Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: armand on February 11, 2020, 04:49:36 pm

Title: Focus
Post by: armand on February 11, 2020, 04:49:36 pm
Playing again with Helicon Focus, I ran a couple of sequences that I shot some time ago.

Overall it still gives plenty or errors, not a lot better than Photoshop (I do have to play with the settings more though), but it's easier to correct and in the end, after the same amount of time, the shot looks mostly ok vs still has obvious errors. Still very time consuming though, this is where a Wacom would be helpful.
Title: Re: Focus
Post by: kers on February 12, 2020, 06:17:16 am
I would suggest first surge for the right way ( steps and aperture) to shoot without gaps.
The try the standard B and c option - both have their problems, but different ones... you can combine the strong points in photoshop.
 
Title: Re: Focus
Post by: armand on February 12, 2020, 01:30:32 pm
I would suggest first surge for the right way ( steps and aperture) to shoot without gaps.
The try the standard B and c option - both have their problems, but different ones... you can combine the strong points in photoshop.

These are a little challenging because of significant focus breathing, but I wanted to test with something that’s not easy. I don’t plan to get a focus rail. The coverage between the shots is enough.

With the newer focus shifts implemented in camera it’s easier because the steps are even vs my manual focusing. The Fuji and Oly still have significant focus breathing, the Nikon Z lenses less.


Overall every time I try this I recall how much time they actually take to properly adjust, particularly with lots of small but clear details.
Title: Re: Focus
Post by: kers on February 12, 2020, 02:46:44 pm
These are a little challenging because of significant focus breathing, but I wanted to test with something that’s not easy. I don’t plan to get a focus rail. The coverage between the shots is enough.
With the newer focus shifts implemented in camera it’s easier because the steps are even vs my manual focusing. The Fuji and Oly still have significant focus breathing, the Nikon Z lenses less.
Overall every time I try this I recall how much time they actually take to properly adjust, particularly with lots of small but clear details.

Yes i would take the B as the base layer - it has the best gradients and colour- then work on the problems with the C content..
Also in the case of the photo's shown i would use f11.
Title: Re: Focus
Post by: armand on February 12, 2020, 04:41:40 pm
Both were shot with the Nikon macro 105 2.8, the fungus @ F8 and the other @ F16. Both were stacked in Helicon Focus 7 using method B.

Here is a different version of the second stacked in the Photoshop from 5 years ago.
Title: Re: Focus
Post by: kers on February 12, 2020, 06:06:15 pm
very nice photo !  like it better than the new ones...
Title: Re: Focus
Post by: armand on February 13, 2020, 02:38:30 pm
very nice photo !  like it better than the new ones...

Thank you