Helicon Soft Forum

Standard PC. Windows 7, 64-bit.
Lightroom 5.6
HF 6.2.2

I'm getting some odd behavior between LR and HF...

Unlike some of the recent topics, on my system the plugin shows up in the list of Lightroom Exports. The problem is the poor coordination.

I select a set of files in a folder in Lightroom. Export those images to Helicon Focus. Lightroom never stops the export task. It gets through the images, and Helicon Focus opens with them, but in Lightroom the task started to do the export doesn't end.

In Helicon I do a normal render, then go into Saving. HF doesn't automatically try to write the tif file back the location where the files were exported. I have to rummage through the system, find the right folder and get HF to save the .tif in the right location.

I don't know if I have something configured incorrectly in HF, although I don't see anything that says "stack with source images", but the other tools used as exports from Lightroom - Nik HDR Efex Pro for example - DO automatically place the output back in the same folder as the images exported to the tool.

Even after I manually force HF to put the .tif file back in the right folder, I then have to MANUALLY sync Lightroom and re-import the Helicon Focus output. Again, other tools such as HDR Efex Pro automatically ensure that the output .tif file gets put in the source folder and AUTOMATICALLY gets put back into Lightroom, then completes the task started for the export. With Helicon Focus, I eventually have to terminate the export task as it never completes...

I've ALREADY uninstalled and re-installed the plug-in, stopped and restarted all the software involved, and rebooted the system, so it doesn't appear to be a problem with installation of the plugin. Since, however, the other plug-ins I normally use do work as expected, this behavior between Helicon Focus and Lightroom doesn't seem correct.

Is there something I need to configure differently in Helicon Focus?

Thanks for your observations. Helicon Focus should automatically reimport saved result in LR. And the LR export task should disappear only after you close Helicon Focus window.

Please check if autoimport depends on saving Helicon Focus result. Try to save to some "simple" folder like "c:\temp" or "Pictures". Please also try jpg and tiff. Use default file names. I hope this will help us to find the clue.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what "please check if autoimport depends on saving Helicon Focus result" means...

As I said in the original post, EVERY OTHER tool I use that exports, automatically returns the result to Lightroom - Nik HDR Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro, Photomatix, Fusion Express, Viveza, Photoshop, and as near as I can tell, every other tools I either export to or edit in from Lightroom. Some of them automatically STACK the result with the original.

At present, Helicon Focus does not. Doesn't matter whether it's raw files or .jpgs. If I have a stack of images, render it and do a save, HF doesn't appear to have a clue that the output should go in the source folder. Nor does it close the export when the output is manually stored.

I"m not sure what other information to provide. Either it works perfectly on your Windows 7, 64-bit PC with Lightroom 5.6 as part of Adobe CC, or it doesn't. If yours doesn't, please fix it so HF works like the other products from Lightroom. If it DOES consistently work perfectly, tell me what configuration I need to change so this system does.

Has anyone found the solution to this very frustrating problem? Lightroom never terminates export a stack to helicon focus which will run 'till manually terminated and helicon focus dose not save back save to the source folder?. I have to save as a Tiff and import into Photoshop. I use an Imac and Yosemite. Both Helicon and Lightroom are the latest versions.

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Well, seems an issue with the HF plugin.

LR does export, runs HF and waits for HF to return a status which does not happen and therefore LR "appears" to be stuck. Also, the saving path issue does exist in HF if you try it. HF does not go the the source directory.

There is one other point here...LR has it's own share of bugs, some that have been around for 5 years or more. The latest being a major performance hit on Yosemite and high res displays. It is possible that LR appears to be stuck while exporting 'cause it's slowed down to a crawl on most operations. Check out the Adobe user forums for more on this and related topics.

You could try a manual approach of exporting to DNG from LR, have HF process and then manually save the output to any pre-defined path and then "import" into LR using the "move" option.

Don't think you can manually configure HF as an external editing app in LR since the HF command line takes a directory name only...could check it out though.