Focus Stacking, Depth Maps, And 3d Video In Helicon

Today, I've focus-stacked an ancient coin in Helicon Focus. Since the coin has nice relief, I thought I'd try 3D simulation in Helicon 3D Viewer and see what it can do.

First, a picture of a Cappadocia drachm, focus-stacked with the technique I described in an earlier post.



When Helicon Focus processes a stack of images, it also generates a depth map. Here's what it looks like. As you can see, the depth map isn't terribly high resolution. The steps I've done (by hand) are fairly consistent--except for one. If I were shooting this coin tethered, I would choose smaller increments to get more accurate 3D data.



Using the depth map, Helicon 3D Viewer then wraps the stacked image over a 3D model. Then, you can transform the 3D simulation in space and capture these steps as images, built into a composite below.



To get the 3D sim to look believable, you have to play with the relief amplifier.