{"id":2404,"date":"2026-11-08T17:14:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T16:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/?p=2404"},"modified":"2026-11-08T17:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T16:17:12","slug":"aligning-photos-time-lapse-6-tools-5-different-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/aligning-photos-time-lapse-6-tools-5-different-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Aligning photos for a time-lapse: 6 tools tested on 5 different cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What I did.<\/strong> Six tools (Futura Time Lapse, Photoshop, Affinity, DaVinci Resolve, Fiji, Hugin) were run on five photo series, from 8 to 298 images, with their default settings. Alignment was measured by an independent program and checked by eye. I make Futura Time Lapse, so I have a stake in this; the protocol and all files are available.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No tool is good everywhere.<\/strong> The results mostly reflect what each tool was designed for: photo editing, microscopy, HDR, video or time-lapse.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Few photos, changing viewpoint (construction site, handheld).<\/strong> Photoshop and Futura Time Lapse do best. Photoshop is the most precise in daylight (0.20% median error against 0.39%); Futura Time Lapse and Affinity also align the night photos.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Seasons, with a building in frame.<\/strong> Futura Time Lapse, Photoshop and Affinity all align the series (0.28 to 0.45% median error).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No fixed landmark (foliage).<\/strong> No tool is reliable in automatic mode. Only Futura Time Lapse says which images failed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Long series (298 photos).<\/strong> Futura Time Lapse: 0.01% error in about 14 minutes. DaVinci Resolve with &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221;: 0.13%, in seconds. Hugin: 38 minutes, with drift. Photoshop: nothing after three hours.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Watch out for silent failures.<\/strong> Affinity returns the drone and foliage photos unchanged, without warning; Photoshop and Fiji do not report failures either.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Free options.<\/strong> Affinity for small series (check the result), DaVinci Resolve with &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221; for long, regular series.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">What I am trying to do here<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aligning the photos of a time-lapse means making sure that the same point of the scene stays exactly in the same place from one frame to the next. Without it, the video shakes, or the building you want to watch grow slides around the frame. The problem appears as soon as the camera has not stayed perfectly still: a tripod set up again at every site visit, handheld shots, a drone that never comes back to exactly the same spot, or simple drift over a long series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Several programs can do this, with very different approaches: photo editing (Photoshop, Affinity), scientific imaging (Fiji), panorama and bracketing tools (Hugin), video stabilization (DaVinci Resolve), or a tool built for time-lapse (Futura Time Lapse). Each of them is good at what it was designed for; none of them is good everywhere. My goal here is not to crown a winner. It is to show, series by series, which tool is useful for which kind of photos, and where each one reaches its limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Who is writing, and how I tried not to say just anything.<\/strong> I am the developer of Futura Time Lapse, one of the tools tested. I have an obvious interest, and I prefer to say so up front. So that the results can be checked rather than taken on trust:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>every tool received the same series, with its default settings, on the same PC;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>alignment is measured by a program independent of the tools tested, then checked by eye when the measurement is not enough;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the cases where Futura Time Lapse does worse than the others are reported as they are;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the protocol is described below, and the scripts, the measurement program and the output images are available on request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tests and measurements were carried out by an AI assistant (Claude), driving the software on my own PC on 7 and 8 November 2026. If you spot a mistake, or a setting that would change the conclusions, let me know: I will correct the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Six tools, six original purposes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before the numbers, some perspective. Most of the tools tested were not designed for time-lapse at all. Their alignment feature is a by-product of another job, and that job largely explains where they shine and where they struggle. None of the failures below is a sign of a &#8220;bad&#8221; program; they are signs of a program being used outside the job it was built for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Photoshop<\/strong> is built to edit one image, or a handful of layers, in great detail. Auto-Align exists for compositing: panoramas, group photos, focus or exposure stacks. Every photo becomes a layer of a single document held in memory. That is why it is very precise on a few images, and why hundreds of 16-megapixel layers are simply outside its design.