stacking for DoF

[phoTOMgraphy]

hi,
i'm thinking of trying image stacks for more DoF. but don't know how to do it practically.

what is your workflow like? how to find the right amount of images for a given lens and aperture?

which software (helicon focus / CS4 ...)?

how to begin with that new land of experience?

cheers
tom

[Jack Flesher]

hi,
i'm thinking of trying image stacks for more DoF. but don't know how to do it practically.

what is your workflow like? how to find the right amount of images for a given lens and aperture?

which software (helicon focus / CS4 ...)?

how to begin with that new land of experience?

cheers
tom

Save yourself a bunch of grief, get the just released Helicon Focus 4.  Automatic and fast AND editable.  Oh, and it is multi-core enabled and flies on my Mac, and there is also a Win 64 version that I can only assume smokes. IMO it's worth owning the full version: http://www.heliconsoft.com/purchase.html  

Watch for a future tutorial on how to use the new editing brushes and masks that I suspect will be featured here on LL pretty soon .  In the meantime here is some introductory discussion and initial sample images from version 4: http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5306

Cheers,

[MichaelEzra]

I wonder how does the 3D feature of Helicon Focus works?

[ynp]

Watch for a future tutorial on how to use the new editing brushes and masks that I suspect will be featured here on LL pretty soon .  In the meantime here is some introductory discussion and initial sample images from version 4: http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5306

Cheers,

Jack,

Thank you for the update!
I am looking forward to seeing the Tutorial soon.

Yevgeny

[hubell]

Save yourself a bunch of grief, get the just released Helicon Focus 4.  Automatic and fast AND editable.  Oh, and it is multi-core enabled and flies on my Mac, and there is also a Win 64 version that I can only assume smokes. IMO it's worth owning the full version: http://www.heliconsoft.com/purchase.html  

Watch for a future tutorial on how to use the new editing brushes and masks that I suspect will be featured here on LL pretty soon .  In the meantime here is some introductory discussion and initial sample images from version 4: http://forum.getdpi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5306

Cheers,

The Lite version I have works very well, but does not return a 16 bit file with masked layers. It is a flattened 16 bit file. does the newer version for the Mac do layered files?

[Jack Flesher]

The Lite version I have works very well, but does not return a 16 bit file with masked layers. It is a flattened 16 bit file. does the newer version for the Mac do layered files?

I don't want to spoil the tutorial, but the simple answer is no... But you don't need it to anyway since it's fully editable in Helicon before you export it.  In the current full version you can export a variety of file types, including jpegs and 16-bit tiffs.

[Terence h]

Hello just downloaded Helicon 4 for mac yesterday and is working great , it did battle with some herbs that i had in the shot ,but it was a pretty
easy job to choose the correct image and correct by cloning. (was using it to extend the focus with close up food photography)

I might just get the $70 years license because things change so rapidly with software.

Regards
Terence

[Martin Kristiansen]

I see this can be done in CS4 as well. Have not tried it myself but wonder why it has not come up in this thread yet. Is it clunky in CS4 perhaps?

[Jack Flesher]

I see this can be done in CS4 as well. Have not tried it myself but wonder why it has not come up in this thread yet. Is it clunky in CS4 perhaps?

I suggest you try both just to see how much more elegant the HF 4 solution is...

[Luis Argerich]

Hi, my first post here

If you want to check a free / open source alternative you can try CombineZM
http://hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/News.htm
It was discussed in this forum here:
http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=31262

I'm interested in feedback about CombineZM for landscapes

Luigi

[E_Edwards]

Today I upgraded to the latest version of Helicon Focus for Mac and I have to say, it has been greatly improved, it really seems a lot better, quicker and has a very nice before/after retouching module that makes it so much better than before. I only use it for depth of focus layers though.  The life time upgrade cost me $100, worth every penny for me.

Edward