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Sharpening

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Your test looks good, though I think the Jesus figure is a bit blurry, even for a 100% crop. The shot I used (and I know you have not seen it -- sorry, but I have no ftp access to my site from here at work...), has a very in-focus bit of barbed wire in it, then the rest of the shot, mostly bg, is blurred from short DOF focus on the wire. It is along the edges of something that is really in foucs where most of the harshness comes in to play from the 10D Finisher.

That said, I totally agree with you on the JPEG vs. RAW issue. I didn't have any RAW file to check on here and so will do that at home later on. I think the JPEG file will definitely have more aberrations from compression already in it. Certainly more so than a RAW file would have.
--
best,
shudder

Now shooting with the Nikon D70s / 17-55 DX / 80-400 OS / 60 MICRO / SB-800
Robert Sondek said:
Robert Sondek said:
Robert Sondek said:
PIX: http://www.mmcphoto.com
MIX: http://www.artistlaunch.com/mmc
Get the SDD*: http://www.mmcphoto.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
    • shudder's digital darkroom -- a PS atn written for Fuji cams, but it works for my D70s images as well!
 
There is more to it than just making a high-pass filter and set opacity.

High-pass is made using a 50% neutral gray layer emphasizing highlights and shadows (brigther and darker). This is obvious when working with the layer in "Normal" blending mode.

This little trick adds a high level of control to it:

1. Make a new layer with a vivid contrast color, e.g. orange and set opacity to e.g. 40% (just used to help you)
2. Set your foreground color to 50% grey (H=0, S=0, B=50)

3. On the High-pass layer you can use your brush to remove 'sharpness' in places where you don't want it, e.g. in skin or blured background (Remember to work in "Normal" blending mode).
4. When done delete the orange helping layer
5. Set blending mode on your high-pass layer to "Soft light" and adjust opacity.

The reason for using the orange layer is, that all Photoshop tools are made in 50% neutral gray in order to be visible on most photos. When working with the brush tool on the highpass layer, your tool simply disappears as both the layer and the tool is 50% gray.

Regards,

Claus Jepsen
 
Thank you Robert - I ran it on a fairly tricky image (contemporary white architecture with details and a clear, deep blue sky) and found it very good and it added no visible noise even to the sky.
--
Sue
(please don't forget about the tragedy in Guatemala - they need help as well)
 
sorry if it is obvious, but in which part of the action is this specific (or "more adapted") to the 10d?

works for all, so am just curious e.g. is it on the curves amount, the color saturation, etc...
thanks!!!
 
shudder said:
I am a fan of L*a*b sharpening, which is consists of considerably
fewer steps (read: faster!), and seems to do the job for me.
Here's part of the process I use (specifically, the sharpening
portion of my SDD):

1. Convert to L*a*b Mode
2. G-blur on 'a' channel (3 pixel radius)
3. G-blur on 'b' channel (3 pixel radius)
4. USM on lightness channel: 50 / 3 / 3
5. Convert to RGB
Click to expand...
I just got photoshop and am just learning. I assume G-Blur means Gaussian Blur, is that correct?

I found it and how to set the radius, but how do you do it only on the "a" or "b" channel?

Finally, how do you do a USM only on the lightness channel?
--
Bryan V.
 
I recently had to deal with a session of images that have regularly the same problems: motion blur (due to long exposures) or small focus problems. I was looking for the best settings in USM, but then after seen the sharpen chapter on Total Training PS CS2 by Deke McClelland (great series by the way), I realize that smart sharpen was the solution for my problems, and it worked great, without the usual halos you get when working with high radius in USM. Of course all my sharpen it's concentrated on the edges, so before any sharpen it's done a good edges mask must be done.
for my usual edge sharpening here it's what I do:
  • do a copy of the green channel (usually it represents the luminance)
  • finde edges on that copy
  • minimun filter with 10-20pxiels
  • median with 20 pixels too
  • some gaussian blur 2-4
  • levels to get better contrast and get ride some of the greys
  • invert the channel
and voila! a good edge mask to aply to your sharpened layers.

