Sharpening UZI "soft"?

Phil Sexton83509 · Apr 13, 2002

OK, everyone, I am sold on shooting "soft".

Tell me what Photoshop "unsharp mask" settings you use to process the "soft" images.
Or do you use another method? What?

JohnP · Apr 13, 2002

Check this page:
http://www.lonestardigital.com/photoshop_quicktips.htm

Phil Sexton said:
OK, everyone, I am sold on shooting "soft".
Tell me what Photoshop "unsharp mask" settings you use to process
the "soft" images.
Or do you use another method? What?

-- http://www.st-charles.net/menu.htm

Phil Sexton83509 · Apr 13, 2002

John S. Perilloux said:
Check this page:
http://www.lonestardigital.com/photoshop_quicktips.htm

Thanks, John. Good advice for hazy shots of most any sort, I suppose.

I am specifically interested in run-of-the-mill (everyday) images taken with an Olympus C-2100 using the "soft" setting and assuming that focus, exposure, etc., are all correct.
Have you just picked a standard setup that you use initially?

Pieter80420 · Apr 13, 2002

Phil Sexton said:
OK, everyone, I am sold on shooting "soft".
Tell me what Photoshop "unsharp mask" settings you use to process
the "soft" images.
Or do you use another method? What?

Phil,

I do mainly 4 steps with my images taken on soft The parameters given here are typical, but you can change them to your liking:
Levels (not auto)(3,240)
Saturation (0,8,0)
Unsharp Mask (40,50,2)
Unsharp Mask (400,0.3,3)
Sometimes (depending on the image) I will add another USM (100, 0.9,3)

Check out this thread
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=2384814
--Spannie

Phil Sexton83509 · Apr 13, 2002

Pieter80420 said:
Phil,

I do mainly 4 steps with my images taken on soft The parameters
given here are typical, but you can change them to your liking:
Levels (not auto)(3,240)
Saturation (0,8,0)
Unsharp Mask (40,50,2)
Unsharp Mask (400,0.3,3)
Sometimes (depending on the image) I will add another USM (100, 0.9,3)

Thanks, Spannie.
I assume those are Output "Levels". And that "Saturation" is given a +8?

Is this a typical sequence? I mean, suppose it were a portrait? How would you modify it and why?

Pieter80420 · Apr 13, 2002

Phil Sexton83509 said:
Thanks, Spannie.
I assume those are Output "Levels". And that "Saturation" is given
a +8?

Phil, the numbers for Levels are input values (top box).
Saturation is +8

Phil Sexton83509 said:
Is this a typical sequence? I mean, suppose it were a portrait? How
would you modify it and why?

This is typical and probably about 90% of my images is good with it. I fine-tune 100% of the images that I want to print larger than 4X3. I don't think any two images will need exactly the same processing if you really want to get the most out of it. But this is a good starting point.

--Spannie

Inigo Montoya · Apr 13, 2002

For straight unsharp mask I use 500/0.2/0 and run the full "clarifier" if it's a hazy shot.

Recently ran across this method for increasing sharpness w/out the artifacts that too much UM can add.

I do this first, then still finish with a hit of 500/0.2/0. It generally eliminates the need to do more than one UM pass.

1. duplicate image
2. Filter-> other-> high pass, set to 5
3. Remove color (optional)
4. set blend mode to soft light.

If this is too strong, back off on the opacity of this layer some. If it's not enough, switch blend mode to hard light, and use opacity to adjust the strength.

5. Flatten, and use 500/0.2/0 UM

Note: The original blending method as offered suggested 10 for the high pass filter and hard light. I found that to be a bit too much and settled on the above after some experimenting.

Phil Sexton said:
OK, everyone, I am sold on shooting "soft".
Tell me what Photoshop "unsharp mask" settings you use to process
the "soft" images.
Or do you use another method? What?

RichO · Apr 13, 2002

I start with
Auto-Contrast, undo, then Auto-Levels...
I compare the two...

if I get a color shift on Auto-Levels I go back to Auto-Contrast if I got an improvement..
then I use levels to adjust the whites, midtones and shadows

Then I resize as needed then use
the clarifier
then I use usm
500%
.2 pixels
0 threshold

Phil Sexton said:
John S. Perilloux said:

Check this page:
http://www.lonestardigital.com/photoshop_quicktips.htm

Click to expand...

Thanks, John. Good advice for hazy shots of most any sort, I suppose.
I am specifically interested in run-of-the-mill (everyday) images
taken with an Olympus C-2100 using the "soft" setting and assuming
that focus, exposure, etc., are all correct.
Have you just picked a standard setup that you use initially?

