Sharpening software

I use a photoshop plugin for sharpening my images called Smart Sharpen by chroma, another available is by photokit. Smart Sharpen seems to do a good job while keeping the noise down (better than using USM). I was wondering what others use.

I use three different approaches, I am not completely thrilled with any of them but usually one of the three will get me close:

USM in Photoshop - best for web size sharpening
Nik Sharpener Pro - best for prints
Focal Blade - still figuring this one out

I use the plugin created by Fred Miranda, and generally use the Web Presenter plugin for creating web size prints, as you can specify any size and also specify a sharpening level (or no sharpening) as it reduces the image incrementally to the specified size. It seems to give pretty good results (it sharpens at 25,1.0,3 at low sharpening with the web presenter). I have been considering purchasing Focal Blade, but have yet to do so.

I've tried Nik Sharpener Pro and others and most of the time I just use Photoshop's Sharpening too. I'll select areas through the marquis tool, quick mask and other methods to sharpen areas and keep halos from the edges.

- Dan.

E.J. Peiker wrote:I use three different approaches, I am not completely thrilled with any of them but usually one of the three will get me close:

USM in Photoshop - best for web size sharpening
Nik Sharpener Pro - best for prints
Focal Blade - still figuring this one out

Doesn't USM in PS give you the flexiblity to sharpen as well as the others, but manually? Or are there sharpening variables not available with USM that makes the others better?

There's a new sharpener that was just released yesterday by Pixel Genius called PhotoKit Sharpener. I was one of the original beta testers for this program for the last 5 months. It is nothing like Nik or any other sharpener plug in. It is a complete shapening workflow starting with a mild shapening from either a scan or digital, from there you can sharpen portions using the special sharpening brushes. Included is the haze remover brush and output sharpeners for printers and pre press.
If you have had problems sharpening images like I have had then this is the answer. My images have never looked better. You can download a demo at www.pixelgenius.com

I have tried many of the 'one step' easy solution sharpening plugins, but I always end up back in Photoshop with its wonderful array of tools and I always get sharper, low noise images by doing my sharpenng manually (I mostly do selective sharpening of edges). I find shapening software to be like program mode on a camera. It works OK often, but for the ultimate control nothing beats manual mode and savvy use by the user.

Darwin wrote:I have tried many of the 'one step' easy solution sharpening plugins, but I always end up back in Photoshop with its wonderful array of tools and I always get sharper, low noise images by doing my sharpenng manually (I mostly do selective sharpening of edges). I find shapening software to be like program mode on a camera. It works OK often, but for the ultimate control nothing beats manual mode and savvy use by the user.

Darwin, I could not agree more!

Best,

Chas

I also use a combination of selections/masks and USM for most of my work. For printing I find the "Sharpen Only Edges" action works very well, although it still requires a good amount of manual intervention in defining the mask to be used. The plugin will create the initial mask then stop to allow for tweaking - this can be time consuming on complex images with a lot of lines but the results are quite good at reducing or eliminating halos.

Guy

There is a positive review of the new Pixel Genius product on Luminous Landscape: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/revie ... ener.shtml

I just downloaded and tried the PhotoKit Sharpener and I tried it on an image that gave me a real hard time sharpening with just the PS USM tools. I usually use masks and edgesharpening to manually select where I want to sharpen.

The Photokit Sharpener, is semi automatic, in that it takes care of masking and finding edges etc... but allows you to selectively choose where you do your final sharpening for out put.

It does have an interesting approach to sharpening. The image that I tested it on, did look real sharp after I printed it, definitely sharper than what I was able to do myself. Maybe even to sharp, but since all sharpening is done on layers, I can go back and back off on some of the final sharpening and I think it will come out perfect.

Eric R Johnson wrote: Doesn't USM in PS give you the flexiblity to sharpen as well as the others, but manually? Or are there sharpening variables not available with USM that makes the others better?

Some of the plug-ins like FocalBlade use a completely different type of sharpening algorithm than USM do so they aren't just automated versions of USM. For example, in FB there are various sharpening algorithms that you can select from and you can also sharpen surfaces seperately from edges.