Helicon Filter
Encyclopedia
Helicon Filter, also referred to as Helicon, Filter, or as HF, is a proprietary
commercial
and shareware
photo editing software program
for Microsoft Windows
, similar to such programs as Adobe Photoshop
and GIMP
, developed and published by Helicon Soft Ltd. Unlike these other programs, Helicon Filter is designed primarily to edit and improve existing photos and not for graphics creation. Helicon Filter's interface also differs from other programs in that compact toolbar
s and menus containing editing tools are replaced with labeled "filter" tabs, each tab containing labeled edit options specific to a single aspect of the picture. Although some editors used to Photoshop-style programs may initially find this layout unfamiliar and unlike the standard toolbar layout, beginners and those who don't recognize the standard icons generally find this very helpful for getting through the editing process.
. By 2005, Helicon Filter had become known for its noise reduction ability, though it also had some other basic features such as RAW
support, exposure
correction, color adjustments
, red eye
removal, and resizing/cropping
. More recent versions of the program have yielded more advanced features also found in Photoshop CS
including cloning
, selective color editing, and HDR imaging
, though Helicon Filter still lacks other features found in Photoshop such as layer support, full selective editing abilities, and the ability to create graphics. The program runs in English
, Russian
, German
, French
, Spanish
, Dutch
and Italian
.
Live preview
Helicon Filter's live preview can be used in either simple mode (commercial and freeware versions) or expert mode (commercial versions only). Simple mode allows the user to control aspects of the picture with fewer sliders, fewer brushes, no equalizers and no Aberrations filter, while expert mode gives the user more sliders along with equalizer control. Live preview can be used to show the final image after editing, can show a split between the edited version and the original, and can show images as a full-screen preview. Right-clicking causes the image preview to temporarily be replaced with the original version. A slider exists to select custom zoom, and in most filter tabs, a magnifying class can be used to view portions of a picture at higher magnification. In some filters, an "edit map" can be used to view which areas which will be affected from those filters. There is also a filter-guide wizard
to help in going through a workflow of the different filter tabs.
Plugins
Helicon Filter is designed to support plugins which would work with Photoshop (i.e., they are in the 8BF file format), however many of these plugins do not properly function in Helicon Filter and other programs which claim their support.
Image stacking
In Helicon Filter Home and Pro, one is able to stack several images of the same subject where the pictures are of the same dimensions. The program does not implement layers
for customized stacking, rather the program has built in stacking for specific uses. Firstly, High dynamic range images
(HDR) can be created using the Increase dynamic range command. Secondly, the program is able to stack several images with high noise levels into one low-noise picture. Finally, the program is partially capable of stacking images of a moving subject together to create effects of time-lapse
or multi-exposure
photography to capture such things as moving stars, however Helicon Filter cannot spread out the frames to amplify a subject's motion (e.g. landing bird, flipping gymnast) or create GIF movies from these images.
Noise reduction
Image noise
and grain can be controlled in the Noise filter using the Noise level, Highlights, Shadows
, Radius and Chroma sliders. These sliders allow for selective noise reduction by object detail and brightness. Noise reduction can be applied to specific colors in expert preview mode using an equalizer. In this filter, there is also a dust and hot/dead pixel map feature which, based on a special photograph, allows the user to define certain areas in the picture which would have dust and dead pixels for the program to remove.
Brightness
The exposure and lighting
of a photograph can be improved using the Contrast, Gamma, Exposure, Local contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Black point, and White point sliders. An equalizer to control effect by exposure (with a zone slider for tone mapping
, along with Haze compensation and gradient haze compensation sliders, appear in expert preview mode.
Colors
In the Colors filter, an image's white balance
can be adjusted through color sliders or by selecting an area of the picture that should be white or match a predefined "memory color". Equalizers control spectral sensitivity and saturation by color. The brightness, hue and saturation of a color range can also be modified in a process often referred to as color swapping.
