FocalBlade - sharpening wizards

Has anyone tried is sharpening software? I found out about it at the luminous landscape site http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/focalblade.shtml . I downloaded the trial demo, and it appears to work very well, although it is slow.

For experts, I'm wondering if you think it is better than existing sharpening techniques and actions in photoshop. Is this the sharpening equivalent of Neat Image?

--
Rory

Rory said:

Has anyone tried is sharpening software? I found out about it at
the luminous landscape site

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/focalblade.shtml . I downloaded the trial demo, and it appears to work very well, although it is slow.

For experts, I'm wondering if you think it is better than existing
sharpening techniques and actions in photoshop. Is this the
sharpening equivalent of Neat Image?

Click to expand...

I read the same review and was not convinced. It might be a great product but I did not really feel informed by the review either. Why don't you look at the sharpening techniques on the bythom.com site and compare.

Neat Image is a digital noise reducer, not a sharpening tool.

Yes, I know Neat Image is a noise reducer - I thnk it is the best. My point: is FocalBlade as good at sharpening as Neat Image is at noise reduction.

I'll take a look at Thom's site, but I am not an expert at sharpening, so i am looking for other opinions.

Rory

win39 said:

Rory said:

Has anyone tried is sharpening software? I found out about it at
the luminous landscape site

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/focalblade.shtml . I downloaded the trial demo, and it appears to work very well, although it is slow.

For experts, I'm wondering if you think it is better than existing
sharpening techniques and actions in photoshop. Is this the
sharpening equivalent of Neat Image?

Click to expand...

I read the same review and was not convinced. It might be a great
product but I did not really feel informed by the review either.
Why don't you look at the sharpening techniques on the bythom.com
site and compare.

Neat Image is a digital noise reducer, not a sharpening tool.

Click to expand...

--
Rory

There is a catch 22 with plugins like Focal Blade: use them without understanding and you will never develop your own skills; use them as a learning tool, and you will slowly develop your own techniques.

My recommendation is to use the Focal Blade demo (for free) to learn what it is doing, and then reproduce this effect your self in PS with layers and actions. You will become a better PS user and become more creative in the process. The program is good for learning because it shows you what the layer masks look like for surface/texture and edge sharpening

The other advantage of never relying too much on crutches like Focal Blade is that if you are ever asked to manipulate an image on someone else’s computer, you will be able to amaze them with your talent using only the routines available in the standard installation of PS.

The moral of the story is: PS can do all you want without spending heaps on addins.

--
Alabaster

Rory,

Thanks for the heads up. I downloaded the demo, and I find it very interesting. The ability to sharpen surface areas separate from edges makes it quite powerful. Sharpening can be such a hot topic. I have found LAB sharpening to yield excellent results, but I get irritated with the color shifts. They are quite subtle, but the do occur. I find edge sharpening with layer masking to be an excellent compromise. Since this is basically what the Fred Miranda CS action does, I use it a lot to save time. Focalblade seems to allow you to do the same thing as Fred Miranda's action but with a more intuitve interface. You know, IMHO, people who preach against actions or plug-ins usually don't process a large number of images at once.

Thanks - excellent points.

Rory

alabaster said:

There is a catch 22 with plugins like Focal Blade: use them without
understanding and you will never develop your own skills; use them
as a learning tool, and you will slowly develop your own techniques.

My recommendation is to use the Focal Blade demo (for free) to
learn what it is doing, and then reproduce this effect your self in
PS with layers and actions. You will become a better PS user and
become more creative in the process. The program is good for
learning because it shows you what the layer masks look like for
surface/texture and edge sharpening

The other advantage of never relying too much on crutches like
Focal Blade is that if you are ever asked to manipulate an image on
someone else’s computer, you will be able to amaze them with your
talent using only the routines available in the standard
installation of PS.
The moral of the story is: PS can do all you want without spending
heaps on addins.

--
Alabaster

Click to expand...

--
Rory

Yep - they are just tools - whatever gets the job done best. I am going to do some experimnting over the next few days.

Rory

Stephen said:

Rory,

Thanks for the heads up. I downloaded the demo, and I find it very
interesting. The ability to sharpen surface areas separate from
edges makes it quite powerful. Sharpening can be such a hot topic.
I have found LAB sharpening to yield excellent results, but I get
irritated with the color shifts. They are quite subtle, but the do
occur. I find edge sharpening with layer masking to be an
excellent compromise. Since this is basically what the Fred
Miranda CS action does, I use it a lot to save time. Focalblade
seems to allow you to do the same thing as Fred Miranda's action
but with a more intuitve interface. You know, IMHO, people who
preach against actions or plug-ins usually don't process a large
number of images at once.

Click to expand...

--
Rory

alabaster said:

The moral of the story is: PS can do all you want without spending
heaps on addins.

Click to expand...

But can you do it as quickly in PS alone as you can with the plugin? I think your points are all good ones, but if the plugin is even a tiny bit faster, over the course of 100's or 1000's of images the time and click savings could really add up.

Great plug-in. It has rejuvenated photos which I though I already did a great job with in PS.

