Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Capture One Q&A => Topic started by: narikin on March 02, 2019, 11:48:53 am

Title: Focus Stack in Capture One - Internal or or external?
Post by: narikin on March 02, 2019, 11:48:53 am

I read somewhere that the Helicon Plug in for C1 (12.02) doesn't work that well - can anyone confirm or suggest an alternative way to focus stack about 15-18 IQ4 16bit images without bogging down /crashing my main workstation? That's a lot of Mb to handle.

Happy to use an external FS program, or Photoshop itself, if that is better.

Thanks

Title: Re: Focus Stack in Capture One - Internal or or external?
Post by: Bart_van_der_Wolf on March 02, 2019, 01:27:19 pm

Quote from: narikin on March 02, 2019, 11:48:53 am

I read somewhere that the Helicon Plug in for C1 (12.02) doesn't work that well - can anyone confirm or suggest an alternative way to focus stack about 15-18 IQ4 16bit images without bogging down /crashing my main workstation? That's a lot of Mb to handle.

Happy to use an external FS program, or Photoshop itself, if that is better.

Hi,

The Helicon Plug-in for C1 is merely a link to the paid HeliconFocus application.

Helicon Focus is one of the most used applications for dedicated focus-stacking operations. HeliconFocus (https://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconsoft-products/helicon-focus/), together with a different stacking application called Zerene Stacker (https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker) are real workhorses, capable of stacking huge (100+) numbers of images.

Applications like Photoshop require enormous amounts of memory, because they are not optimized for Focus Stacking. Probably good enough for occasional use, but usually with lower quality output.

Cheers,
Bart

Title: Re: Focus Stack in Capture One - Internal or or external?
Post by: narikin on March 02, 2019, 02:27:23 pm

Thanks Bart, Got a preference between those two?
I've done the trail with Helicon, but use stacking so rarely, its expired now.

Title: Re: Focus Stack in Capture One - Internal or or external?
Post by: Bart_van_der_Wolf on March 02, 2019, 03:16:44 pm

Quote from: narikin on March 02, 2019, 02:27:23 pm

Thanks Bart, Got a preference between those two?
I've done the trail with Helicon, but use stacking so rarely, its expired now.

My preference (for HF) is purely due to my choice for Helicon Focus a long time ago when Zerene Stacker was not yet around. They are both great at Focus Stacking.

Cheers,
Bart

Title: Re: Focus Stack in Capture One - Internal or or external?
Post by: JPOnstwedder on March 03, 2019, 03:40:10 pm

Quote from: narikin on March 02, 2019, 11:48:53 am

I read somewhere that the Helicon Plug in for C1 (12.02) doesn't work that well - can anyone confirm or suggest an alternative way to focus stack about 15-18 IQ4 16bit images without bogging down /crashing my main workstation? That's a lot of Mb to handle.

Happy to use an external FS program, or Photoshop itself, if that is better.

Thanks

I've used Affinity Photo a few times for a large-ish number of images and it's never been a problem. Has good options for editing after the stacking as well.

Title: Re: Focus Stack in Capture One - Internal or or external?
Post by: Doug Peterson on March 04, 2019, 10:20:18 am

Different use case, but here is a video re focus stacking using Zerene Stacker + XF:
Cultural Heritage Digitization, Focus Stacking (https://dtculturalheritage.com/cultural-heritage-webinars/)

I'd suggest working with your Phase One dealer on training, as they should have extensive experience with the odds and ends of high-resolution focus stacking using Phase One gear.