Aberration Removal
In expert preview mode, chromatic aberration
s can be removed in the Aberration filter by selecting an aberration color and adjusting the Radius, Brightness threshold, and Color tolerance sliders. There is also a tool to reduce lateral aberrations. This filter works by taking all areas in a picture with the defined aberration color and reducing its saturation to zero. Since purple fringing
, a common aberration type, is easiest to remove, purple is by default the aberration removal color. Optical aberrations, such as red/cyan fringing, are more difficult to remove and often must be cloned out in order to remove them completely.
Sharpening
In the Sharpening filter, sliders allow for the sharpening of both small details and edges. In expert preview mode, an equalizer can be used to sharpen specific colors and leave others unchanged. White halos can also be suppressed when sharpening.
Distortions
In the Distortions filter, barrel
or pincushion distortion can be controlled, horizontal and vertical perspective may be changed, the image may be stretched and squeezed, the image may be skewed, h-bend can be controlled, and vignetting
can be corrected. This feature is especially useful for photographs taken with a wide-angle lens
, as this often produces distorted images. Complete image flips and rotations of varying degrees may also be done.
Resizing
Helicon Filter allows for cropping
and resizing
of an image. The image may be sized by custom pixels, pre-defined print sizes and DPI
, special cropping for mobile devices or for the web, or as a percentage of the original image size.
Frames
Frames and text can be added to an image using the Frames tab. Frames and text can also be positioned in various parts of the photo and rotated. The frames can be colored as a function of the actual image or as a solid color, a few frame effects are available (Shadow, 3D frame, Smoothed 3D, Fade out, Oval, Background highlighting, and Background shadow), and the size of frames can be controlled. Text may also be inserted in this filter. The text's font
and size can be controlled, and, as with the frames, can be colored as a function of the photograph or as a solid color. One is also able to control the texture and transparency of this text.
Retouching
In the Retouching tab, brushes can be selected to perform such tasks as removal of imperfections, cloning, brightness correction, color alteration, saturation alteration, focus correction, noise reduction, red-eye
removal, distorting, and replacing of a background or subject. A brush also exists to erase either changes of other brushes or all effects from all filters. The Delete scratches, Reduce noise, Distort, and Replace sky/background brushes are only available in expert preview mode. The brushes' size, softness, intensity and edge sensitivity can be controlled. All strokes performed in this tab may be undone.
File support
Helicon Filter supports the most common raster graphic file formats, such as JPEG
, GIF
(import only), and PNG, as well as some less common formats, such as the most recent RAW
formats, JPEG 2000
, Photoshop images (PSD), and both 16 and 8 bit TIFFs. Movie files may be played back, though they may not be edited. In the free version, files may only be saved as jpegs and bitmaps. As a security means in certain licenses to prevent extended license periods, photos dated later than the date of the computer do not open, and this has caused some complaints from those who have mis-dated pictures.
File control
Individual photos can be tagged with speech or text notes. Files may be saved as Bitmap
, JPEG
, JPEG Progressive, JPEG 2000
, PSD, PNG, TIFF, and TIFF LZW files. When saving files as JPEGs, the user can select the JPEG quality and calculate the files size. Processing of RAW images is done with either dcraw
or Helicon's older RAW conversion process, from Polybytes. Files can also be printed within Helicon Filter, emailed, or sent to mobile phones. Complete Exif
can be viewed as a separate window within Helicon Filter.
Call from photo programs
Helicon Filter may be opened from Helicon Focus and Helicon Photo Safe
, as well as other programs which make use of context menus (such as Windows Explorer
and Picasa
). If used with a Pro license, Helicon Filter may also be opened within certain photo programs, including Photoshop
, Corel PHOTO-PAINT
, and Corel Paint Shop Pro
, as an 8BF plugin.
is one of the most well-known programs for commercial bitmap
and image
manipulation. It is designed to allow the user a wide range of control over image manipulation and features a wide range of functions and controls. Helicon Filter, on the other hand, is designed for less experienced users while still providing advanced tools needed to improve already existing photographs; menus and toolbars containing edit options are replaced with "filter" tabs, each tab containing labeled edit options. Due to this simplification, Helicon Filter is unable to perform Photoshop's abilities of advanced layer manipulation and graphic creation, and Helicon does not have full selection editing abilities.
