Posted by Dennis Halsey on February 9, 2010 at 10:45 AM
I'm interested in getting the maximum depth of field for floral closeups, with my D300 and 105mm micro lens. I'm considering Helicon Focus or the Nikon PC micro lens. Which would be best, for image quality, and depth of field, Helicon Focus or the Nikon PC micro lens? Thanks. Dennis
Posted by Mark Kraus on February 9, 2010 at 12:51 PM
If you want a lot of DOF HF is the best way to go. But good results with HF are only as good as the technique and quality of lens used. The nikon 105 is a great lens.
Mark
Posted by Carl Battreall on February 9, 2010 at 12:58 PM
They work differently. I have started using Helicon focus more and more over my tilt-shift lenses. With macro work, the main issue is movement. Things can't move if you are using Helicon Focus and with close up work you often need to take 5 or 6 or more frames to get the desired depth of field.
It conditions where its windy or there is other movement in the frame then a tilt-shift lens is a better options. They do achieve a different look and the tilt-shift lens for macro work is very limited on its abilities to create "maximum depth of field" and Helicon is limited by movement in the frame.
I would give Helicon a try, its a lot cheaper than a PC lens and does a great job if you take your time and use it when its really needed.
Focus stacking in general, the principle of Helicon Focus, doesn't work very well without a completely static subject (minus wind movement especially). Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Posted by Dennis Halsey on February 9, 2010 at 1:40 PM
Thanks for all your responses. I'm inclined to try Helicon. I've been looking at it for quite a while, trying to decide. The major drawback, as far as I'm concerned, is that it is not available as a plug in to my Photoshop Elements 7 program. Can anyone point me to a tutorial which shows the Helicon workflow, ending with an image I can import directly into my PSE 7 program?
Posted by Dan Borzynski on February 9, 2010 at 5:55 PM
I believe that you can run Helicon Focus as a stand-alone product and import/export the images as a tiff or PSD file, both of which you can import into Elements 7. Here is a link to a general workflow:
With regards to the original question as to which is better: HF or a TS lens? Yes.
Both have their place. HF cannot handle subject motion very well but is extremely useful for static subjects. The TS lenses handle motion well (landscapes) and allow you to place the plane of focus exactly where you want it to be. That in itself can give the illusion of greater DOF (think a long, long field with DOF extending front to back). But the TS lens doesn't help if you want sharpness outside of the DOF cone, such as shooting a 3D object where you want multiple planes of sharpness that a smaller f-stop and tilting still won't handle.
In either case, you will need to pick and choose your battles based on the capabilities of what you already have. IF you can afford it, go for both.
Discussion
5 repliesMark
It conditions where its windy or there is other movement in the frame then a tilt-shift lens is a better options. They do achieve a different look and the tilt-shift lens for macro work is very limited on its abilities to create "maximum depth of field" and Helicon is limited by movement in the frame.
I would give Helicon a try, its a lot cheaper than a PC lens and does a great job if you take your time and use it when its really needed.
Carl
www.photographalaska.com
http://www.heliconsoft.com/focus_workflow.html
With regards to the original question as to which is better: HF or a TS lens? Yes.
Both have their place. HF cannot handle subject motion very well but is extremely useful for static subjects. The TS lenses handle motion well (landscapes) and allow you to place the plane of focus exactly where you want it to be. That in itself can give the illusion of greater DOF (think a long, long field with DOF extending front to back). But the TS lens doesn't help if you want sharpness outside of the DOF cone, such as shooting a 3D object where you want multiple planes of sharpness that a smaller f-stop and tilting still won't handle.
In either case, you will need to pick and choose your battles based on the capabilities of what you already have. IF you can afford it, go for both.