snickgrr, your image is just fabulous.

I love the way we can really control focus... And, if we shoot enough planes, we can manage focus at the compositing time. Thanks for sharing your image.

Dan Kozub wrote:If we add export of alighed source images, would it help?

I think it would be very helpful to have an export of the aligned source images, all aligned with the HeliconFocus composite. Then we could paint in specific portions from any image in the stack.

Thanks for 3.6.1 (Mac) which is working just fine with 10.5 Leopard.

And, here's the view I like better.

Dan, your product Helicon Focus is just terrific.

Finally, slices by moving the lens, keeping same film plane. Except for the change in image size, differences in the last 5% at the edge, I don't see much difference in these. Thus, with camera motions small enough that the perspective doesn't change, it doesn't matter how you do the slices.

Slices by moving the rear standard, keeping the lens in the same position.

More on whether to move the camera, re-focus, or (on a bellows) move the rear standard.

This is one blossom of a Rhododendron at about 1:5. I don't see any troubling artifacts with any of the three approaches.

See below. All with 105mm Bellows Nikkor on bellows to Olympus e-330. The flower is ...

Sorry to be slow in replying.

Thanks for the animation. Yes, I agree that some info is simply missing, and this can happen in some situations. This was an artificial setup... I'm worried that I made it more difficult than a real life situation.

The real life I'm thinking about is a flower with ...

I uploaded the stack to the ftp server in a subdirectory JackOfSpades -- I'm on Mac so can't make the flip-movie.

Thinking more about this test image... I think the problem is that the camera movement changes the perspective BETWEEN ADJACENT SLICES, in this case, the last golf tees and the ...

Here is a photo of the setup that produced the image above.

I have been thinking about the question of moving the camera vs. adjusting focus.

It seems to me that the issue is to avoid changing the perspective relationship of elements of the image.

I think the perspective is most likely to change if you move the camera to focus on different parts of the ...

George Lepp gives a nice plug for Helicon Focus and an example flower-in-snow photo at:

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/content/2007/june/tech-tips.shtml

Questioner asks, "My photos look soft compared to yours." Lepp answers, more or less, "Do everything else right, and then composite several ...

Photo of a Nikon F2A I will sell on eBay...

Here is the best single exposure I could make... F/16 and it's not bad. This one would work, but...
http://i.pbase.com/o6/31/718831/1/77749113.tgjuuWjx.F2A_F_3216Scr.jpg

Here is the composite of six images with Helicon focus. Much better!
http://i ...