Helicon Focus Question...

[wallybud]

I downloaded the trial version of helicon focus, i assume if your helping me you know what it does ;) I tested it out and it works nicely. However I never put the image all the way through to save as or whatever.

My questions include

1. should i edit each frame and then sync them in CS3 raw converter, save them all as TIFFs and then upload them into helicon?

2. Should I upload the images as RAW files into helicon and if so does the final images come out as a RAW file that I can then edit in the converter?

3. my biggest question...does the software in anyway degrade the IQ of the actual final product compared to the originals? added noise..degraded sharpness etc?

Im very interested as I wish to use it in multiple exposure over 1min.

thanks for looking

[vvprok@mac.com]

Hi wallybud,

1. should i edit each frame and then sync them in CS3 raw converter, save them all as TIFFs and then upload them into helicon?I never need to do so. It accepts raw formats.

2. Should I upload the images as RAW files into helicon and if so does the final images come out as a RAW file that I can then edit in the converter?It allows to choose format of resulted image.
3. my biggest question...does the software in anyway degrade the IQ of the actual final product compared to the originals? added noise..degraded sharpness etc?No, no noises.
Moreover, it provide simple way to manually fix some problems on resulting image. In many cases the program does not have enough information to construct the perfect image: object on the foreground masks objects behind it. There is example from the publisher's site:
http://www.heliconsoft.com/focus/help/common/rtch_clone_source1.jpghttp://www.heliconsoft.com/focus/help/common/rtch_clone_source2.jpghttp://www.heliconsoft.com/focus/help/common/rtch_clone_result1.jpg

Program provide possibility to retouch such effects:
http://www.heliconsoft.com/focus/help/common/rtch_clone_result2.jpg

BTW, Win and Mac versions still can be purchased with Christmas discount ;) (20% off). However, discounts are provided by developer of Mac version (d-Studio (http://d-studio.com.ua), http://d-studio.com.ua/products/helicon_focus/purchase.html), but not by publisher (HeliconSoft (http://www.heliconsoft.com)).