Helicon Soft Forum

Hello,

I tried some focus stacking program and I ended up to prefer helicon... I'm going to buy the one year pro license.

There is just something that would make my work easier

_method C better color matching with the other methods.
I mean.. I use method C to retouch method B. But very often those 2 methods outputs are too different. Using the brightness and color tolerance sliders helps but I would say it's a 70%.... colors are less saturated and very often is noticeable and there's nothing to do. Isn't it any way to keep colors of method B and just add details of method C in retouching fase? (I admit that here I'm thinking about the retouching method of the other "big name" in focus stacking)

_Slab/substack
Would be very useful too.
If not a proper slab utility couldn't be possible to implement an easier way to select multiple images? In order to select a group of image for a sub stack now I have click on each image I need and is very uncomfortable: if I need a substack of 20 or more selected images it becomes a pain. Maybe leave the first image always checked for alignment sake and select images by simply dragging the mouse holding the right or left button or such...

_A sort of preview of the source image for retouching
F9 isn't always right. And searching for the right image takes a lot of time because the program every time tries to settle it for retouching .
For me would be useful to hold a key to just search and see the image so when I find it I can release the key I'm holding and the program can settle the source image for retouching...


Sorry for the long post and my rough English but I hope I was clear.
My subjects are miniature orchid flowers (lot of bristles but plain surfaces too) and carnivorous plants (carnivorous are easier).

Best wishes

Thanks for your comments.


Retouching:

Please have a look at clone brush (which clones within resulting image). There is an option "Texture only". I would appreciate if you test it. We can implement the same option on the Copy from source brush too.

Slabbing:

Already in our plans, we are thinking how to implement it best.

F9:

You can list source image using PgUp and PgDown keys. Is that what you meant?

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I will try it for sure! And give a feedback... cause, actually, I've got a good amount of photos that can be retouched only with pyramid.I managed to handle it anyway, but it's more tricky and time consuming than it could be... But I still have to explore this program so I will surely check it.

About the f9... no...I mean a different thing....probably this is something I notice more than others cause my pc is quite outdated (and I use TIFFs too ) and could be not a big deal with more modern computers. But when I search for the best source image during retouching (I use pg up- pg down for it) I notice that the program tries to settle every single image for retouching while I just want to see if the source image is what I'm searching for. I mean I would like to have an option that say to the program to simply load the images I'm scrolling without trying to settle them for retouching until I've found the right one. I would be able to search more easily... Just a matter of time in the end and not, as I said, a big deal...would just be nice to have it.

We cache aligned images on the disk, so using F9 or PgUp/PgDown actually loads cached images from memory or disk. I think you will just need faster disk (SSD) and more RAM to make it work faster.

Probably you are right...

Anyway....I think I got it. I tried the brush you suggested to me and I think (for what I've been able to see) that enabling it for retouch from a source image could be very handy and probably....yep! it could resolve a lot of problems when using the pyramid stack as a source. I can't be completely sure, but, to me, seems to be what I was searching for.

If you can implement it would be great and, in any case, I'm sure it will be an handy instrument.

I've attached a terrible iPad photo-from-screen, (sorry for the Italian translation too) of the brush I think we are talking about (just to be sure)

Yes, this is correct. We will add this option to Copy to source brush too.

Great news! Thanks