Besides if you use USM, you don't have to switch to LAB mode to avoid color fringing after sharpening, just apply your USM settings and the fade the USM filter (edit> fade) but change it to luminosity in the blend mode.

greetings.
Nicolas
--
yo sólo pasaba por aqui ...
http://www.photoblog.be/metalosaurio
 
Metalosaurio said:
I recently had to deal with a session of images that have regularly
the same problems: motion blur (due to long exposures) or small
focus problems. I was looking for the best settings in USM, but
then after seen the sharpen chapter on Total Training PS CS2 by
Deke McClelland (great series by the way), I realize that smart
sharpen was the solution for my problems, and it worked great,
without the usual halos you get when working with high radius in
USM. Of course all my sharpen it's concentrated on the edges, so
before any sharpen it's done a good edges mask must be done.
for my usual edge sharpening here it's what I do:
  • do a copy of the green channel (usually it represents the luminance)
  • finde edges on that copy
  • minimun filter with 10-20pxiels
  • median with 20 pixels too
  • some gaussian blur 2-4
  • levels to get better contrast and get ride some of the greys
  • invert the channel
and voila! a good edge mask to aply to your sharpened layers.
Besides if you use USM, you don't have to switch to LAB mode to
avoid color fringing after sharpening, just apply your USM settings
and the fade the USM filter (edit> fade) but change it to luminosity
in the blend mode.

greetings.
Nicolas
--
yo sólo pasaba por aqui ...
http://www.photoblog.be/metalosaurio
Click to expand...
nicolas, do you have an example to show how is much a improvement did this sharpening technique help you?
 
Well this is one of the images that I thought it was losted, despite the noise wich was later removed, the camera was focused on the microphone rather than the actress, so here are tree version, original, USM and SM (lens blur on the remove dialog) both are strenght 142% and 8.3 radius, no treshold. I used the same mask for edges on both versions too.



Also smart sharpen can correct motion blur (from shaking the camera in long exposures) very nice (a lot better than USM IMHO).

PD: anyway the images were for web site so even the ones that looked awful could be saved after some PP.

greetings.
Nicolas
--
yo sólo pasaba por aqui ...
http://www.photoblog.be/metalosaurio
 
I tried the 40 steps action and it produces less sharpened results in this image. Of course it does a better jop when aplied to the downsampled version (I guess it needs some adjustment to the parameters to work in a 100% image). Anyway it's a great action, it didn't added aditional noise and well it's very easy to apply. Anyway I still prefer smart sharpen, I guess you could do an action with smart sharpen too, but I prefer to adjust the settings image by image. (but when in a hurry I think I could use the 40 steps ;-)

greetings.
Nicolas
--
yo sólo pasaba por aqui ...
http://www.photoblog.be/metalosaurio
 
Dave,

Thanks so much for the tips. I can't wait to try this technique out.

--Randy
 
Sorry, Bryan!! Due to the various undulations in this thread I missed your questions.
dbvand said:
I just got photoshop and am just learning. I assume G-Blur means
Gaussian Blur, is that correct?
Click to expand...
Yes.
dbvand said:
I found it and how to set the radius, but how do you do it only on
the "a" or "b" channel?
Click to expand...
Found in the last word of your question -- "channel" -- Go to channels and apply to a single channel, in this case "a" and "b".
dbvand said:
Finally, how do you do a USM only on the lightness channel?
Click to expand...
See above. In this case, "Lightness".

--
best,
shudder

Now shooting with the Nikon D70s / 17-55 DX / 80-400 OS / 60 MICRO / SB-800
dbvand said:
dbvand said:
dbvand said:
PIX: http://www.mmcphoto.com
MIX: http://www.artistlaunch.com/mmc
Get the SDD*: http://www.mmcphoto.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
    • shudder's digital darkroom -- a PS atn written for Fuji cams, but it works for my D70s images as well!
 
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