Sharpening Action Set

GM
Posted By
Glenn_Mitchell
May 12, 2004
Views
647
Replies
0
Status
Closed
I am wrapping up work on a new PS action set for sharpening digital images.

It will be made freely available to all, once I finish it. For this toolkit, I would like some volunteers to beta test and I would also welcome some public discussion of the proposed implementation.

The toolkit will be designed for intermediate to advanced PS users. People who understand at least the basics of USM or highpass sharpening.

I’m not a big fan of preset sharpening levels. I prefer instead to make manual adjustments. So, currently, there are no presets. I’m open to reconsidering, but adding presets would mean a lot more beta testing.

I agree generally with the philosophy of three-pass sharpening that Bruce Fraser advocates. This new toolkit also assumes most of the sharpening is done after you convert the RAW file. There may or may not be some localized (i.e., creative sharpening), and then a final round of sharpening for the intended output resolution.

Important features include:

(1) In addition to a generating a luminosity edge mask, you can also generate a color edge mask or an enhanced edge mask that combines both luminosity and color edges.

(2) For USM sharpening, you can sharpen the dark pixels separately from the light pixels. This lets you control both halos.

(3) The ability to separately sharpen/blur surfaces.

Why both color and and luminosity edge masks? Won’t it cause color shifts? The reason why is that some edges are the result of two colors coming together that have the same or nearly the same tone. What you will find is that typically the luminosity edge mask and the color edge mask are 95% similar and combining both gives better definition to the edges in an image. Because it is an edge mask, if you use USM with a luminosity blend or you use two layers — one with a lighten and the other a darken blend — you should avoid significant color shifts, just as when using a luminosity edge mask and USM.

The separate USM sharpening for light and dark pixels is an idea I borrowed from Focal Blade (a shapening add-in). That tool lets you separately adjust both halos, which is helpful for getting the optimum amount of edge contrast.

There are times when you will want to blur surfaces (e.g., to remove/reduce noise, creative effects) or to sharpen them some but with an amount different from edges. The assumption that you only want to sharpen edges is generally good advice but not 100% universal. So, this sharpening toolkit will give you some options for sharpening surfaces, also.

Other features Include the ability to brush in creative sharpening and creative blurring, use of layers, use of Blend If to avoid clipping shadows/highlights, etc.

Sound interesting? Comments on the philosophy and offers to help beta test are welcome.

Cheers,

Mitch

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections