Helicon Focus

[Helix_2648]

Hi all together,

I know a lot of you who uses focus stacking and some of you uses the software Helicon Focus as well.

Therefor I would start a discussion with you about your workflow and your settings related to Helicon Focus Pro.

• Do you take your shots as JPG or RAW?
• Do you important the files directly or do you develop them first of all? If so how do you export them?
• Do you use just one rendering method? If so which one and why?
• Have you every tried to combine different rendering methods?
• What settings do you use for your stack? focus step width, aperture, etc.

Maybe we can use this thread to improve our skills by collecting our knowledge.

Have fun,
Jörg

 

[Helix_2648]

Let me start to explain my workflow...

I always take my pictures as CR3 RAW file which makes it actually impossible to open it directly in Helicon Focus as the file format is not supported yet. So I used this disadvantage to convert it in an advantage for me.

So my first step is to import my new files in Adobe Lightroom to develop them. I change the settings like below (and already explained in my glowing mushroom tutorial):

Exposure	As needed
Contrast	+15
Highlights	-70
Shadows	+70
Whites	Increse the value until the upper left triangle from the histogram turns grey
Blacks	Uses the same value as Whites
Texture	+15
Tone Curve	As needed
Details (Amount, Radius, Masking)	100, 1,5, 75
Noise Reduction (Luminance)	25

Apart from that I use the auto lens correction (Remove Chromatic Aberration, Enable Profile Corrections and Setup -> Auto).

After that I export the files as TIFF (16bit without compression) to Helicon Focus

Helicon Focus offers three different rendering models each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Should mean that I render the stack as method B (radius depends on the aperture and magnification - between 8 - 20) and C. Sometimes (for a nice and soft background) also as A.

Method B provides sharp textures but has problems with overlapping objects in your picture (halos).
Method C can be used to reduce the halo effects of overlapping textures but the contrast and noise is often much too strong
Method A is similar to Method B but the textures looks more blurry. So this model should be used for your bokeh or the blurry background.

So I render my stack two (B, C) or three times and save each output separately. After that I start a second instance and load these three outputs again.

The last step is to combine the advantages of your individual outputs to get the best possible result.

Have look to my tutorial for some more details and pictures.

Guide - How to shoot and edit pictures of glowing mushrooms

Dear fellows and mushroom fans! I'm really proud to present to all of you my new tutorial about everything which you need to great pictures of glowing mushrooms! Please find the PDF attached (blue button to the upper right on your screen) or...

macroderie.com

Have fun,
Jörg

 

[Jack]

That's really good topic Helix_2648 . Unfortunately I don't stack images, as I don't have any license for Helicon at the moment. And a bit confused how it work. I have an idea how should, but never experienced myself.