![]() That product at the time never took off but now all the major brands of cameras offer focus stacking including Sony. Then, you can fire up Affinity Photo and import the TIFF16 to do all the advanced stuff like focus merging. I did this 10 years ago when I first started experimenting with focus stacking and actually was testing a focus stacking device made by a company in Dallas. Hi all Ive found that when focus merging in Photo, if I focus merge raw files (CR2 from a 80D in this case) the merged result is substantially darker than if I do the merge from the JPG files I captured at the same time as the RAWs. My advice if you are interested in purchasing Helicon Focus is to pay for the lifetime license. ![]() Now let’s take a look at Helicon’s blending of the same images: With Helicon Focus, the entire foreground was blended seamlessly with no hint of softness. Let’s take a closer look at just the dark foreground area of rocks where Photoshop clearly struggled: Photoshop’s blend of the dark foreground rocks was very inconsistent. I purposely processed this image a bit brighter to reveal the irregularities of the darker foreground blends. Some rocks are sharp while other areas are soft. Notice the lack of consistent blend in the foreground. For image formats such as JPG or TIF, your image will open in the default Photo Persona. by clicking File>Open and then navigating to your image in a specified folder. You can also open files: by dragging the file from a folder onto the Affinity Photo app’s icon. All 28 frames were opened as a stack, aligned, then blended – here is the result: Photoshop blended frame. The New Document dialog lets you open an existing image using the Open button. Here is the same image composited in Photoshop. Moreover, the entire process in Helicon is faster than Photoshop’s two-step method of opening as a stack out of Lightroom, then aligning and blending in Photoshop. On the other hand, Helicon Focus delivered consistent result from any stack I threw its way. What I found out after a week of working on files is that Photoshop is good most of the time but struggles when there are a lot of dark tones (such as the foreground of this 28-layer stack). What I wanted access to were the RAWS so I could use either Photoshop CC 2022 or Helicon Focus to assemble the frames. In short, I don’t care that the camera does not do the composite as that would be a JPEG file. One of the features I have been asking our engineers for that was included in this camera was the ability to focus stack and have access to the RAW files. I love guiding this workshop and as a bonus this year I got to work with the new Sony a7RV. I have returned from a three week journey to Iceland co-leading two workshops with fellow Sony Artisan Gary Hart. Focus stacking is a fantastic technique for landscape photography because it provides perfect sharpness throughout the scene youre shooting. ![]() Twenty-eight frames composited with Helicon Focus Captured with Sony a7RV + 100-400mm (shot at 300mm) in Focus Stack Mode. But after opening them into Affinity Photo, I realized I may be wrong.Focus Stacking :: Photoshop or Helicon Focus? Sunrise-lit Mountain Near Vik, Iceland. I didn’t hold out much hope for the Raws after viewing them on the back of the camera. I headed to this beach in South Wales with high hopes, only to be met with flat light, grey skies and relentless drizzle. Sometimes a scene might seem disappointing, only to reveal hidden delights in post.
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