Hi,

I'm the creator of FocalBlade by the way.

alabaster said:

My recommendation is to use the Focal Blade demo (for free) to
learn what it is doing, and then reproduce this effect your self in
PS with layers and actions.

Click to expand...

The only problem is that you can't reproduce several essential features of FocalBlade in Photoshop. So good luck with trying!

alabaster said:

The other advantage of never relying too much on crutches like
Focal Blade is that if you are ever asked to manipulate an image on
someone else’s computer, you will be able to amaze them with your
talent using only the routines available in the standard
installation of PS.

Click to expand...

Well, the main pupose of photo editing is not just impressing people. However, if you are good at photo editing you don't need to try to impress other people with some fast keyboard strokes and mouse clicks. They will automatically be impressed by the end result wether you used Photoshop alone or also used plugins.

Harald

Harald Heim said:

I'm the creator of FocalBlade by the way.

alabaster said:

My recommendation is to use the Focal Blade demo (for free) to
learn what it is doing, and then reproduce this effect your self in
PS with layers and actions.

Click to expand...

The only problem is that you can't reproduce several essential
features of FocalBlade in Photoshop. So good luck with trying!

.....
Harald

Click to expand...

I noticed in another thread ('Pro Digital Talk' Forum) that you did not make this claim in response to VG. What are these “essential features”?

( http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1014&message=5812578 )

This is a very good plugin, don’t get me wrong. You must be very talented to come up with something like this. My only beef with all these plugins is that you could end up paying the price of Photoshop all over again if you bought all the good one only.

I’m almost certain, that with a bit of masking and local USM, and edge sharpening techniques, etc, etc, all used in automated actions, I can achieve fairly similar (not the same) image sharpening outcomes.

However, for those that can’t be bothered with this, then your program is probably the best I have seen.

BTW, get rid of those horrible green criss-crosses. How about a simple watermark, or a time limit.

--
Alabaster

Clint Thayer said:

Great plug-in. It has rejuvenated photos which I though I already
did a great job with in PS.

Click to expand...

I used it for the first time yesterday. I'm no expert in PS so every little bit helps. I will take the time to learn specifically what the effects are.

But in the meantime



more here

http://www.pbase.com/shadco/zoo

--
Shad
-----------------------------------------------------
I knew where I was when I wrote this
I don't know where I am now...
What piano should I buy if I want to play like Mozart?
...Kit in profile...
...pbase supporter...
...Nikonians supporter...

alabaster said:

I’m almost certain, that with a bit of masking and local USM, and
edge sharpening techniques, etc, etc, all used in automated
actions, I can achieve fairly similar (not the same) image
sharpening outcomes.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. A fan of home-grown actions, there's nothing here that I can't automate on my own.

Awesome detail and sharpness Shad. Did you use FocalBlade on this photo?

Rory

Shadco said:

But in the meantime

Shadco said:

--

Click to expand...

Shad

Click to expand...

Rory said:

Awesome detail and sharpness Shad. Did you use FocalBlade on this
photo?

Rory

Click to expand...

Yes and the rest of the pics in the gallery I linked.

--
Shad
-----------------------------------------------------
I knew where I was when I wrote this
I don't know where I am now...
What piano should I buy if I want to play like Mozart?
...Kit in profile...
...pbase supporter...
...Nikonians supporter...

alabaster said:

I noticed in another thread ('Pro Digital Talk' Forum) that you did
not make this claim in response to VG.

Click to expand...

Shall I repeat myself all the time? I can put together an essay and attach it to all of my posts. That way no one can complain that I haven't mentioned this and that .

alabaster said:

What are these “essential
features”?

Click to expand...

If you are clever enough, you can find it out yourself. I don't want to start a long discussion about it. I'd be more interested in suggestion on how to improve FocalBlade.

alabaster said:

This is a very good plugin, don’t get me wrong. You must be very
talented to come up with something like this. My only beef with all
these plugins is that you could end up paying the price of
Photoshop all over again if you bought all the good one only.

Click to expand...

Special tasks need special solutions. So if you want to get top results, you always have to pay something extra or use more than just one tool. I use several other image application beside Photoshop, because each of them has some features that Photoshop doesn't have or doesn't offer in such a convenient way.

alabaster said:

I’m almost certain, that with a bit of masking and local USM, and
edge sharpening techniques, etc, etc, all used in automated
actions, I can achieve fairly similar (not the same) image
sharpening outcomes.

Click to expand...

I didn't create FocalBlade to compete with Photoshop. I created it to allow beginners (with much knowledge) to achieve similar results as pros and to allow pros to save time and have more control over the effect. You can do a lot in Photoshop alone, but the question if you can do it in the most effective or efficient way in Photoshop alone.

Some Photoshop fundamentalists seem to prefer to do everything with Photoshop's own means only. I don't care what tool I use as long as it produces the best result in the shortest possible time.

alabaster said:

BTW, get rid of those horrible green criss-crosses. How about a
simple watermark, or a time limit.

Click to expand...

A more subtle watermark is coming soon.