Helicon Focus 5.1 w/ Helicon Remote

[pnolan48]

David,

Thanks for the pointers about Helicon. I've been using ricebags and mirrors to get down low, and also have a few "tabletop" or "clamp" tripods--one of which looks very much like a handgun when folded up in a camera bag. After three rather breathless, urgent airport camera bag searches, I've taken it out. Not needed for road trips!

I haven't purchased a front surface mirror as recommended by Rich Yourstone, but regular mirrors have worked OK with a little effort to eliminate reflections off the glass.

I've been using the Nikon 12-24 zoom at f/8. It's a wonderful lens for everyday shooting, but I want something sharper for the new railroad pictures--perhaps a macro? BTW, at f/22, that zoom goes from perhaps six inches to infinity, but with the diffraction you noted.

I'm still in the manual focus/manual exposure/infrared trigger stage, rather than tethering the camera to my laptop, which doesn't have Helicon installed. I get irrationally nervous tethering my camera to a computer. And the entire Helicon process is mostly painless and fast.

Besides, doing things manually allows me to think a bit during shots.

[DKS]

I haven't purchased a front surface mirror as recommended by Rich Yourstone, but regular mirrors have worked OK with a little effort to eliminate reflections off the glass.

First-surface mirrors can be had relatively economically from stained glass suppliers. They're most often used by stained glass hobbyists for making kaleidoscopes.

This very early effort was taken using a first-surface mirror, but it pre-dated my getting into Helicon Focus, so I photoshopped two images together. Ain't perfect, but it was a worthwhile exercise.
 

[TrainCat2]

Oooh, Pick Me, Pick Me! . . . The iPOD.

[pnolan48]

First-surface mirrors can be had relatively economically from stained glass suppliers. They're most often used by stained glass hobbyists for making kaleidoscopes.

Just never got around to it, David. I was married to a stained glass hobbyist. The other mirrors usually worked fine, and were much easier to cut into odd shapes. Mirror glass is usually very soft. Besides, it's dirt cheap, even compared to relatively economical first-surface mirrors--which also won't break the bank, I agree. Just had a whole lot of mirror stuff around.

[Day One]

I picked up Helicon Focus +remote today to use with my Nikon D5000. Of course the camera battery is dead right now (charge faster!  ;D ) but I'm looking forward to working with this combo. I'll be using it for some pictures for articles and SNFF for the most part.

Right now I'll be shooting with the kit 18-55 lens but I'm seriously looking at a Macro lens. Taking into consideration that I"ll mostly be shooting model trains, what are your suggestions for a macro lens?

[Day One]

Battery is charged and I have some test shots. I'm just playing around with it right now to learn the software so I'm just shooting stuff on my desk with no fancy lighting. I like the remote plugin! It's very nice to be able to click a few drop down menus to configure your shot and then click another button to start it shooting. You can then just walk away and let it shoot all the shots and come back when it's done.

First up is a 36 file stack of an Athearn Challenger with a black back ground. Did I need 36 files? No. But since all I had to do was click a few settings in the software and walk away for awhile while the camera and software did the work, why not? The results are nice with a few exceptions. The handrails in front of the smoke box are fuzzy and missing and there are clear halos around the bell, exhaust stack and front sand box.


I eliminated some of the files from the stack and reprocessed it to see if that would help eliminate the halos and bring back the details but it made a very small improvement. You can see in the depth map where some of the rear files were eliminated (the bigger steps in gradients to the right) The idea was that these were the pictures where the background was in focus around the fuzzy details and halos. I thought that eliminating the background focus here, might improve the clarity of the front. It did, but not very much.


Next I tried a white back ground with a stack of just 15 files. Everything else stayed the same. The results are quite good.


and the related depth map


and my favorite of the night. A stack of 20 files with few flaws. The caboose came out a bit out of focus but this only the 3rd shot processed with Helicon.


I'll be using this more and posting more pictures and findings as I go along.

cheers!