Some users say that plug-ins are better than Photoshop’s own sharpening tools. You will no doubt hear from them.
Photoshop’s own sharpening tools have improved a lot in recent updates and some of the plug-in fans are basing their opinion on how things were a few versions back, or are extremely demanding.
Download try-outs and decide for yourself if you aren’t happy with what you get with CS3.
It’s not just the filters; there are layering and masking techniques available too!
(Whisper…duplicate layer…filter>other>High Pass, change blending mode to overlay on the duplicate layer…if it seems too sharp use Soft Light instead…)
Christine, I agree…that’s a favorite of mine.
With the advent of "Smart Filters" in CS3, the method advocated by Christine has really come into its own.
The problem before was, that if the result was too harsh, or not sharp enough, you’d have to keep stepping back in history to try a different Radius setting in the High Pass Filter. By implimenting it as a Smart Filter, you can adjust the sharpness whilst viewing the final result.
Notwithstanding the fact that a different radius blur does affect the sharpening impact of the Hi-Pass sharpening technique, I often found that rather than experiment with various radiuses, I could simply vary the opacity of the sharpening layer and achieve the desired result. I suspect that with practice, one also comes to learn how to assess the hi-pass preview as they adjust the radius blur, such that once the sharpening technique is carried out further to completion, perhaps a layer opacity change or blending mode change is all that remains to fine-tune the sharpening result. Of course, the Smart Filters is a nice step forward, no doubt about it!
Daryl
Varying the opacity of the highpass layer does give the impression of "fine tuning" the sharpening effect. In reality it is a sort of reverse of the soft focus technique of placing a blurred image on top of a sharp one, and I’m not convinced that it works well in a "sharpening" situation.
Chrisjbirchall,
If ""sharpening" situation" is open to plug-ins, I find it is very useful to run FocusMagic on a sharpening layer and cut the opacity to fine tune the effect.
Photoshop CS-2
sounds like the plug-ins save you the bother of having to learn how to do the complex sharpening techniques.
Sounds like the plug-ins don’t do anything that PS can’t do if you have the time to learn how to do it properly.
