Pixiq

Helicon Focus is a fantastic program from Helicon Soft that was originally designed for macro photography, but it can also be applied to other types of images, such as landscapes, gardens, still-life photography, and even architecture. This program addresses the problem that photographers have always faced concerning the extremely shallow depth of field associated with macro work and the use of telephoto lenses. The principle upon which this plug-in is based is simple (and brilliant): Take several shots that focus on different planes throughout the depth of the image, and then use the software to combine them. The resulting photograph uses only the sharply focused parts of each photo so the resulting composite has complete depth of field.

Get Perfect Depth of Field

This type of macro or telephoto photography must be done from a tripod, and it’s essential that the subject doesn’t move at all from frame to frame. Once you have selected a subject, start by focusing on the farthest point in the composition that you want to appear sharp. For the next photos, focus a little closer to the camera for each picture until you have taken enough to cover the entire composition. As you focus on the elements very close to the lens, you will need to take more shots because the focus changes so quickly. When you have taken anywhere from six to ten pictures (some subjects may need even more—in one insect close-up I used 20 frames), Helicon Focus will merge them into a single photograph with complete depth of field. This is much more effective than using a small lens aperture like f/22 or f/32 and only taking one picture, because even a small aperture has limitations in what it can hold in focus. Taking several images and merging them with Helicon Focus means there are no limits to the kind of depth of field you can get.

I usually use f/8 because that is the “sweet spot”—typically, it’s the sharpest f/stop in a lens. You could use a larger lens aperture if necessary and get equally good results while using Helicon Focus. It is indeed remarkable to get a completely sharp picture from front to rear with a long lens or with a macro setup when the lens aperture is only f/8.

Compare photos A and B that were taken in a historic Confederate cemetery in Tennessee. 
Photo A was taken with a 200mm lens at f/8 where I focused on the background. This is just one of the images that was merged to form photo B. You can see how shallow the depth of field is. Had I closed down to f/32, I would definitely have had more depth of field, but because I was close to the large headstone in the foreground (I was about twelve feet away), there is no way that I could have gotten the entire frame tack sharp. With the help of Helicon Focus, the grass in front of the large headstone is tack sharp and the most distant grave markers and leaves in the background are also crisp. I used twelve different images to accomplish this effect, six of which can be seen in the following series.

Macro Photography

Helicon Focus excels in macro photography. When it is impossible to hold focus on a small subject from front to back, even at the smallest lens aperture, you can shoot it several times and assemble the images into one composite image, allowing you to accomplish what photographers have always wanted to do—defy the laws of optics and achieve complete depth of field. Compare photos C and D.

Both of these pictures were taken at f/22. I used a 200mm lens plus an extension tube that turned my lens into a telephoto macro. The depth of field inherent in this kind of lens setup is extremely shallow; so shallow in fact, that even at f/22 much of the piranha (which was mounted on a stand) in photo C is out of focus. Compare how tack sharp photo D is from the teeth to the tail. You can see the same thing in the two shots of an orchid in photos E and F.

In Photo E, I used f/32 because the structure in the middle of the flower protruded about 3/4-inch away from the petals. However, it’s not as sharp as photo F, where I used ten different images that were assembled in Helicon Focus. Notice that every petal is sharp in addition to the central structure. I purposely kept the background out of focus.

Using the Software

Like virtually all software, Helicon Focus has many options. However, if you use the default choices you can run the program with extreme ease. In fact, for the complexity of what it does, it’s almost comical how easy this software is to use.

When you launch the software, a dialog box opens; in the upper-left corner there is an Open icon. Click this icon and browse for the images you want to merge. It is easiest to place them in a single folder on your desktop ahead of time so they can be located quickly, and then select the individual images rather than the folder itself.

Before you put the images in the folder, make sure that:

1.    They are identical in size and exposure.

2.    They were taken from a tripod and that you either used a cable release or the 10-second self-timer on the camera to prevent any movement during the exposure. It’s also a good idea to use the mirror-lockup feature on your camera; this further eliminates any possible source of movement during image capture. Many times you can get away without this kind of meticulous work, but I like the odds to be in my favor for getting the most out of this technique.

3.     No part of the subject or the scene moved during the various exposures.

When you select the images in the folder, they will appear in a column on the left side of the dialog box. At the same time, a large preview window shows one of the images in the list. In Figure 1, you can see an image of a weevil crawling over bark. Notice the slice of this image that is in focus—it is a narrow portion of the bark behind the insect. In each image of the weevil, a narrow portion of the image is in focus like this. When they are all combined, the result is complete depth of field throughout the photo. Once your series of images are showing in the dialog box, all you have to do is click the cog-shaped icon at the top labeled Run (see the red arrow in Figure 1).

And that’s it; there’s no need to mess with lots of settings or controls. Helicon Focus will assemble all the photos into one composite, and if you were meticulous in your shooting, the resulting image will be astonishing. This is something that could never before be accomplished in photography.

Photo G shows the result of the weevil composite, where the entire image is sharp except where I decided to leave the background out of focus. When finished, the composite image can be saved as a Photoshop file to your desktop. I always save images to the desktop so I can find them easily and file them where they belong.

Advantages of Helicon Focus Over f/32

There are several advantages to choosing Helicon Focus over your smallest lens aperture. First, you can shoot at any lens aperture and still get complete depth of field. If the light is very low and you are afraid of the subject moving slightly (due to a small breeze, for example), you can shoot with a large lens aperture. As I have already mentioned, you can also choose the sharpest f/stop in the lens—the “sweet spot”—for maximum resolution.

Second, you can define exactly the amount of depth of field desired. Many times we want the background to be out of focus and the subject completely sharp. If the subject is very close to the background, such as an insect in front of leaves, a small aperture will not only get the insect sharp, but the background elements will be clearly defined as well. This is often undesirable because busy backgrounds are very distracting. By defining how many slices you focus on throughout the composition, you can keep the background nicely blurred but still render the subject sharp. Look at photo H as an example.

Note how sharp the katydid and the flower are while the background remains artistically soft.

Similarly, in photo I, 
the wasp nest is completely sharp, including the eggs inside the recessed sacs, but the background is out of focus and doesn’t distract from the subject.

Now compare the two shots of 
a rhinoceros beetle in photos J and K.

PHOTO J was taken with a lens aperture of f/32. Notice how defined the leaf is behind the insect? In photo K, the leaf is much softer. That’s because I used f/8 for this Helicon Focus composite, and while the entire insect is as sharp as possible, I didn’t include focused images of the leaf in the series that made the final image. Therefore, it remained out of focus and does not distract from the beetle.

The third advantage of Helicon Focus is you can enjoy the compression of elements in a scene characteristic of telephoto lenses and still have complete depth of field. Look at photo L, taken in the incredible Keukenhof Gardens in Holland.

You can see that a long lens was used, and because I was relatively close to the foreground, it would have been impossible to get the entire area of the composition in focus even at a small lens aperture because telephotos have such shallow depth of field. Helicon Focus made it possible, however, to have complete depth of field and at the same time achieve compression in the image.