Free from Square Deal Studio

StillStack

For still photography on a tripod: products, real estate interiors, anything that holds still. Plug your camera into its own Windows computer with a cable, shoot a bracket, and the finished picture appears on that computer a moment later while you line up the next shot. Focus brackets come out sharp front to back. Exposure brackets come out with the room and the window view both right.

That computer is just for this while you shoot. StillStack watches the folder your tether app saves into, spots each bracket as it lands, blends it, and files the result by date. Then it chimes and moves on to the next one.

Why it's free: it saves hours on every shoot, and it should help more people than just us. What we bring to a business is how we see it, not a licence fee.

The download is coming back soon as a signed Windows installer, so Windows and your browser know who made it. Want a note when it's ready? Email hello@squaredealstudio.com.

Windows 10 or 11
Any camera
Helicon Focus Lite or Pro
Free and open source (MIT)

Stacks with

Helicon Focus

Hugin (free)

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft, Helicon Soft, Capture One or any camera maker.

Who it's for

Every picture StillStack makes is several shots blended into one, so the subject, the camera and the light have to stay put between them.

Products and still life

In the studio, camera on a tripod, tethered to its own computer. Focus stacks keep a whole product sharp at the aperture that looks best. Frames where a strobe didn't recycle are left out before they cause blotches. For shiny parts, a bright and a dark stack can be blended into one.

Interiors and real estate

Shoot an exposure bracket and the finished picture appears on the computer a moment later: the room and the view out of the window both right, without the overcooked HDR look. Check it before you move to the next angle. Shoot RAW+JPG; the JPGs are blended and the raws stay for editing.

Not for people, pets, or anything else that moves while the bracket is being shot.

Also works afterwards: copy a card into the folder and it blends the lot. Handy for landscapes shot in the field.

How it works

You shoot a bracketFocus bracket or exposure bracket, from any camera, with a cable to its own computer.
Files land in a folderYour tether app saves each shot there: Capture One or your camera maker's free app. StillStack waits for each file to finish writing.
Shots get groupedBy capture time. It learns each bracket's rhythm, so 0.5 s and 5 s intervals both work. The page shows what's coming in.
Misfires are left outFrames clearly brighter or darker than the rest of a focus bracket are dropped, on every brand's raws.
The finished picture appearsOn that computer, while you set up the next shot. A 16-bit TIFF, filed by date. A chime, a thumbnail on the page, and a line in today's report.

Shoot\Capture\                 where the camera saves
Shoot\Stacked\2026-11-07\
    DSC0123-DSC0144_stack.tif  a focus stack
    DSC0201-DSC0205_blend.tif  an exposure blend
    HDR_DSC0145-DSC0160\       bright + dark stacks, blended
    StillStack report.html     the day's results

It does

Read every major camera's raws: Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, OM System, Panasonic, Pentax, Phase One, Hasselblad and DNG, plus TIF and JPG
Work with Helicon Focus Lite. It uses only Helicon's command line, which every edition has
Ignore single shots, and re-stack a bracket when late frames turn up
Blend 2 to 5 focus stacks shot at different brightness into one HDR picture
Retry a stuck render on fewer cores, at low priority so your tether app stays responsive
Check your setup: drive speed, port and cable, free space, and the apps it needs
Give you a control page with live status, results, Try again, and settings

It doesn't

Work on anything that moves
Leave the computer free for editing mid-shoot. Give it the machine while it works
Control the camera or change its settings
Include Helicon Focus or Capture One, which each need your own licence
Send anything anywhere. It runs on your computer only, with no account and no tracking
Run on a Mac

Already have Helicon Focus Pro?

Its Folder monitor watches a folder too. StillStack adds what we needed on real shoots. It works with Lite, waits until each file has finished copying, learns the bracket rhythm instead of using a fixed gap, and leaves out misfired frames. It also does exposure blends and HDR sets, a setup check, a daily report, and one-click Try again.

What you need, and what it costs

What	Why	Cost
A separate Windows computer, just for this	Windows 10 or 11; a laptop is fine. The camera plugs into it, and it blends every bracket as you shoot, so it's busy for the whole shoot. Do your editing on a different computer, or after the shoot. An SSD helps a lot; the setup check measures yours.	Yours
Helicon Focus	Makes the focus stacks. Lite is enough: Pro and Premium add retouching and DNG output, which StillStack doesn't use. Not needed if you only make exposure blends. heliconsoft.com	Lite $30 a year, or $115 once
Adobe DNG Converter	Helicon uses it to read raw files. Install it if the setup check asks.	Free
Hugin	Makes exposure blends and blends HDR sets. Optional for focus stacking. hugin.sourceforge.io	Free
A tether cable and app	A USB cable from the camera to that computer, and an app that saves each shot into a folder: Capture One, or your camera maker's own free tether app (Sony Imaging Edge, Canon EOS Utility, Nikon NX Tether or Fujifilm X Acquire). The setup check tells you if the cable or port is too slow.	Free to paid, plus the cable
Disk space	A stack from a 61-megapixel camera is about 350 MB. The setup check tells you how many more fit.

