Helicon Soft Forum

Hello. I'm new to the forums. I've had Helicon Focus for a while and used it with mixed results. Today I am trying to photograph a knife, and nothing I can do seems to make it work right. Here is the latest attempt.

Any ideas where I am going wrong? I'm using a tripod and a Novoflex focussing rack, with a remote release and mirror lockup, however, the tripod is standing on a thick carpet so it's not impossible there is some fractional movement taking place. Aperture is f8 and lighting is tungsten (I tried using a Nikon SB-24 flash but discovered that the light output was inconsistent and I ended up with a striped effect)

First of all you need to make more photos with smaller step. Focused areas should overlap so that the program has enough information to reconstruct the final image. After you get full object sharp, experiment with Method and Radius.

Thanks Dan. My earlier attempts were made from more images - but these produced more ghosting. Anyway, I shall persevere. I think I'll start by moving table and tripod onto a concrete floor so I can be sure there is no movement taking place.

Ghosting can also appear if the program is not able to align images. This is can be your case because the details level on the blade is very low and the shape of the object is linear. I would suggest to disable or decrease Autoadjustment settings in the Parameters. Or, you may try to add one more object to the scene, a white line perpendicular to the blade. You can erase this line later by clonning.