--RichO

http://www.pbase.com/richo/http://www.richo.org/LearningCenter/faq_olympus.htm 'Life is a dance, Love is the music.'

Barry78908 · Apr 13, 2002

Pieter80420 said:
I do mainly 4 steps with my images taken on soft The parameters
given here are typical, but you can change them to your liking:
Levels (not auto)(3,240)
Saturation (0,8,0)
Unsharp Mask (40,50,2)
Unsharp Mask (400,0.3,3)
Sometimes (depending on the image) I will add another USM (100, 0.9,3)

That's a little different from your posted action of a few months ago. Does this work significantly better? Are you still playing with the values or do you think you have them pretty well set now? I haven't tried using the soft setting as yet.

RichO · Apr 13, 2002

I have read the past threads...is there something new?

I lost some really good shots...landscapes and sunsets using SOFT...they were too soft and unrecoverable in PhotoShop.

Can someone re-post why they think SOFT is the way to go?

Phil Sexton said:
OK, everyone, I am sold on shooting "soft".
Tell me what Photoshop "unsharp mask" settings you use to process
the "soft" images.
Or do you use another method? What?

--RichO

http://www.pbase.com/richo/http://www.richo.org/LearningCenter/faq_olympus.htm 'Life is a dance, Love is the music.'

Bob Adams29229 · Apr 13, 2002

I've had my 2100 for almost 18 months since they first came out, have taken over 5,000 pictures with it, experimented with all the multiplicity of settings, and find that the camera does the best on default/auto settings, using the
plus minus exposure setting thru the viewfinder/toggle switch, and the

center/spot/iesp while also watching thru viewfinder. That makes it a point and shoot with minor exposure adjustments made as needed with your eyeball.
--Bob Adams

Forrest41926 · Apr 13, 2002

RichO said:
I lost some really good shots...landscapes and sunsets using
SOFT...they were too soft and unrecoverable in PhotoShop.

Then you probably lost them to too slow a shutter speed, or focusing on the wrong subject. Any digital camera captures all of it's images in "soft" mode, and applies sharpening in the camera similar to what Photoshop does. If those shots couldn't be fixed in PS, the camera wouldn't have been able to do a better job sharpening them.

Pieter80420 · Apr 13, 2002

Barry Bade said:
Barry78908 said:

I do mainly 4 steps with my images taken on soft The parameters
given here are typical, but you can change them to your liking:
Levels (not auto)(3,240)
Saturation (0,8,0)
Unsharp Mask (40,50,2)
Unsharp Mask (400,0.3,3)
Sometimes (depending on the image) I will add another USM (100, 0.9,3)

Click to expand...

That's a little different from your posted action of a few months
ago. Does this work significantly better? Are you still playing
with the values or do you think you have them pretty well set now?
I haven't tried using the soft setting as yet.

I guess it depends on the night before! There is very little difference in the final pictures, and you can easily play around with the parameters to get different effects in different images.

I'm not really set in stone as to what specific values work. See them as guidelines to tweak to your personal taste.
--Spannie

Pieter80420 · Apr 13, 2002

RichO,

I have just the opposite experience. I have not lost a photo that I took on soft, because of the effects of soft. Focus, blur, bad manual exposure - yes, but NEVER due to soft. I have lost a good number of photos taken in normal as a result of unrecoverable blown-out highlights and sharpening artifacts. This is especially when I try to big large (8X10 or larger) prints.

Post some of the photos you have lost, so we can see what the problems are. I would hate to think that I have it right and there is something that you have found that may cause me to loose some photos in the future.

Spannie

RichO said:
I have read the past threads...is there something new?
I lost some really good shots...landscapes and sunsets using
SOFT...they were too soft and unrecoverable in PhotoShop.

Can someone re-post why they think SOFT is the way to go?

--Spannie

Phil Sexton83509 · Apr 13, 2002

Spannie said:
This is typical and probably about 90% of my images is good with
it. I fine-tune 100% of the images that I want to print larger than
4X3. I don't think any two images will need exactly the same
processing if you really want to get the most out of it. But this
is a good starting point.

You are obviously skilled with methods in Photoshop. Thanks for the advice.

Have you heard of, or used, Amphisoft filters? I have read a bit about their Shaman filters. They seem to provide a lot of control over different aspects.

keith42865 · Apr 13, 2002

I do not see the connection between blown highlights and using normal sharpening, I would have thought this was to do with exsposure or am I missing something?

Forrest41926 · Apr 13, 2002

keith42865 said:
I do not see the connection between blown highlights and using
normal sharpening, I would have thought this was to do with
exsposure or am I missing something?

Well, yeah, except "sharpening" also means contrast and saturation to Olympus.

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