An element of Photoshop necessary for advanced image manipulation is use of layers
and alpha channel support. Layers allow the user to edit elements of an image individually and to move elements or objects from one image to another. Helicon Filter does not support layers, however two common functions of layers — adding a subject or background from one photograph to another and adding text and frames — can still be performed in Helicon. Using the brushes, one object from an image can be neatly painted into another. Text and frames can also be put into an image using the Frames filter. Even with these workarounds, however, Helicon Filter, due to its lack of layer support, can not do some things that Photoshop can. For example, an object painted in from another picture can not later be moved to a different location in the new picture. (Helicon Soft has mentioned plans to implement layers in upcoming versions.)
Another important element of Photoshop, the acceptance of third-party plugins, is useful in image correction. Plugins are needed to create many effects for an image such as color manipulation, insertion of ripples and other effects, and noise reduction. Although Helicon Filter supports many of these 8BF plugins, they are generally not needed due to the program's built-in features such as noise reduction, aberration removal, perspective adjustment, and so on.
Both Helicon Filter and Adobe Photoshop are able to blend and combine images in several different ways, most notably as multi-exposures
and HDRs
. One image blend type Photoshop is capable of while Helicon Filter is not is that of panoramic photography
. However, Helicon Filter is able to stack several images for noise reduction, while Photoshop is not.
Some features of Helicon Filter which are not found in Photoshop and which contribute to the program's ease of use are its Erase changes brush, its ability to edit, change and undo various aspects of a photo independently, and its edit mapping ability which indicates which areas of a photo will be affected by an edit.
Aside from those differences, both programs share almost all practical functionality for image improvement. For example, both programs are able to retouch images, sharpen them, modify colors, remove red eye, remove aberrations, compensate for lens distortion, and perform many similar functions. Both programs are also able to open and save images from a wide range of formats including the latest RAW formats, PNG and JPEG 2000.
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
and shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
photo editing software program
Raster graphics editor
A raster graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to paint and edit pictures interactively on the computer screen and save them in one of many popular “bitmap” or “raster” formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF....
for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, similar to such programs as Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
and GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
, developed and published by Helicon Soft Ltd. Unlike these other programs, Helicon Filter is designed primarily to edit and improve existing photos and not for graphics creation. Helicon Filter's interface also differs from other programs in that compact toolbar
Toolbar
In a graphical user interface, on a computer monitor, a toolbar is a GUI widget on which on-screen buttons, icons, menus, or other input or output elements are placed. Toolbars are seen in office suites, graphics editors, and web browsers...
s and menus containing editing tools are replaced with labeled "filter" tabs, each tab containing labeled edit options specific to a single aspect of the picture. Although some editors used to Photoshop-style programs may initially find this layout unfamiliar and unlike the standard toolbar layout, beginners and those who don't recognize the standard icons generally find this very helpful for getting through the editing process.
Overview
Helicon Filter, formally Helicon NoiseFilter, was introduced in August, 2004 as Helicon Filter 1.61, by Helicon Soft, Ltd., a company based in Kharkov, UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. By 2005, Helicon Filter had become known for its noise reduction ability, though it also had some other basic features such as RAW
RAW image format
A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor...
support, exposure
Exposure (photography)
In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...
correction, color adjustments
Color balance
In photography and image processing, color balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors . An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly neutral colors – correctly; hence, the general method is sometimes called gray balance, neutral balance,...
, red eye
Red-eye effect
The red-eye effect in photography is the common appearance of red pupils in color photographs of eyes. It occurs when using a photographic flash very close to the camera lens , in ambient low light. The effect appears in the eyes of humans and animals that have no tapetum lucidum, hence no...
removal, and resizing/cropping
Cropping (image)
Cropping refers to the removal of the outer parts of an image to improve framing, accentuate subject matter or change aspect ratio. Depending on the application, this may be performed on a physical photograph, artwork or film footage, or achieved digitally using image editing software...