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affinity<\/strong> belongs to the same family. Its stack feature is meant for bursts shot from a tripod, to reduce noise or remove passers-by: it expects nearly identical frames. When it cannot match images that are too different, it keeps them as they are, silently.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fiji (ImageJ)<\/strong> comes from microscopy. Its SIFT alignment assumes a sample under a microscope: constant lighting, shifts and rotations, no perspective, and the whole stack loaded into memory. Perspective changes and very large series are outside that frame.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hugin&#8217;s align_image_stack<\/strong> was written to align bracketed exposures for HDR, shot a few seconds apart from almost the same position. As soon as the images differ a lot (seasons, drone positions), it stops.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>DaVinci Resolve<\/strong> is a video editor. Its stabilizer tracks motion between consecutive frames of a continuous clip, where movements are small, and by default it smooths the camera path rather than locking it. That makes it fast and effective on a dense, real time-lapse once &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221; is on, and a poor fit for sparse photos with large jumps between them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Futura Time Lapse<\/strong> was built specifically for time-lapse: images spread over weeks or years, changing light, a camera that never returns to exactly the same place. That is why it reports which images failed and handles large volumes. It has its own limits too: it needs fixed landmarks (the foliage series defeats it), and it resamples its output to a fixed resolution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In other words, the results below are less a quality ranking than a measure of fit between a tool and a kind of series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Protocol<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each tool received the same five series, with its default settings, on the same Windows PC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tools tested<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Tool<\/th><th>Method used<\/th><th>How it was run<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/camerafutura.com\">Futura Time Lapse<\/a> (Avalonia version, Nov. 2026)<\/td><td>Automatic alignment, default &#8220;perspective&#8221; mode, 4K quality<\/td><td>Interface: pick a folder, then &#8220;Save aligned images&#8221;<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adobe.com\/products\/photoshop.html\">Adobe Photoshop<\/a> 2026<\/td><td>Layer stack + Auto-Align, &#8220;Auto&#8221; projection<\/td><td>ExtendScript script (load, align, export each layer)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.affinity.studio\">Affinity<\/a> (Canva, free version, Nov. 2026)<\/td><td>New Image Process &gt; Stack, &#8220;Automatically Align Images&#8221; in Perspective mode (on by default)<\/td><td>Interface: stack, ungroup, then export each layer by hand<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackmagicdesign.com\/products\/davinciresolve\">DaVinci Resolve<\/a> 21 (free version)<\/td><td>Color page &gt; Tracker &gt; Stabilizer, Perspective mode, default settings; then with &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221;<\/td><td>Interface: image sequence on a 3240 \u00d7 2160 timeline, stabilization, JPEG export (298-image series only)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/fiji.sc\">Fiji<\/a> (ImageJ 2.16.0, Java 21)<\/td><td>Linear Stack Alignment with SIFT, default rigid transformation<\/td><td>Fiji macro<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><a href=\"https:\/\/hugin.sourceforge.io\">Hugin<\/a> 2024.0.1 \u2013 align_image_stack<\/td><td>Default options, file order preserved<\/td><td>Command-line .bat file<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The five series<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Series<\/th><th>Photos<\/th><th>Size<\/th><th>Difficulty<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Construction<\/td><td>8<\/td><td>1024 px<\/td><td>Drone views taken on different dates from different positions<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Foliage<\/td><td>10<\/td><td>1024 px<\/td><td>A tree through the seasons, almost no fixed landmark<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Four seasons<\/td><td>27<\/td><td>4096 px<\/td><td>A chalet over 4 years: snow, fog, night, very different colours<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Perspective (&#8220;MatrixH&#8221;)<\/td><td>39<\/td><td>5568 px<\/td><td>A balcony shot handheld from different angles, from day to night<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Real case<\/td><td>298<\/td><td>4928 px<\/td><td>A real time-lapse of 300 16-megapixel images, small offsets between shots<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>How alignment is measured<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Residual error.