Cynarina

[youngtimothy]

Timothy, nice timing.
Though the image is a little dark, those are some intense, deep colors. Is that the way the coral looks?

Are you using a tripod? Your images seem to have a slight blur to them, or maybe they just need sharpening?

Gary

thanks, It did look pretty close to this, the lighting is not the greatest at the store and I had to shoot at an angle through the acrylic tank, I'm thinking thats the reason for the blur. yes I'm using a tripod ( not the greatest ) also I shoot in timer mode so I dont shake.

 

[gparr]

Agreed, shooting at an angle would explain it and acrylic adds a little more distortion than glass.
Gary

 

[Saltysteele]

i bought a remote shutter release for my canon, and it's one of the best purchases i've made in a while! think it was only like 23 bucks. i love, love, love it! it even allows my 3yo daughter to be my "helper" without her touching the camera or wiggling it

 

[Saltysteele]

sara, i love the color of yours! like a creamsicle! beautiful!

btw, gary, i'm emailing you the original. between work and not feeling well, i'm a little behind. thank you, sir! any tips on contrast adjustment would be much appreciated. right now, i just adjust the levels (CS2: edit=> adjustments => levels; adjust green, red and blue separately) and use unsharp mask (thanks, JR).

 

[JuniorMC8704]

Well gary, i tried stacking photos and they look all pixelated.

Can you share some of the steps you take? perhaps i dont have the settings right.

 

[gparr]

Well gary, i tried stacking photos and they look all pixelated.

Can you share some of the steps you take? perhaps i dont have the settings right.

My approach is to take the series of RAW files and correct the color temp/tint in the RAW converter. Helicon Focus will process RAW files, bit I've had better results by saving the series as unaltered tif files. I use the batch-processing tools in the Adobe RAW converter. I then use the tif files in Helicon Focus, get my combined image, and finish processing in Photoshop. Are you trying to stack jpg images? That's the only way I can think you'll get pixelated results, Gary

 

[JuniorMC8704]

nope, NEF (raw) files.

Granted I goofed, and shot them in ISO 1600.


Are you changing any of the settings in Helicon Focus?

do you go into panaramic and move anything around?

I cant really find any how-to anything in their help area, and didnt know if thats what i was doing wrong.

 

[gparr]

1600 shouldn't matter.

Yes, Helicon Focus is limited in its help. I just winged it. Here are my steps:
--Click on Open and select the series of photos I want processed
-When they're all imported, click on run. Processing is automatic.
--Under Options, General, I'm using Method B with default settings Radius 8 and Smoothing 4. Method B seems to give better results.
--When processing is finished, I right click on the file the appears in that Output area and save it as a tif.
--I then go to PS and process that tif.

I have not had a need to move anything around. I shoot everything with a tripod so all images are identical, except when a polyp moves during the exposures.

I've not ventured any further than that in terms of using the software.

Gary

 

[JuniorMC8704]

hmmm....maybe im just not taking enough pics...

what F-stop are you shooting at?

 

[gparr]

Number of photos should not be a factor. I've combined 2 and various combinations up to 16. I've also shot at a wide range of f/stops. I tend to shoot in the f/8-f/11 range for these. Are you overlapping your DOF sufficiently, shot-to-shot? If you're not overlapped, the software doesn't do well.
Gary

 

[SaraB]

sara, i love the color of yours! like a creamsicle! beautiful!

Thanks! I had not seen another one like it, so that's why it ended up in my tank!

 

[JuniorMC8704]

I set it to F11, focused on the front, and then moved the focus back by tony increments all the way to the back....so i have to imagine they are more than overlapping.

Ill give it another try, and let you know how it works out.

Number of photos should not be a factor. I've combined 2 and various combinations up to 16. I've also shot at a wide range of f/stops. I tend to shoot in the f/8-f/11 range for these. Are you overlapping your DOF sufficiently, shot-to-shot? If you're not overlapped, the software doesn't do well.
Gary