HDR and Helicon

[bdsmalleyphoto]

I shoot mostly landscape with my Canon 5D Mark II. I use Photomatrix 4.1 to merge the bracketed photos (Windows 7 - 64 bit operating system). I'm able to get incredibly sharp images and depth of field with Helicon (thank you!). However, I can't seem to use both techniques together. If I merge 3 photos and different exposure together and then try to combine that merged photo with other merged photos having different focal points the Helicon software doesn't seem to respond. Am I doing something incorrectly - can Helicon Focus and HDR be used together?

I think I've read that Helicon Remote will work with the Canon 5D Mark II because the camera has live view. I really haven't shot tethered since I'm outdoors in the weather elements. However, if I use Helicon Remote with the camea tethered to a PC will that allow me to use the focusing software and HDR in combination.

Last question - I sometimes see the lines where the original images have been stitched to together. Usually it's minor but it becomes an issue when I blow the image up to 1:1 resolution or bigger when I print the images as very large photographs (24x36 etc.). Is there a way to minimize this such as shooting more original images to be stitched together? Or, is there a post processing solution such as using Photoshop and a cloning tool to smooth over the stitch marks? What do you recommend?

Thank you for a great product! I'm telling all my fellow photographer friends about this fantastic software.

[Stas Yatsenko]

In principle both ways, first HDR then EDOF(extended depth of field) or vice versa should work. Please upload the problem stack to our server (http://heliconsoft.com/ftp.html) and we will gladly test it. This also applies to stack with the stitching line.

You can use Helicon Remote to automate both exposure and focus bracketing. You are welcome to test it. Helicon Remote is included into Helicon Focus installation for Windows and is a standalone installation for Mac. Both are freely available from our site.