<\/strong> For each aligned image, a program independent of the tools tested looks for common points with the first image of the series (SIFT + RANSAC, OpenCV). It derives the remaining offset, expressed as a % of the image width. 0.5% is about 25 px on a 5000 px image.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Stability.<\/strong> The same measurement between two consecutive images: this is the &#8220;jitter&#8221; visible in the video.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Visual check.<\/strong> When the measurement fails (light or season too different) or exceeds 0.5%, the image is checked on screen with a checkerboard mixing the image and the reference. Lines must stay continuous from one square to the next.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Useful area.<\/strong> Share of the original image kept in the area common to all images.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Time.<\/strong> Measured by the scripts when possible, otherwise read on screen (about \u00b120 s accuracy for FTL).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the 298-image series, the measurement uses a sample: one image in ten (one in fifteen for Hugin), plus ten consecutive images for stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Results by series<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Construction (8 drone views)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FTL and Photoshop align all 8 images; Affinity does not move them, Fiji stays approximate and Hugin gives up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Futura Time Lapse<\/strong>: 8\/8 aligned according to the software and the visual check. Residual error measurable on 2 images: 0.1%. About 12 s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Photoshop<\/strong>: 8\/8 aligned on visual check, measurable error 0.26%. Strong distortion at the image edges, canvas enlarged to 1200 \u00d7 901 px. 24 s, of which 2.4 s of alignment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affinity<\/strong>: 8 images produced without any error message, but identical to the originals: no alignment was applied. Stacking in under 10 s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fiji<\/strong>: the 7 images are visibly offset. The rigid transformation does not correct perspective. Measurable error 3.7%. 12 s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hugin<\/strong>: stops without producing any image (&#8220;only 5 control points left&#8221;). A single pair of images without enough points is enough to block the whole series.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Foliage (10 photos of a tree)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No tool delivers a series whose alignment can be verified. This is the hardest case of the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Futura Time Lapse<\/strong>: aligns 2 images out of 10 and explicitly reports that the other 8 could not be aligned. It then offers manual alignment (&#8220;Line them up&#8221;), not used here. The 8 unaligned images are exported unchanged into a subfolder.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Photoshop<\/strong> and <strong>Fiji<\/strong>: produce 10 transformed images, without any error message. The automatic measurement fails on 9 images out of 10. On visual check, the fence and the trunk stay roughly in place, with visible offsets on several images.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affinity<\/strong>: same behaviour as on the Construction series. The 10 images come out unchanged, without warning. Stacking in 15 s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hugin<\/strong>: stops without any image (0 control points).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Four seasons (27 photos of a chalet)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FTL, Photoshop and Affinity align almost all 27 images; Fiji misses a few and Hugin fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Futura Time Lapse<\/strong>: 27\/27 aligned according to the software and the visual check, snow and night included. Measurable median error 0.45%. About 1 min 30 to 2 min. Useful area: 50%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Photoshop<\/strong>: median error 0.28% on measurable images. One image clearly offset, a few night or fog images approximate. 2 min 22 s, of which 28 s of alignment. Useful area: 55%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affinity<\/strong>: 27\/27 in place on visual check, snow and night included. Measurable median error 0.43%, one night fog image measured at 2%. Stacking and alignment in about 1 min 20, then 27 manual exports (about 11 s each). Useful area: 59%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fiji<\/strong>: most images are in place, but several show visible offsets (up to 3.4% at the 90th percentile). 66 s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hugin<\/strong>: the series is produced, but the median error is 11.7%: images rotated or shifted. 