Workflow questions

Shooting in macro mode, techniques, tips & tricks
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EvgAbro
Posts: 3
Joined: 03.01.2014 00:28

Workflow questions

Post by EvgAbro »

Hello and thank you for the great product. I've been testing the trial version for a couple of days and I think it's a great tool for my jewellery photography projects. I do have several questions, though, for which I haven't found answers in tutorials or in the forum:

1. When controlling a camera via Android phone with Helicon Remote, is there a way to save the images to the camera card? So far, all the shot images were automatically downloaded to my phone.

2. Is stacking with Helicon Remote (by moving the focus point via lens adjustments), as opposed to focusing rails, efficient for small objects, e.g. jewellery rings, etc?

3. What file formats does Helicon Focus works with? I've managed to create a composite image both from .DNG and from .TIF of the same images; however, while using the same method (A and B) the results were different, depending on the file format (DNGs were constantly overexposed, for some reason).

4. Photoshop has a great layer alignment algorithms - a function I haven't found in Helicon. Is it possible to use a .PSD or .TIFF file with aligned layers to create a blended image in Helicon Focus?

Thank you in advance for your time!

Evgeniy
Portfolio: 500px.com/Vitudi
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Stas Yatsenko
Posts: 3841
Joined: 06.05.2009 14:05
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Re: Workflow questions

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

1. Yes, you can change the destination in the Preferences/Saving.

2. Both methods works. Focusing rails provide much better precision which is important for extreme macro. In your case it could be more important to avoid parallax and keep entrance pupil steady.
Please have a look at this discussion:
http://www.heliconsoft.com/forum/viewto ... 124&p=9402
http://www.heliconsoft.com/forum/viewto ... 101&p=7474
http://www.heliconsoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1141

3. Focus stacking is sensitive to level of noise and details. I think, TIF and DNG are processed by different RAW engines and this affects the stacking result.

4. Helicon Focus aligns images before stacking, so there should be no need in PS. If you see some misalignments, please send us a stack for tests (as described at http://www.heliconsoft.com/ftp-server/).
EvgAbro
Posts: 3
Joined: 03.01.2014 00:28

Re: Workflow questions

Post by EvgAbro »

Hi Stas,

Thank you for a detailed reply! Much appreciated.


Regards,

Evgeniy
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