#Helicon focus alternative software#
#Helicon focus alternative trial#

In most of the grass images I do, the details are so small that the imperfections in the stacks are not even close to being visible in a 1500px web view.Īnyway, thanks for asking. Imagine what the difficulty is in hundreds, thousands of tiny leaves. Keep in mind too, this image contains only aspen trunks - no moving in the wind and not many fine details or difficult edge transitions. This particular intimate scene worked better at f/16 than the attempt at stacking.Ī little hard to tell in this image, but hopefully you can see. The end result are areas that are not well defined and clearly not fit for printing or often even web display. Anyway, PS often can’t figure out which area is best, or the in-focus areas are “too close” for PS to distinguish, and it attempts to do some content aware filling, or other things I don’t understand. There’s a visible difference in focus between front and back trunks, plus 2 other focus points in between. I’m zoomed out at 170mm and shooting at f/8. It’s a grouping of aspen trunks separated by maybe 15-20ft front to back. Here is a close up example of a simple 4-image stack. There’s operator error too, and I’m not even sure I’m doing the best job in the field when capturing, which could make it harder for PS to do stuff. Now to be fair to PS, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a genius when it comes to the technical aspects, and I try to take the simple, easy route. Thanks for the Zerene Stacker reference too. Was just checking to see if there were any other options out there that I hadn’t heard about.

Sure, I get the power of the sw, but if I don’t need all the bells and whistles, I hope it’s easy enough to produce a quality image without too much trouble. I’m just hoping there’s an “easy button” for simple stacks. It seems to me these focus stacking programs are great for very complicated subjects (macro/micros of flies and table-top photography…) I have no plans for anything like that and would utilize primarily for simply landscape type images (you know me, grasses, etc.) Nothing complicated about the PS process - it’s just that it doesn’t deliver great results, depending on the scene.

#Helicon focus alternative software#

My initial fear like with anything new or different is being able to use the software without much pain and minimal learning curve. Then again, they have a holiday sale $40 off regular price, so I may just purchase anyway.

#Helicon focus alternative trial#

Duh, on downloading and checking out trial versions… The Helicon sw is fully functional for 30 days, so I’ll be giving that a try.