. More recent versions of the program have yielded more advanced features also found in Photoshop CS
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
including cloning
Clone tool
The clone tool, as it is known in Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and Corel PhotoPaint, is used in digital image editing to replace information for one part of a picture with information from another part...
, selective color editing, and HDR imaging
High dynamic range imaging
In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...
, though Helicon Filter still lacks other features found in Photoshop such as layer support, full selective editing abilities, and the ability to create graphics. The program runs in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
.
Functionalities
Helicon Filter's live preview can be used in either simple mode (commercial and freeware versions) or expert mode (commercial versions only). Simple mode allows the user to control aspects of the picture with fewer sliders, fewer brushes, no equalizers and no Aberrations filter, while expert mode gives the user more sliders along with equalizer control. Live preview can be used to show the final image after editing, can show a split between the edited version and the original, and can show images as a full-screen preview. Right-clicking causes the image preview to temporarily be replaced with the original version. A slider exists to select custom zoom, and in most filter tabs, a magnifying class can be used to view portions of a picture at higher magnification. In some filters, an "edit map" can be used to view which areas which will be affected from those filters. There is also a filter-guide wizard
Wizard (software)
A software wizard or setup assistant is a user interface type that presents a user with a sequence of dialog boxes that lead the user through a series of well-defined steps. Tasks that are complex, infrequently performed, or unfamiliar may be easier to perform using a wizard...
to help in going through a workflow of the different filter tabs.
Plugins
Helicon Filter is designed to support plugins which would work with Photoshop (i.e., they are in the 8BF file format), however many of these plugins do not properly function in Helicon Filter and other programs which claim their support.
Image stacking
In Helicon Filter Home and Pro, one is able to stack several images of the same subject where the pictures are of the same dimensions. The program does not implement layers
Layers (digital image editing)
Layers are used in digital image editing to separate different elements of an image. A layer can be compared to a transparency on which imaging effects or images are applied and placed over or under an image...
for customized stacking, rather the program has built in stacking for specific uses. Firstly, High dynamic range images
High dynamic range imaging
In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...
(HDR) can be created using the Increase dynamic range command. Secondly, the program is able to stack several images with high noise levels into one low-noise picture. Finally, the program is partially capable of stacking images of a moving subject together to create effects of time-lapse
Time-lapse
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing...
or multi-exposure
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
photography to capture such things as moving stars, however Helicon Filter cannot spread out the frames to amplify a subject's motion (e.g. landing bird, flipping gymnast) or create GIF movies from these images.
Noise reduction
Image noise
Image noise
Image noise is random variation of brightness or color information in images, and is usually an aspect of electronic noise. It can be produced by the sensor and circuitry of a scanner or digital camera...
and grain can be controlled in the Noise filter using the Noise level, Highlights, Shadows
Shadow noise
Shadow noise or luminescence noise is an effect that digital lighting has on an image, specifically on the darker, or shadowed areas of the image. Brightening the image, especially in underexposed photos, brings out the "shadow noise" in such areas. Noise in digital photography is the analog to...
, Radius and Chroma sliders. These sliders allow for selective noise reduction by object detail and brightness. Noise reduction can be applied to specific colors in expert preview mode using an equalizer. In this filter, there is also a dust and hot/dead pixel map feature which, based on a special photograph, allows the user to define certain areas in the picture which would have dust and dead pixels for the program to remove.
Brightness
The exposure and lighting
Exposure (photography)
In photography, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on the photographic medium during the process of taking a photograph. Exposure is measured in lux seconds, and can be computed from exposure value and scene luminance over a specified area.In photographic jargon, an exposure...
of a photograph can be improved using the Contrast, Gamma, Exposure, Local contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Black point, and White point sliders. An equalizer to control effect by exposure (with a zone slider for tone mapping
Tone mapping
Tone mapping is a technique used in image processing and computer graphics to map one set of colors to another in order to approximate the appearance of high dynamic range images in a medium that has a more limited dynamic range...