Prices checked November 2026.

Install in three steps

For when the download is back. No admin rights, no settings files to edit, and no PowerShell to type.

Install what does the blending. Helicon Focus (Lite is enough) for focus stacks, and Hugin if you'll make exposure blends or HDR sets.
Run the StillStack installer. It installs for your Windows user only and puts StillStack in the Start menu and on the desktop. Windows names the publisher, Divide.Solutions LLC (Square Deal Studio's company). Check that name before you run it.
Open StillStack and follow the setup. Choose what you shoot, pick the folder your camera saves into (for Capture One, the session folder), and run the setup check. Then shoot a throwaway bracket and watch it come back.

Prefer a guided chat? A prompt for your AI assistant

I'm setting up StillStack, a free Windows helper from Square Deal Studio. It watches the folder my camera saves into, groups each bracket by capture time, and makes one finished picture from it: a focus stack with Helicon Focus (Lite or Pro), or an exposure blend with the free Hugin tools. It works with any camera, with Capture One or a camera maker's free tether app, or with a card copied into the folder afterwards. It's for subjects that hold still, and it runs on the computer the camera saves to, which stays busy during the shoot.

Please walk me through setup one step at a time and wait for me to confirm each step. Don't suggest changing system-wide security settings or turning off antivirus.

Facts:
- The installer is signed by Divide.Solutions LLC. If Windows shows a different publisher, or none, I should stop and email hello@squaredealstudio.com.
- It installs for my user only, with no admin rights, and adds StillStack to the Start menu and desktop. Settings live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\StillStack.
- On first start, a control page opens at http://localhost:8765/. It's reachable only from this computer. Its setup picks what I shoot (products and still life, landscape, or interiors), the folder my camera saves into, and runs a setup check (drive speed, camera cable, free space, Helicon, Hugin, Adobe DNG Converter).
- Results go to <my folder>\Stacked\<date>\, with a report page, StillStack report.html, in the same folder.
- Helicon Focus Lite is enough. Pro isn't needed. Adobe DNG Converter (free) lets Helicon read raw files. Hugin (free) is needed for exposure blends and HDR sets.
- Exposure blends use TIF or JPG files, so for interiors I should set the camera to RAW+JPG.
- If something goes wrong, the page shows a plain message, and the Troubleshooting part of the StillStack page has the same words with the fix. "Copy diagnostics" on the page copies the details for support, with no pictures included.

Start by asking what I shoot and which camera and tether app I use, then help me set up the camera's bracketing for that.

Using StillStack

Start it from the desktop before you shoot. Everything shows on its control page, which opens as a window of its own.

The control page

Now says in plain words what's happening, for example that it's stacking 22 frames with about 40 seconds left, and what to do if something's wrong.
Coming in lists the brackets that have landed but aren't stacked yet, grouped the way they'll be stacked, so a wrong split shows up before it's rendered.
Results shows a thumbnail of each picture, with Open, Show in folder, Show frames and Try again. Try again re-stacks the original frames with the current settings.
Today's report opens a page with every result of the day: thumbnails, frames used, time taken, and anything that failed with what to do. Print it to PDF to send it on.
Setup check measures the drive, the camera cable and the free space, and finds the apps.
Pause stops picking up new brackets; a render already going finishes first. Quit waits until nothing is rendering.

Settings

They apply to the next bracket, with no restart. Start from a preset: Products, Landscape or Interiors.

What to make

Focus stack (the default), or exposure blend for brackets of different brightness.

HDR sets

For focus stacks: blend 2 to 5 stacks shot at different brightness into one. Off by default.

Leave out misfires

On by default. Drops frames where a strobe didn't keep up.

Chime

On by default. One sound when a picture is done, another when one fails.

CPU cores

4 or 2. Never all of them, so the tether app keeps up.

Helicon method

B (the default) suits most subjects. C suits deep stacks with crossing edges. A suits short stacks.

Shortest bracket

3 shots. Anything shorter is treated as a normal single shot.

HDR sets (focus stacks)

Turn on HDR sets and pick how many brackets make a set. Shoot one focus bracket at each brightness, one right after another.
Change the brightness with flash power, shutter speed or ISO. Keep the aperture and the focus range the same.
Leave at least 15 seconds between brackets, so each one is grouped on its own.
The set lands in HDR_<first bracket>\ as _A, _B and so on, plus _HDR.tif, the blend (needs Hugin).
A long pause ends a set early. Two brackets in a row at the same brightness start a new set, so one missed bracket doesn't throw off the rest.