44 s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Perspective &#8220;MatrixH&#8221; (39 photos, from day to night)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Photoshop is the most accurate in daylight; FTL and Affinity also align the night photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Photoshop<\/strong>: median error 0.20%, 25 images out of 38 under 0.5%. The 5 night photos at the end of the series are badly aligned (35 to 42% offset measured). 4 min, of which 54 s of alignment. Useful area: 81%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Futura Time Lapse<\/strong>: 39\/39 aligned according to the software. Measurable median error 0.39%, 17 images under 0.5%. The night photos are in place on visual check. About 1 min 30. Useful area: 70%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affinity<\/strong>: 39\/39 in place on visual check, night photos included. Measurable median error 0.57%, 13 images under 0.5%, none above 2%. Stacking and alignment in about 2 min, then 39 manual exports (about 8 min). Useful area: 80%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hugin<\/strong>: series produced, but offsets of 4 to 7% on the measured images (lantern and railing doubled). 1 min 51 s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fiji<\/strong>: processing stopped on a dialog box I could not read. No result with the default setting. Run again in Affine mode (see below), it finishes in 2 min 30, but the series stays offset: median error 1.8%, no image under 0.5%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Real case (298 photos of 16 megapixels)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FTL finishes in about twelve minutes with pixel-accurate alignment; Hugin finishes in 38 minutes with progressive drift; Photoshop does not finish. DaVinci Resolve, with the &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221; option, is the fastest of all but less accurate than FTL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Futura Time Lapse<\/strong>: 298\/298 aligned. Residual error 0.01% (less than one pixel), jitter between images 0.002%. About 12 min, plus 2 min of export. Useful area: 95%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Hugin<\/strong>: 298 images produced in 38 min. The error grows over the series: 0.02% at the start, 0.39% in the middle, 0.58% at the end. For comparison, the raw photos are offset by 0.3 to 1%. About 15 GB of TIFF files written to disk.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>DaVinci Resolve<\/strong>: with default settings, the stabilizer smooths the motion as it would for a video but does not lock the frame: median error 0.69%, barely less than the raw photos. With &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221; checked, the error drops to 0.13% (about 6 px on the original image), jitter 0.02%. Analysis in a few seconds, export of the 298 images in 14 s. Useful area: 94%. Output limited to 4K in the free version.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Photoshop<\/strong>: no result after 2 h 59 (loading the 298 layers, then alignment). Processing stopped.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Affinity<\/strong>: not run. With the method used here (exporting each layer by hand), it would have taken nearly an hour of clicking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fiji<\/strong>: not run. Stacking in memory would require about 14 GB.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Results at a glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Verdict by series<\/strong> (default settings)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Series<\/th><th>Futura Time Lapse<\/th><th>Photoshop<\/th><th>Affinity<\/th><th>Fiji (SIFT)<\/th><th>Hugin<\/th><th>DaVinci Resolve<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Construction (8)<\/td><td>Aligned<\/td><td>Aligned<\/td><td>Nothing aligned, no warning<\/td><td>Approximate<\/td><td>Failed, nothing produced<\/td><td>Not tested<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Foliage (10)<\/td><td>2\/10, failures reported<\/td><td>Approximate<\/td><td>Nothing aligned, no warning<\/td><td>Approximate<\/td><td>Failed, nothing produced<\/td><td>Not tested<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Four seasons (27)<\/td><td>Aligned<\/td><td>Aligned, 1 image offset<\/td><td>Aligned<\/td><td>Partial<\/td><td>Failed<\/td><td>Not tested<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Perspective (39)<\/td><td>Aligned<\/td><td>Aligned in daylight, night failed<\/td><td>Aligned, night included<\/td><td>Interrupted<\/td><td>Failed<\/td><td>Not tested<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Real case (298)<\/td><td>Aligned, 0.01%<\/td><td>No result in 3 h<\/td><td>Not run<\/td><td>Not run<\/td><td>Aligned, drift up to 0.58%<\/td><td>Smoothed only (0.69%); 0.13% with Camera Lock<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Practical aspects<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th><\/th><th>Futura Time Lapse<\/th><th>Photoshop<\/th><th>Affinity<\/th><th>Fiji<\/th><th>Hugin (align_image_stack)<\/th><th>DaVinci Resolve<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Designed for<\/td><td>Time-lapse<\/td><td>Photo