, along with Haze compensation and gradient haze compensation sliders, appear in expert preview mode.
Colors
In the Colors filter, an image's white balance
White point
A white point is a set of tristimulus values or chromaticity coordinates that serve to define the color "white" in image capture, encoding, or reproduction. Depending on the application, different definitions of white are needed to give acceptable results...
can be adjusted through color sliders or by selecting an area of the picture that should be white or match a predefined "memory color". Equalizers control spectral sensitivity and saturation by color. The brightness, hue and saturation of a color range can also be modified in a process often referred to as color swapping.
Aberration Removal
In expert preview mode, chromatic aberration
Chromatic aberration
In optics, chromatic aberration is a type of distortion in which there is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same convergence point. It occurs because lenses have a different refractive index for different wavelengths of light...
s can be removed in the Aberration filter by selecting an aberration color and adjusting the Radius, Brightness threshold, and Color tolerance sliders. There is also a tool to reduce lateral aberrations. This filter works by taking all areas in a picture with the defined aberration color and reducing its saturation to zero. Since purple fringing
Purple fringing
In photography, and particularly in digital photography, purple fringing is the term for an out-of-focus purple or magenta "ghost" image on a photograph...
, a common aberration type, is easiest to remove, purple is by default the aberration removal color. Optical aberrations, such as red/cyan fringing, are more difficult to remove and often must be cloned out in order to remove them completely.
Sharpening
In the Sharpening filter, sliders allow for the sharpening of both small details and edges. In expert preview mode, an equalizer can be used to sharpen specific colors and leave others unchanged. White halos can also be suppressed when sharpening.
Distortions
In the Distortions filter, barrel
Barrel distortion
In geometric optics and cathode ray tube displays, distortion is a deviation from rectilinear projection, a projection in which straight lines in a scene remain straight in an image...
or pincushion distortion can be controlled, horizontal and vertical perspective may be changed, the image may be stretched and squeezed, the image may be skewed, h-bend can be controlled, and vignetting
Vignetting
In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center. The word vignette, from the same root as vine, originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a photographic...
can be corrected. This feature is especially useful for photographs taken with a wide-angle lens
Wide-angle lens
From a design perspective, a wide angle lens is one that projects a substantially larger image circle than would be typical for a standard design lens of the same focal length; this enables either large tilt & shift movements with a view camera, or lenses with wide fields of view.More informally,...
, as this often produces distorted images. Complete image flips and rotations of varying degrees may also be done.
Resizing
Helicon Filter allows for cropping
Cropping (image)
Cropping refers to the removal of the outer parts of an image to improve framing, accentuate subject matter or change aspect ratio. Depending on the application, this may be performed on a physical photograph, artwork or film footage, or achieved digitally using image editing software...
and resizing
Image scaling
In computer graphics, image scaling is the process of resizing a digital image. Scaling is a non-trivial process that involves a trade-off between efficiency, smoothness and sharpness. As the size of an image is increased, so the pixels which comprise the image become increasingly visible, making...
of an image. The image may be sized by custom pixels, pre-defined print sizes and DPI
Dots per inch
Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing or video dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch . The DPI value tends to correlate with image resolution, but is related only indirectly.- DPI measurement in monitor...
, special cropping for mobile devices or for the web, or as a percentage of the original image size.
Frames
Frames and text can be added to an image using the Frames tab. Frames and text can also be positioned in various parts of the photo and rotated. The frames can be colored as a function of the actual image or as a solid color, a few frame effects are available (Shadow, 3D frame, Smoothed 3D, Fade out, Oval, Background highlighting, and Background shadow), and the size of frames can be controlled. Text may also be inserted in this filter. The text's font
Computer font
A computer font is an electronic data file containing a set of glyphs, characters, or symbols such as dingbats. Although the term font first referred to a set of metal type sorts in one style and size, since the 1990s it is generally used to refer to a scalable set of digital shapes that may be...
and size can be controlled, and, as with the frames, can be colored as a function of the photograph or as a solid color. One is also able to control the texture and transparency of this text.
