Soft output compared to Photoshop

[AdamBlakeVision]

Hi there,

Brand new user, I just took a stack I had made and aligned/blended in Photoshop then compared to variations I made with HeliconFocus and so far the image is just softer compared to the Photoshop version. I tweaked the parameters slightly, trying Method B radius 8, smoothing 4, & Method C, but they appeared very similar and just soft comapred to what Photoshop outputted.

Maybe this is more of a settings thing that I need to dial in more, but I wanted to get some input from the community. I am photographing cannabis, so they are still images but very intricate with a lot of texture.

Thanks in advance!

[Catherine]

Are your source images raw files? Try converting to JPG or TIFF and comparing these converted files between Photoshop and Helicon Focus.

[AdamBlakeVision]

Are your source images raw files? Try converting to JPG or TIFF and comparing these converted files between Photoshop and Helicon Focus.

Yes they are Canon CR3 Raw files, I have the DNG converter so it's been converting them all but I will try the JPG or TIFF method as well. I wasn't sure if my Radius and Smoothing were the issue at all.

Thanks!

[Catherine]

The radius and smoothing parameters may affect the image, but you said you tried different combinations. So we're thinking that maybe Photoshop develops raw files better than the DNG converter.

The default radius and smoothing should be pretty good (you can reset to default by right-clicking the slider).

[vkams]

I compared different methods for converting from RAW during staking. The programs Capture 1, DxO PureRAW 4, Raw Therapy, Adobe Lightroom converted Nef -> 16-bit Tiff with lens correction (distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration, although all of them are negligible with the Tamron 90/2.8 VC model 017 macro lens). The next fragment is stacking in Photoshop: more detail is noticeable than in the RAW-in-DNG converter and dcdraw in Helicon Focus, but there are big errors if parts of the object have a gap in depth. They look like stripes without details.

[vkams]

Other photos.

[vkams]

The last one.

And I also ask you to comment on the error in the screenshot.

[Catherine]

The error most likely means that the installed Nikon codec doesn't support the camera that the image was shot with. Either way this is an error returned by the codec itself and there's nothing we can do about it.

I think comparing to focus stacking with Photoshop or other software is not the right way because there are two variables (raw conversion and the focus stacking itself). It would be better to compare raw conversion separately.

[vkams]

I want to clarify that all the pictures were generated by Helicon focus, except for the only one in Photoshop.