editing and compositing<\/td><td>Photo editing<\/td><td>Microscopy and scientific imaging<\/td><td>HDR bracketing<\/td><td>Video editing<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Price<\/td><td>Free Community version, paid version<\/td><td>Adobe subscription<\/td><td>Free (Canva account)<\/td><td>Free, open source<\/td><td>Free, open source<\/td><td>Free version, paid Studio version<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Systems<\/td><td>Windows, macOS<\/td><td>Windows, macOS<\/td><td>Windows, macOS<\/td><td>Windows, macOS, Linux<\/td><td>Windows, macOS, Linux<\/td><td>Windows, macOS, Linux<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Setup<\/td><td>2 clicks: source folder, then save<\/td><td>Stack, align, then export each layer (script needed in practice)<\/td><td>Stack, ungroup, then export each layer (by hand in this test)<\/td><td>Macro or menus; whole series loaded into memory<\/td><td>Command line<\/td><td>Import as a sequence, stabilize, export<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Reports its failures<\/td><td>Yes, image by image<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>No: images returned unchanged<\/td><td>No<\/td><td>Yes, but stops the whole series<\/td><td>No<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Output resolution<\/td><td>Set by the Quality setting (4K: 3240 px wide)<\/td><td>Native, enlarged canvas<\/td><td>Native, framed on the reference image<\/td><td>Native<\/td><td>Native, 30 to 70 MB TIFFs<\/td><td>Up to 4K in the free version<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Corrects perspective by default<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>No (rigid)<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><td>Yes (Perspective mode)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Output sharpness was not compared. The outputs do not have the same resolution (FTL and Resolve resample to 4K), so the comparison would not be fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Key takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No overall score: the right choice depends on the kind of series, and largely on what each tool was built for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Long series (several hundred images).<\/strong> FTL is the only one to finish quickly and to the pixel. DaVinci Resolve, which is free, is even faster once &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221; is on, with decent accuracy (0.13%); without that option it only smooths the motion. That is no surprise: a dense time-lapse looks a lot like a video, which is what Resolve was made for. Hugin finishes, but more slowly, with drift, and fills the disk. Photoshop is not suited to this volume, which is consistent with a tool built to work on a few layers at a time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Few images, very variable perspective (construction site, handheld).<\/strong> Photoshop and FTL give comparable results. Photoshop is slightly more accurate in daylight, FTL holds the night photos better. Affinity also aligns the handheld series, night included, but did nothing on the drone views.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Photos very different from one season to the next.<\/strong> FTL, Photoshop and Affinity stay reliable when there is a building in the frame. Without a fixed landmark (foliage), no tool is reliable in automatic mode. FTL has the advantage of saying which images failed; Photoshop, Affinity and Fiji deliver a result without warning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Zero budget.<\/strong> Affinity (free with a Canva account) gives the best free results when the alignment succeeds, but you have to export the layers one by one and check every series: when it fails, it returns the images unchanged without saying so. DaVinci Resolve is the free option for long, regular series. Fiji suits short series shot on a tripod: it does not correct perspective by default and loads the whole series into memory. align_image_stack (Hugin) is designed for exposure brackets: it fails as soon as the images differ too much.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color\" style=\"color:#000000\">Limits of this test<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These results come from a single run, on a single PC, with default settings. They do not say what each tool can do once properly tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>No &#8220;best settings&#8221; pass.<\/strong> The only exceptions: Fiji was run again in Affine mode, the richest its SIFT alignment tool offers (it has no perspective mode), with no clear improvement: Construction goes from 3.7% to 3.0% median error, Four seasons stays partial, and the Perspective series, finished this time, stays offset by 1.8%. DaVinci Resolve was also tested with &#8220;Camera Lock&#8221;. Hugin with more control points, or FTL&#8217;s manual alignment, would give other results.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>DaVinci Resolve was only tested on the 298-image series, and Affinity was not tested on it.<\/strong> Resolve&#8217;s stabilizer works on a continuous video sequence, which does not match the other series (separate photos, non-continuous numbering). Resolve 18.6 failed at export (&#8220;Failed to decode the video frames&#8221;); the test was done with version 21. StackReg (Fiji) is not installed by default and was not tested.