Exposure blends (interiors, bright skies)

Set the camera to bracket exposure, 3 to 7 shots, about one stop apart, and to RAW+JPG.
On a tripod is best. Handheld works for small movements, because the shots are aligned before blending.
Each bracket becomes <first>-<last>_blend.tif: a natural blend that takes the best-exposed parts of each shot. Finish it in your editor.
Leave a few seconds between rooms or angles, so each bracket is grouped on its own.

Shooting tips for focus stacks

Tripod, f/5.6 to f/8, stabilization off on the tripod, ISO as low as you can.
Use your camera's focus bracketing (on Sony, Focus Bracket with a step of 2 to 3 and a 1 to 2 second interval), or a focusing rail.
Strobes in manual at under half power, batteries charged. A strobe that can't recycle in time causes blotches. StillStack drops those frames, but fewer misfires is better.
Shiny parts: try the light first (off the lens axis, flagged, or with a polarizer). Use HDR sets when that isn't enough.
Helicon's TIFFs look flat. Set a profile and white balance in your raw editor, then remove chromatic aberration.

Where things land

Results go in Stacked\<date>\ next to the folder you picked. They're dated by the computer's clock, so a wrong camera clock doesn't matter.
Folders named CaptureOne, Trash, Selects or Output are skipped, so moving picks around doesn't stack them twice.
The log and the list of brackets already done are in the hidden Stacked\.stillstack folder. A drive that comes back under another letter isn't re-stacked from scratch.

Troubleshooting

The headings below use the same words as the messages on the control page.

"Helicon Focus wasn't found"

Install Helicon Focus (Lite is enough). If it's installed somewhere unusual, set its location in Settings. StillStack picks it up without a restart.

"The folder … isn't there" or "No folder picked yet"

The drive is unplugged, or no folder is picked. Plug it back in and StillStack carries on by itself, or pick the folder your camera saves into.

Nothing happens after a bracket

Check that the camera or tether app saves into the folder StillStack watches, that the bracket has 3 or more shots, and that StillStack isn't paused. It waits about 12 seconds after the last shot lands. Coming in shows what it has seen.

Two brackets came out as one picture

Leave a few more seconds between them, or set a fixed split gap in Settings.

"FAILED: no stack written"

Helicon couldn't make that picture after every retry. Press Try again on the result. If it fails again, stack those frames by hand in Helicon; Show frames finds them.

"Helicon timed out twice"

The computer was too busy, or that bracket is too long for this computer. Close other apps, plug in the charger, set CPU cores to 2, then press Try again.

"leaving out N frames with mismatched exposure"

A strobe didn't fire at full power on those frames. Lower the power, slow the bracket interval, or charge the batteries.

"exposure blend needs TIF or JPG frames"

Exposure blends are made from JPG or TIF files. Set the camera to RAW+JPG, then press Try again, or switch back to focus stacking.

"needs Hugin"

Exposure blends and HDR sets are blended with Hugin, which is free. Install it, or set its folder in Settings.

"Only N GB free"

The drive the results go to is nearly full, and stacks will start failing. Free some space or pick a bigger drive.

Setup check: "USB 2 speed"

Shots reach the computer slowly. If your camera has a USB-C or USB 3 port, use a USB 3 cable rated 5 or 10 Gbps, plugged straight into the computer with no hub. Older cameras top out at USB 2, and then this is normal.

Setup check: drive "Too slow for tethering"

Use an SSD on a USB 3 or USB-C port (blue, or marked SS or 10), or an internal drive. Spinning drives and memory cards can't keep up with a bracket.

Adobe DNG Converter closes by itself

StillStack closes any open copy before each stack, because one stuck copy blocks Helicon. Don't use it by hand while StillStack runs.

The camera drops off USB after a burst

Turn off USB selective suspend in Windows power options, and keep the computer on its charger.

Still stuck? Press Copy diagnostics on the control page and email it to us. It includes settings, app versions and the log, and no pictures.

What it does on your computer

It runs only on your computer. The control page is a local page at localhost:8765 that other computers can't reach. No account, no tracking, nothing uploaded.
It reads the shots in the folder you pick and writes results into a Stacked folder beside them. It never changes or deletes your originals.
It's free and open source under the MIT license, provided as is, without warranty.
To remove it, uninstall it from Windows Settings. Your pictures stay where they are.

How it was tested. Focus stacking has been used on real shoots: a Sony A7R V, Capture One and Helicon Focus. Other brands' files, the exposure blend, the HDR blend and the setup check have been tested on sample files and stand-in tools, not yet on real shoots. Do a throwaway bracket before a paid job.
Known limits. Windows only. Very long brackets on a laptop can take minutes each. Exposure blends need JPG or TIF files.

Stuck, or got it working?

Either way, we'd like to hear. Questions about StillStack, or about what Square Deal Studio does for small businesses, go to the same inbox.

hello@squaredealstudio.com

Square Deal Studio · Also free: Splatbox