Helicon Soft Forum

I am currently shooting deep stacks in .raw (nikon .nef actually)...
then batch processing the .raw images in PS, then converting the images to .jpg, before handing the stack over to helicon focus.
is there any workflow advantage that i'm missing... to having helicon process .raw images vs .jpg?
as best i can tell, helicon's output is .jpg anyway.
thanks for any guidance!

HF has DNG output if you start with raw files. The only issue I have had is that using RAW, Helicon displays the embedded image data which does not reflect adjustments made in ACR. (These are in the companion XMP files.) However, after the DNG is saved, the XMP adjustments are applied, so the DNG looks as expected. The downside of this is that retouching in HF may have to be done on images that are somewhat dark. The advantage is that you do not need a deep stack of JPGs (or TIFFs) in addition to NEF files.

hey appreciate the info bob...makes a lot of sense.
i prolly will need to beef up my computing infrastructure if i start running deep 50 meg .nef image stacks thru HF...
my poor little core i5 is struggling a bit.
thanks for the guidance.
w.