Digital BW, The Print

Bert,

How do you deal with the ghosting problems that result from the image size
changing slightly as you change focus?
This is the big problem I found with Helicon macro work. Maybe its dependent
on the type of lens focusing (IF or whatever)?
I know they now support masks but fiddling with masks starts to get much
more work.

Mike

2009/7/21 bertgf <bertgf@...>

>
>
> Paul,
> I have been using Helicon Focus for years. I commonly expose 6 and up to 30
> frames. I have been very pleased with the results. I photograph flowers
> exclusively.
> Although I have ALWAYS used a tripod HF would not work acceptably when I
> was scanning film. The registration was not good enough. Using a digital
> camera it works fine most of the time. There cannot be any movement in the
> subject (I work exclusively with macros of flowers where a slight breeze is
> a storm). If the depth of field is too deep and/or steep HF loses control/
> goes haywire or whatever.
> Compositing of pictures used to take me something like 6-20 hours. Now with
> HF I can watch each composite taking place, see which exposure might be
> throwing it off and have the result in less than 30 seconds.
> I have emailed with the developer in the Ukraine but do not have a personal
> relationship with him. However I feel he has a tremendous product.
>
> BertGF
>
> P.S. On my website www.cameraflora.com the lower galleries are all done
> with a digital camera and HF.
>
>
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com<DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "pr_roark" <pr_roark@...> wrote:
> >
> > (I hope this is not too off-topic.)
> >
> > I've been experimenting with Helicon focus, a program that will combine
> multiple images that were focused on different points of the subject. I have
> combined frames manually in Photoshop to get better depth of field in my
> landscape images for some time. I'd tried an earlier version of Helicon and
> had decided not to used it, but Luminous Landscape published a good review
> of the latest version. There is a free trial period for Helicon software.
> So, giving it a test drive is reasonably easy.
> >
> > The image I tried today (and gave up on) was composed of 2 focus zones
> and taken with the Canon 5d2, 35 mm lens.
> >
> > The problems included artifacts in the sky and moving the detail of the
> image around such that the artifacts could not easily be cured by cloning in
> information from the original scenes. The details were also noticeably
> softened at 100%.
> >
> > Earlier, I'd tried a shot with moving water in it. These types of
> programs usually have trouble with that too, and it did.
> >
> > So, it's back to manual work. While 2 images are not too bad to stitch
> together, more is a pain.
> >
> > Paul
> > www.PaulRoark.com <http://www.paulroark.com/>
> >
>
>  
>


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