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cdn1

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Hey all, i've recently switched from a PC to a Mac, and wow what a difference, and learning curve. I used focus magic for sharpening my shots on the PC, but it won't work on the Mac,for those of you who use it on the Mac, what if your favorite?

Thanx in advance.
 
Hello cdn

Did you run Focus Magic as a plug-in for your favourite photo editor or as a freestanding app on the PC?

I use Focus Magic as a plug-in on Mac BUT its time is running out because it is an old plug-in and requires a system add-on, Rosetta, to run. You would be running OS X.6.7, I presume. If Rosetta is not installed, you can install it using the system installation disk.

If you follow the upgrade path to the new Lion OS (OS X.7) in a few months, Rosetta will no longer work so Focus Magic will no longer work.

You will require a different version of Focus Magic to run on the Mac too, so probably not a good investment at this time.

I use PhotoLine http://www.pl32.com , a 32 and 64 bit app (runs on both Mac and PC) as my main photo editor. It has excellent sharpening built in -- straight sharpening, unsharp masking and adaptive sharpening, all adjustable with preview.

Worth a look at US$85/€59.

Cheers, geoff
--
Geoffrey Heard

http://pngtimetraveller.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-does-standard-of-living-mean-in.html
 
Thanks Geoff, I use it as a plug in, and as I was looking at the supported programs, I see that Photoshop Elements 9 is not supported. I'm not real good at computer stuff, and with the new mac...i've even in worse shape.I will have a look at photoline...thanks again
 
Yes, PSE 8 and 9 can't run in rosetta. If you have access to a copy of PSE 6 it will work there.
 
Thanks Conchita,

hopefully Focus Magic will come out with a version that will run in PSE 9
 
Unfortunately I wouldn't hold your breath. It's been many years since the mac version had any kind of update.
 
I have used all sort of sharpening method and found that the one comes with Mac works very well. Try it. Open your jpg in Preview, go to Tools> Adjust Color and use sharpening slider. I think it uses the same engine as iPhoto - excellent.

Cheers

Eddie
 
Yes about the sharpening in Preview!

But sometimes Preview can odd things and it shouldn't really be relied on as anything other than a casual use editor. So, the OP could use iPhoto which comes with every new Mac.

And Camera Raw is really great. The images are sharper out of the gate, and the sharpening tools are hugely improved. Available as part of the budget level PSE. JPGs and Tiffs can be opened in ACR, too. Also, the tools provided in PSE aren't bad, either.

A huge bonus advantage to going the ACR/PSE route is the superb noise reduction provided in the current ACR, which makes third party noise reduction plug-ins superfluous for many users. IMO, much better than anything Apple has.
 
Preview does luminance channel sharpening. I often use it in preference to the sharpening options in PS/PSE. The days when Preview was weird are long over.
 
No, Preview does still do weird things, and they're most often not immediately apparent. Watch out especially when saving in different file formats than "originals."

I do agree with you about the quality of sharpening, though, I just don't trust the app. At all. Especially with tiff's.

I like the sharpening and sharpening alternatives in ACR.
 
JEPH said:
Preview does still do weird things, and they're most often not immediately apparent.
Click to expand...
What, specifically? I've not encountered this and I'm curious. It was bad in 10.4 and early 10.5 for sure.
 
Conchita said:
Unfortunately I wouldn't hold your breath. It's been many years since the mac version had any kind of update.
Click to expand...
The following statement has been on their website since at least 2009, and probably since 2008.
Conchita said:
Conchita said:
Focus Magic works on PowerPC versions of the Apple Mac from OS X onwards but currently only works with Intel-Macs when used with Rosetta. For details, please refer to our supported programs page. We will be releasing a Universal Binary version, however, the developers are currently working on another project which is the reason for the delay.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
I have emailed the company several times, and each time they reply with this same statement. I wonder if the other project is making fries at McDonalds.
--
Jeff

My cat, who likes to sprawl on my keyboard, gets credit for anything I write that makes sense.
 
JustFred said:
Has anyone tried RAWKER for Mac. It's a RAW converter and includes a sharpening tool.
Oh and it's completely FREE!
http://raifra.fh-friedberg.de/Mac/index-en.html

OR this one also FREE Raw Photo Processor for Mac also with sharpening tool
http://www.raw-photo-processor.com/RPP/Overview.html
Click to expand...
And I almost forgot about Raw Therapee which also includes a sharpening tool and is also FREE
Screenshot of Raw Therapee



Anyone tried all three of these and able to give a comparison between them?
 
I use Photoshop for sharpening but Topaz Labs InFocus for detail and contrast enhancement. InFocus has a neat function called Micro Contrast and it adjusts the contrast at the edges which is a lot better than sharpening in most situations.

Do your own experiment and sharpen an image and then save a copy and then go back and adjust the Levels and contrast and then see how much sharpening is needed. In most situations I find that after adjusting Levels and Contrast that much less sharpening or often no sharpening is needed as such.

I then only sharpen when shrinking images and the amount depends entirely upon the subject and the new size of the image file. I sharpen a 300ppi file a lot more than a 1000ppi one.
 
I've been using Nik Pro Sharpener as a plugin in CS5 for both pre and post sharpening and it works great.

I used to use Focus Magic as a presharpener in CS5 under windoze but as it won't run on an Intel Mac I haven't been using it but instead open a file that may need a little extra help from FM in a win XP version of CS5 under parallels and then reopen the saved .psd file back in 10.6.7 64 bit CS5 for final post production touches.

With regard to Rosetta, I'm not familiar with it after only transferring to Mac a short time ago; how is it installed etc to allow the running of FM in mac CS5?

I too have emailed Focus Magic numerous times about a mac or even windows 64 bit version and get the same answer, the latest was only about a month ago. I prefer it for adjustments involving a little motion blur best or all sharpening plugins. Maybe the question I should ask is if I install Rosetta, will CS5 still run in 64 bit mode?

--
John,
Land Down Under



NPS Member
AIPP Member

http://www.pbase.com/got_that_shot_images/aviation
 
Jabs767 said:
With regard to Rosetta, I'm not familiar with it after only transferring to Mac a short time ago; how is it installed etc to allow the running of FM in mac CS5?
Click to expand...
I believe that if you try to open a PPC app, you will get a window asking you to download Rosetta.

Lion will not support Rosetta.
--
Jeff

My cat, who likes to sprawl on my keyboard, gets the credit for anything I write that makes sense.
 
Yes, for photoshop (if it's full photoshop and not a recent version of PSE) you can try doing a get info and turning on the "run in rosetta" checkbox. That should bring up the prompt. Otherwise, you'd just get a window telling you that one or more plug-ins isn't available.

But if you can currently use PPC plug-ins, you must be running in rosetta already.
 
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