misalignment this way makes it easier to manually align the images.  Manually aligning the images is done using the Translation, Rotation, and Scale controls.  These controls act upon the second frame of the frames being compared.  You can use them to manually manipulate the second frame -- shifting it on its X and Y axes, rotating it, and/or resizing it -- whatever is necessary to align its depiction of the features of interest with the way they are rendered in the first frame.  As you change the Translation, Rotation, and Scale values, the comparison is updated to reflect the effect on the alignment.

Save:  Click this button to save the current set of alignment values to a file.  If the values represent alignment operations that can be applied to other frame sequences, they can be recalled later and applied to those frame sequences.

Load:  Click this button load a previously saved set of alignment values.