Retouching
In the Retouching tab, brushes can be selected to perform such tasks as removal of imperfections, cloning, brightness correction, color alteration, saturation alteration, focus correction, noise reduction, red-eye
Red-eye effect
The red-eye effect in photography is the common appearance of red pupils in color photographs of eyes. It occurs when using a photographic flash very close to the camera lens , in ambient low light. The effect appears in the eyes of humans and animals that have no tapetum lucidum, hence no...
removal, distorting, and replacing of a background or subject. A brush also exists to erase either changes of other brushes or all effects from all filters. The Delete scratches, Reduce noise, Distort, and Replace sky/background brushes are only available in expert preview mode. The brushes' size, softness, intensity and edge sensitivity can be controlled. All strokes performed in this tab may be undone.
File support
Helicon Filter supports the most common raster graphic file formats, such as JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, GIF
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....
(import only), and PNG, as well as some less common formats, such as the most recent RAW
RAW image format
A camera raw image file contains minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner. Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor...
formats, JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...
, Photoshop images (PSD), and both 16 and 8 bit TIFFs. Movie files may be played back, though they may not be edited. In the free version, files may only be saved as jpegs and bitmaps. As a security means in certain licenses to prevent extended license periods, photos dated later than the date of the computer do not open, and this has caused some complaints from those who have mis-dated pictures.
File control
Individual photos can be tagged with speech or text notes. Files may be saved as Bitmap
Bitmap
In computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of memory organization or image file format used to store digital images. The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped array of bits. Now, along with pixmap, it commonly refers to...
, JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, JPEG Progressive, JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000
JPEG 2000 is an image compression standard and coding system. It was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group committee in 2000 with the intention of superseding their original discrete cosine transform-based JPEG standard with a newly designed, wavelet-based method...
, PSD, PNG, TIFF, and TIFF LZW files. When saving files as JPEGs, the user can select the JPEG quality and calculate the files size. Processing of RAW images is done with either dcraw
Dcraw
dcraw is an open-source computer program which is able to read numerous raw image formats, typically produced by high-end digital cameras. dcraw converts these images into the standard PPM and TIFF image formats...
or Helicon's older RAW conversion process, from Polybytes. Files can also be printed within Helicon Filter, emailed, or sent to mobile phones. Complete Exif
Exchangeable image file format
Exchangeable image file format is a standard that specifies the formats for images, sound, and ancillary tags used by digital cameras , scanners and other systems handling image and sound files recorded by digital cameras...
can be viewed as a separate window within Helicon Filter.
Call from photo programs
Helicon Filter may be opened from Helicon Focus and Helicon Photo Safe
Helicon Photo Safe
Helicon Photo Safe is a proprietary freeware and commercial digital image organization and protection tool produced by Helicon Soft Ltd. It is designed to be an image viewer and organizer which works together with the editing program Helicon Filter, as well as an image encryption tool...
, as well as other programs which make use of context menus (such as Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer
This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...
and Picasa
Picasa
Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...
). If used with a Pro license, Helicon Filter may also be opened within certain photo programs, including Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
, Corel PHOTO-PAINT
Corel PHOTO-PAINT
Corel PHOTO-PAINT is a raster graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel since 1992. Corel currently markets the software for Windows operating systems, previously having marketed versions for Linux and Mac OS...
, and Corel Paint Shop Pro
Corel Paint Shop Pro
Paint Shop Pro is a raster graphics editor and, later in the series, a vector graphics editor for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system that was originally published by Minneapolis-based Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel Corporation purchased Jasc Software and the...
, as an 8BF plugin.
