FAQ – Helicon Focus
Q: Is there a Helicon Focus plugin for Photoshop Lightroom? How does it work?
In general the workflow has the following algorithm:
- Select the images in Photoshop Lightroom that you want to be rendered in Helicon Focus
- Right-click on one of the selected images
- Go to Export\Helicon Focus in the context menu
- Helicon Focus will be launched automatically. The export progress bar will appear in the left upper corner of Photoshop Lightroom window and the export process will be shown as suspended until focus stacking is not finished.
- Select the rendering method and parameters in Helicon Focus and press the Render button.
- Close Helicon Focus after saving the image.
- The progress bar in Photoshop Lightroom will show that the process was completed.
- The saved output will be imported to Lightroom automatically, just make sure you’re standing on the All photographs folder.
If for one reason or another Helicon Focus plugin for Photoshop Lightroom does not work as described, please go to Helicon Focus main menu\Edit\Preferences\Integration tab, press the Uninstall plugin and then the Install plugin button. It will reinstall the plugin, which will solve most of problems with the plugin operation.
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Q: Raw files are displayed in Helicon Focus not as I expected. What should I do?
Open the RAW development settings window below the Source image list. Try different RAW engines in the Codec drop-down list and adjust the parameters. Choose the best codec and parameters for your Raw files.
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Q: Is my camera's RAW format supported?
For instance, if we talk about Adobe DNG Converter, you should check it here: https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html
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Q: There are trails of colored or black dots on the rendered image. Why is that and what do I do about it?
Helicon Focus has a Dust map feature designed to deal with dust spots and hot pixels.
In order to create a map of hot pixels, please use dark or black background - for instance, take a picture with the lens cap on. If you want to eliminate dark spots (like specks of dust on the sensor), shoot against a bright white background. It is also possible to eliminate both hot pixels and dark pixels at the same time, for that adjust exposition such that the background is even and as close to 50% gray as possible - such that both very dark and very bright pixels have enough contrast for the software to detect them.
Please note that the dust map should have the same dimensions as all the other images in the stack. Additionally, if your source images are in raw format, the dust map must also be in the same format and if you pre-process your source raw images, the dust map must also undergo the same pre-processing. This is necessary because raw converters and raw processors may crop images slightly, changing the (X, Y) coordinates of the defective pixels.
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If you have general or Helicon Remote related questions, please check the Purchase, Download, Activation or FAQ - Helicon Remote pages.
If you don't find the answer there, please feel free to contact us.