Comparing Affinity Photo Focus Merge with HeliconSoft HeliconFocus
I have seen many recommendations for HeliconFocus. I own Affinity Photo and have used it to successfully create HDR Merged, Pano Stitched, and Focus Merged composites. I wanted to compare these products for myself.
HeliconFocus costs $200 USD for a persistent license and does one job - focus merge. Affinity Photo costs $50 USD (on sale now for $25 USD) and is a full blow pixel editor that also does HDR Merge, Pano Stitch, and Focus Merge.
Can a $25 software package do as good a job as a $200 software package? Does one package have advantages over the other?
Watch the video to find out!
QUALITY:
I honestly cannot see any difference in output quality from each tool. While this video explores only a single image sequence, I tested several different focus stack scenes. Both tools produced the same high quality output.
INTEGRATION:
HeliconFocus provides direct integration with Capture One and Adobe Lightroom. If you start from raw files and use "Edit With" in Capture One, you can choose whether to retain or throw away the intermediate RGB files used to create the merged image. When you save the final merged image, it automatically adds the file to your Capture One catalog if you use a catalog based workflow. This makes for a seamless workflow and is a time saver.
Affinity Photo requires creating a new Focus Merge document in Affinity Photo, then selecting the source image files to merge. There is no way to send images from Capture One or Adobe Lightroom directly into a Focus Merge document in Affinity Photo. When you export the final output, you have to manually import the output file into your catalog if you use a catalog based workflow. This is a less efficient workflow.
PROCESSING:
Helicon Focus offers different algorithms for selecting source image areas to merge. In addition, it lets you choose the radius of the area to use for analyzing sharp focus and separate size for smoothing / blending the final layers together (hardness of the mask edges). This offers great flexibility for fine tuning and rerunning the process. Each run is saved in a filmstrip in the application so you can compare them and select the run that produced the best result.
Affinity Photo provides no fine tuning of the rendering process itself. The algorithm used is a magic sauce we cannot manipulate. Based on the final output quality from all the scenes I tested, I am NOT troubled by this. The output quality as I stated above is effectively equal for both tools.
ADJUSTMENTS:
Helicon Focus and Focus Merge both present the layers of images used to create the final focus stacked product. Each lets you review and correct which image layer is used in an area of the merged image. I demonstrate this process in both tools in the video.
Helicon Focus provides a nicer interface for selecting which layer was used for a specific area with an F9 keyboard shortcut. It also provides text next to the mouse indicating which source images was used for the area under the mouse.
CONCLUSION:
Professionals who do lot of focus stacking will benefit from the seamless integration and easier source selection of Helicon Focus. While I can find no difference in the output quality of both products, Helicon Focus works faster and will save time. Affinity Photo should provide a way to send files directly to a Focus Merge document, and automatically add the output file to your Capture One or Adobe Lightroom catalog.
Helicon Focus costs $200 USD for a Lifetime license.
https://www.heliconsoft.com/heliconso...
Affinity Photo costs $50 USD (currently on sale for $25 USD).
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/
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