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Time.<\/strong> During the 298-image series, Hugin shared the processor with Fiji for part of the computation. FTL times were read on screen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Measurement.<\/strong> It relies on SIFT points and fails when light or season change too much. Those images were judged by eye, at a scale that cannot distinguish an offset below about 0.5%. On a scene with parallax (the balcony), no single transformation can align everything: a residual error of a few tenths of a percent is normal there.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Sampling.<\/strong> On the 298-image series, the measurement covers 39 images for FTL and Resolve, and 25 for Hugin.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scripts (Photoshop, Fiji, Hugin), the measurement program and the output images are available on request, so that anyone can repeat the test.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary What I am trying to do here Aligning the photos of a time-lapse means making sure that the same point of the scene stays exactly in the same place from one frame to the next. Without it, the video shakes, or the building you want to watch grow slides around the frame. The problem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","osh_disable_topbar_sticky":"default","osh_disable_header_sticky":"default","osh_sticky_header_style":"default","osh_sticky_header_effect":"","osh_custom_sticky_logo":0,"osh_custom_retina_sticky_logo":0,"osh_custom_sticky_logo_height":0,"osh_background_color":"","osh_links_color":"","osh_links_hover_color":"","osh_links_active_color":"","osh_links_bg_color":"","osh_links_hover_bg_color":"","osh_links_active_bg_color":"","osh_menu_social_links_color":"","osh_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[353],"tags":[314],"class_list":["post-2404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-time-lapse","tag-futura-time-lapse","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.0.1 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Summary What I did. 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Six tools (Futura Time Lapse, Photoshop, Affinity, DaVinci Resolve, Fiji, Hugin) were run on five photo series, from 8 to 298 images, with their default settings. Alignment was measured by an independent program and checked by eye. I make Futura Time Lapse, so I have a stake in this; the protocol","og:url":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/aligning-photos-time-lapse-6-tools-5-different-cases\/","article:published_time":"2026-11-08T16:14:30+00:00","article:modified_time":"2026-11-08T16:17:12+00:00","twitter:card":"summary_large_image","twitter:title":"Aligning photos for a time-lapse: 6 tools tested on 5 different cases - Tristan Romain Renaud","twitter:description":"Summary What I did. Six tools (Futura Time Lapse, Photoshop, Affinity, DaVinci Resolve, Fiji, Hugin) were run on five photo series, from 8 to 298 images, with their default settings. Alignment was measured by an independent program and checked by eye. I make Futura Time Lapse, so I have a stake in this; the protocol"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"2404","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":{"focus":{"keyphrase":"","score":0,"analysis":{"keyphraseInTitle":{"score":0,"maxScore":9,"error":1}}},"additional":[]},"focus_keyword":null,"additional_keywords":null,"truseo_locale":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_video":"","og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema_type":"default","schema_type_options":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"BlogPosting","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":"-1","robots_max_videopreview":"-1","robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":"default","local_seo":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":{"faqs":[],"keyPoints":[],"schemas":[],"titles":[],"descriptions":[],"socialPosts":{"email":{"subject":"","preview":"","content":""},"linkedin":[],"twitter":[],"facebook":[],"instagram":[]}},"breadcrumb_settings":null,"seo_analyzer_scan_date":null,"created":"2026-11-08 16:04:36","updated":"2026-11-09 04:27:28"},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/category\/time-lapse\/\" title=\"Time Lapse\">Time Lapse<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tAligning photos for a time-lapse: 6 tools tested on 5 different cases\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com"},{"label":"Time Lapse","link":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/category\/time-lapse\/"},{"label":"Aligning photos for a time-lapse: 6 tools tested on 5 different cases","link":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/08\/aligning-photos-time-lapse-6-tools-5-different-cases\/"}],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/featured_alignment_benchmark.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2405,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions\/2405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tristanromain.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}