Helicon Focus Questions

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ann
Posts: 1
Joined: 01.05.2007 21:10

Helicon Focus Questions

Post by ann »

I recently downloaded your trial software and I have some questions about Helicon Focus which I have not found elsewhere on the forums.

Does it matter the order in which the images are opened into HF? Does the closest focused image need to be first and the rest follow in order to the one with the focus farthest from the camera?

Is there a way to change the order in HF? When I tried to import them out of file number order, HF would resort them into numerical order. The only way I found to avoid that was to rename the images in the order I wanted.

In the photo of the rifle, I am confused about the statement "the same point is focused in both the 1st and 13th plane". In the group of rifle images I downloaded, those frames are not focused at the same point. Does HF start over if there are more than 12 frames? What am I missing?

Still referring to the rifle, was the opacity map added to frame #1 to use the focused end of the rifle? The text refers to white being opaque on the mask. In my few tests, white seems to reveal the area painted on the mask, just like Photoshop. Am I getting this right?

Do opacity masks usually get added to every frame or do they just get added to a particular frame when HF is not picking the focused area correctly?

Is there an upgrade scheduled soon for Mac that uses the retouch brushes instead of opacity maps?

In my initial tests, I had remarkable results. However, when I tried to go back to tweak them, I have been unable to get them as good as my first try. I did not write down the settings used, so I don't know which settings to change. Are there any guidelines about using the radius and smoothing settings?

It would be wonderful to see more examples of images that needed some tweaking after the first run through HF. Comments about why specific settings were changed or how to select a specific frame for an opacity mask would be very helpful.

Sorry for the long post,

Ann
Dan Kozub
Posts: 355
Joined: 24.03.2004 18:14

Post by Dan Kozub »

>Does it matter the order in which the images are opened into HF? Does the closest focused image need to be first and the rest follow in order to the one with the focus farthest from the camera?

No, this not very important. But in some cases you will need to crop resulting image because there is no info to till the margins of the shot.

>Is there a way to change the order in HF? When I tried to import them out of file number order, HF would resort them into numerical order. The only way I found to avoid that was to rename the images in the order I wanted.

On the Parameters tab click on the icons above the list of source images.

This applies to 4.16 version.


>In the photo of the rifle, I am confused about the statement "the same point is focused in both the 1st and 13th plane". In the group of rifle images I downloaded, those frames are not focused at the same point. Does HF start over if there are more than 12 frames? What am I missing?

If you place small object before your camera, you can focus your camera on that object to get first shot. Then you can focus on the background and this small object will not be visible at all. So you get the second shot where the background _behind_ small object is visible and focused.

The program has difficulties in this case which layer to use for the final image.

>Still referring to the rifle, was the opacity map added to frame #1 to use the focused end of the rifle? The text refers to white being opaque on the mask. In my few tests, white seems to reveal the area painted on the mask, just like Photoshop. Am I getting this right?

Yes, this is like a mask. But note, that in recent Windows version of Helicon Focus we use simple method - special retouching brushes.

>Do opacity masks usually get added to every frame or do they just get added to a particular frame when HF is not picking the focused area correctly?

They can be added to one or to all frames. If one mask work, then use only one mask.

>Is there an upgrade scheduled soon for Mac that uses the retouch brushes instead of opacity maps?

We plan to upgrade Mac version but not fixed dates so far.

>In my initial tests, I had remarkable results. However, when I tried to go back to tweak them, I have been unable to get them as good as my first try. I did not write down the settings used, so I don't know which settings to change. Are there any guidelines about using the radius and smoothing settings?

From my experience, bigger radius works good on smooth surfaces. Complex objects like insects with give better results with smaller radius (2-6). Anyway, try extremes and you will see the trend for your image.
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