Helicon Focus - a quick try
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This is a brief look at Helicon Focus for anyone who might be interested.
The Helicon Focus software application creates an image with enhanced depth of field by combining multiple images of the same subject, each with a slightly different plane of focus. Or to quote the makers: "HeliconFocus is a program that creates one completely focused image from several partially focused images by combining the focused areas." I downloaded the Windows version which has a 30 day free trial period and took it for a spin. This evening I drove to a local nature reserve and took some photographs of a Clustered Bellflower. Normally I would photograph this at F16 to keep the flower in focus, but this would result in a messy background, which to my eye is rather ugly. So this time I used an aperture of F5.6 to creating a nice smooth out of focus background. I took four photos, the first focussed on the front of the flower, moving the plane of focus backwards a bit between each photograph. Once I got back home I launched Helicon Focus, selected the four NEF files, and pressed the Run button. Five minutes later out popped the result, which I saved as a 16 bit TIFF file. Yes, it works in 16 bits! And yes it can work with Nikon RAW files without the need to use Nikon Capture. What's more, it seems to do an excellent job of RAW conversion, with accurate colours. So full marks to the makers. I've attached two photos. The first image is the second one from the series, showing the flower photographed at F5.6. It has a nice smooth background, due to the large aperture, but very little of the flower is in focus. The second image is the combined image created by Helicon Focus. It also has a nice smooth background, but this time most of the flower is in focus. Looking at the original file at 100% I can see that I could have got better results by taking more photographs in the series. However, I think that HF has done an excellent job, and I look forward to using it on more interesting subjects, especially small insects. I realise that this is a very brief test, but I hope it has given an indication of what it does. I hope to carry out more tests, to see if there are any serious shortcomings. If anyone else does there own tests, then please let me know what you think of it. Here is the Helicon Focus web site: http://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconfocus.html The tool costs about £60 for the basic version, which seems more than reasonable to me. Here are some alternative comments on the application: http://www.gpmatthews.nildram.co.uk/.../scalesnf.html http://www.hoothollow.com/Tip-July%2...iconFocus.html Incidentally, the McDonalds are very respected professional nature photographers. |
Impressed by the results Leif. :cool:
Somewhere on the forum is a picture that Harry ( Wolfie ) posted using this technique. I was impressed then as I am now. The fact that it will work with RAW files is interesting. Thanks for posting your efforts on this. Don |
In case anyone is interested, I tried it on various images, and found that it was prone to artifacting. Take a look at the McDonalds article, and look at the bookshelf image. Unless I am mistaken it shows artifacting in the form of a halo around an object in the distance.
I did find an interesting article on compositing multiple images to maximise DOF: http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/sho...hlight=helicon Harry S. also indicates that Helicon Focus introduces artifacts. Anyway, he is clearly a very experienced and capable person, and I recommend anyone interested in this area read his posting. I would not presume to add to it (mainly because I can't ...) |
Great link Leif, thanks for that. :cool:
I will have to investigate tuning my milling table into a super precision focusing rail. :rolleyes: I have had a go at manually combining images in CS ( moon shots ), so hopefully I can give it a go. Lots to think about. :) Don |
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I have the guys web page up and the beetles are under controlled conditions that I would hope to be able to replicate. I can control the camera via the laptop to confirm initial point of focus and how many thou of focus movement per frame taken will be required. Just got to find a suitable subject. Live and in the wild as per your stunners are a quite different matter. Lots more skill required to achieve that. Don |
I have not got round to giving this a go yet, but have thought about combining the images and are my CS skills which are limited up to it. The prime thought being that as focus is moved so image size would alter. A bit of back up thinking and a net trawl brought me to Combine Z5 ( a freebe ) which I have now downloaded and printed the help file for.
Rainy days forecast so a bit of machining to make a camera mount for the milling table ( my focussing stage ) then I hope to give it a go. Here is a link to Digital Outback Photo Review of Helicon Focus and CombineZ5 software. Seems to be one of those occasions when its good to be on PC. :) http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_72/essay.html Don |
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Harry |
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Perhaps its worth putting it here. I downloaded CombineZM Don |
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Will sort out a more recent stacked photo and upload it tomorrow, but until then here's the one from my gallery. http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...372&ppuser=150 |
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Have just been playing with Image Stacking using CS4. extremely easy to use.
This is my first attempt using seven stacked images using CS4 and I must say I'm very pleased with it. The attached photo is just a very quick and dirty attempt. Will now go and try something a little more sophisticated. Harry |
Pretty good for a ' quick and dirty ' effort Harry. I look forward to more.
I cannot afford CS4 so have not looked into it but I assume from this post it includes image stacking. Stevie just gave me a dig in the ribs and pointed me at our Christmas cactii so I will have to give that a go but in CombineZM. :) Don |
Don when you've impressed Stevie with your skill and the magic of CombineZM, tell her that you could do an even better job with CS4 :) I talked my family into buying me CS4 as a Christmas pressie.
Here's a second attempt http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...840&ppuser=150 each of the photos were taken at 1/25 @ f/5.6 using the Canon 5D + Canon 100mm macro lens |
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A bit late now Harry. Big spends recently - Stevies D300, and then for me, two primes to replace my mid range (28-105) zoom that she bagged :rolleyes:. So I am now on bread and water, and CombineZM will have to do me for a while. Don |
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I have been trying out image stacking (CS4) with non macro shots. here are two examples.
The Bluebells photo comprises 7 images, with the Belton House consisting of 5 images. Whoops uploaded the wrong bluebell photo, so please disregard that on. I cannot find a way to delete the image so will make another post with the correct photo. Harry edit: wrong bluebell photo deleted. |
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Hopefully I will locate and upload the correct photo this time.
Harry |
Its given them a wide angle feel even though the exif says you've taken them with a 70mm lens
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Hi Clive, yes both photos where taken at 70mm as I wanted close-ups of both the plant pot and also the bluebells.
The actual lens used was the Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 Harry |
Hi all, I got Helicon focus a while back, but following a catastrophic hard drive failure, I've only just found the program again among some previous system files. What do people find best - Helicon or stacking with CS4?
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Andy I tried Helicon Focus sometime ago and found it to the best available at the time, but wasn't prepared to pay the asking price, so remained with CombineZM. That was until I bought CS4.
CS4 is excellent at aligning and blending, but is very resource hungry, often bringing my old PC with Dual Core CPU with 4GB of ram to a standstill. I now have a new self build pc with AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core Processor 2.6GHz. 4Gb ram on Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Have just done a speed check stacking 8 images. Aligning images 15 secs, Blending images 35 secs. Helicon Focus is a stand alone product and is marginally better than CS4, but please bear in mind it's probably two years since I used Helicon. IMO though for convenience CS4 is better due to the fact that you can send images direct from either Bridge or Lightroom direct into layers in Photoshop ready for aligning and blending. Harry |
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