Photography Workflow in Helicon Filter

When the photography workflow in Helicon Filter is made efficient you can do your edits more quickly and effectively. Here is the sequence which is usually recommended where you work your way through the tabs, starting from the left and proceeding to the right.  

Step 1 - Open Image that Needs Editing

Click on the first tab which is Source and select the image file from the browser that comes up. In the top menu bar on the right corner, set the zoom reading to 100%.  

Step 2 - Enable Noise Reduction

Although you are not going to do any fine tuning of the noise right now you should check the box for "Enable noise reduction" which you will find in the Noise tab.

Step 3 - Adjust Brightness

Click on the Brightness tab and adjust the settings so that you have an optimized dynamic range. In this tab your workflow should start from "Auto contrast" and then go on to "Haze compensation" and then fine tune with other controls.

Step 4 - Color Editing

Click on the Colors tab and adjust the tones by either using the tools for "White balance" or use the "Colors map."

Step 5 - Sharpen the Image

Click on the Sharpening tab and you have a variety of tools to work with like "Sharpen edges" and "Sharpen fine details." You can also adjust halos with tools like "White halo" and "Suppress halo."

Step 6 - Retouching

Now click on the Retouching tab and use the set of various brushes to remove any blemishes or shadows.

Step 7 - Save

Helicon Filter allows you to go back to previous edits and make changes and also reset everything as it was before you started editing and again start afresh. Once you are satisfied with your image you can click on the Save tab to store your edited image.