![]() Try this experiment: inspect an object at infinity in a picture taken at, say, f/16 and focused for the hyperfocal distance it will not have the same sharpness as when focused at infinity itself. Depth of field has to do with circles of confusion, the technical term for what viewers accept as slightly blurred but apparently in focus. The traditional technique of stopping down to f/16 or beyond and using the hyperfocal distance will render a scene reasonably sharp, creating a seemingly large depth of field. But Helicon Soft’s program will produce much sharper results. If a scene includes one object occupying a vertical plane near the camera and others in vertical planes great distances away, extremely small apertures are an often-employed solution. In fact, Helicon Focus allows photographers to capture images impossible even with huge view cameras. Imagine kneeling down before a mountain lake, keeping foreground flowers and background mountains all in focus without tilting lenses. Even landscapes can benefit from extreme depth of field. ![]() But don’t just limit yourself to small subjects. Who hasn’t taken a close-up of a flower and wished to have everything from the tip of the anther to the last dew-dropped petal in focus? Now you can. You might immediately think of micro and macro subjects, where depth of field is always minimal. Step One: Find a subject that can be enhanced with an extensive depth of field. While the algorithms used to create final images are undoubtedly complex, photographers using Helicon Soft will find its operation quite simple. The secret to this new technique lies in the processing engine of Helicon Soft’s nifty program, Helicon Focus, which takes the in-focus areas of multiple exposures of the same subject - manually focused on different planes throughout the field of view - and combines them into one, completely focused image with virtually unlimited depth of field. Extreme depth of field used to be the province of pinhole shooters and pricey view cameras, but now anyone with a manually-focusing camera, a tripod, a computer, and $30 can create images that are tack sharp from right in front of the camera to infinity - even with macros and telephotos!
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