Compared to Photoshop
Adobe PhotoshopAdobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
is one of the most well-known programs for commercial bitmap
Bitmap
In computer graphics, a bitmap or pixmap is a type of memory organization or image file format used to store digital images. The term bitmap comes from the computer programming terminology, meaning just a map of bits, a spatially mapped array of bits. Now, along with pixmap, it commonly refers to...
and image
Image
An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
manipulation. It is designed to allow the user a wide range of control over image manipulation and features a wide range of functions and controls. Helicon Filter, on the other hand, is designed for less experienced users while still providing advanced tools needed to improve already existing photographs; menus and toolbars containing edit options are replaced with "filter" tabs, each tab containing labeled edit options. Due to this simplification, Helicon Filter is unable to perform Photoshop's abilities of advanced layer manipulation and graphic creation, and Helicon does not have full selection editing abilities.
An element of Photoshop necessary for advanced image manipulation is use of layers
Layers (digital image editing)
Layers are used in digital image editing to separate different elements of an image. A layer can be compared to a transparency on which imaging effects or images are applied and placed over or under an image...
and alpha channel support. Layers allow the user to edit elements of an image individually and to move elements or objects from one image to another. Helicon Filter does not support layers, however two common functions of layers — adding a subject or background from one photograph to another and adding text and frames — can still be performed in Helicon. Using the brushes, one object from an image can be neatly painted into another. Text and frames can also be put into an image using the Frames filter. Even with these workarounds, however, Helicon Filter, due to its lack of layer support, can not do some things that Photoshop can. For example, an object painted in from another picture can not later be moved to a different location in the new picture. (Helicon Soft has mentioned plans to implement layers in upcoming versions.)
Another important element of Photoshop, the acceptance of third-party plugins, is useful in image correction. Plugins are needed to create many effects for an image such as color manipulation, insertion of ripples and other effects, and noise reduction. Although Helicon Filter supports many of these 8BF plugins, they are generally not needed due to the program's built-in features such as noise reduction, aberration removal, perspective adjustment, and so on.
Both Helicon Filter and Adobe Photoshop are able to blend and combine images in several different ways, most notably as multi-exposures
Multiple exposure
In photography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more individual exposures to create a single photograph. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.-Overview:...
and HDRs
High dynamic range imaging
In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods...
. One image blend type Photoshop is capable of while Helicon Filter is not is that of panoramic photography
Panoramic photography
Panoramic photography is a technique of photography, using specialized equipment or software, that captures images with elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio...
. However, Helicon Filter is able to stack several images for noise reduction, while Photoshop is not.
Some features of Helicon Filter which are not found in Photoshop and which contribute to the program's ease of use are its Erase changes brush, its ability to edit, change and undo various aspects of a photo independently, and its edit mapping ability which indicates which areas of a photo will be affected by an edit.
Aside from those differences, both programs share almost all practical functionality for image improvement. For example, both programs are able to retouch images, sharpen them, modify colors, remove red eye, remove aberrations, compensate for lens distortion, and perform many similar functions. Both programs are also able to open and save images from a wide range of formats including the latest RAW formats, PNG and JPEG 2000.
See also
- Raster graphics editorRaster graphics editorA raster graphics editor is a computer program that allows users to paint and edit pictures interactively on the computer screen and save them in one of many popular “bitmap” or “raster” formats such as JPEG, PNG, GIF and TIFF....
- Comparison of raster graphics editorsComparison of raster graphics editors- List :- General information :Basic general information about the editors: creator/company, license etc.- Operating system support :The operating systems on which the editors can run natively , meaning which operating systems have which editors specifically coded for them - List :- General...
- Image editingImage editingImage editing encompasses the processes of altering images, whether they be digital photographs, traditional analog photographs, or illustrations. Traditional analog image editing is known as photo retouching, using tools such as an airbrush to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with any...
- Helicon FocusHelicon FocusHelicon Focus is a proprietary commercial digital image processing tool, first released in 2003, developed and published by Helicon Soft Limited...