Early Beta of CS4 Sharpening Panel

gmitchel850

I'm working on a new USM sharpening panel for CS4. The basic USM functionality is already there. I'd like suggestions and feedback as this tool matures.

What's special about this panel right now is that you get a live preview of USM sharpening effects. You don't have to rely on that little thumbnail on the USM dialog. Instead, you can see your settings and changes you make to those settings displayed live on the photograph.

How's that done?! Well, the magic of Smart Filters. Fist setting you apply makes a Smart Filters layer. After that, any subsequent changes you make will update the Smart Filters effect.

More features are coming to this tool:

(1) An advanced panel where you can not only select USM settings but also
set layer opacity, leyer blend, and Blend If settings.
(2) Ability to select presets on the Basic panel and even save presets on
the Advanced panel.

Once get this tool in final shape, I'll do the same for High Pass sharpening. The work at retooling all of the TLR sharpeners: capture sharpeners, creative sharpeners, and output sharpeners to use panels and allow for the same sort of live preview.

The early beta is open to all. The final tool will be available freely to the digital photography community.

http://www.thelightsright.com/EarlyBetaTLRProUSM

Comments and suggests will be appreciated!

Cheers,

Mitch

gmitchel850

With the Basic panel, the preview will be similar to what you expect in Photoshop CS4. It is true that you can preview the USM settings themselves.

With the Advanced panel, you will also be able to adjust layer opacity, layer blend, and Blend If settings and preview their effect along with additional adjustments to USM. With CS4, the USM dialog is modal. So to tweak features like Blend If settings, you would have to accept the USM settings and then go to the Layer Style dialog. With the CS4 panel, those adjustments will be previewable as you work with the panel.

I'll also likely add a feature to the Advanced pane for selecting from existing alpha channels for an edge/surface mask to use. That together with adjustments to USM, opacity, blend, and Blend Ifs will let you preview the overall sharpening effect as you change settings.

Cheers,

Mitch

CynthiaM

Glenn
I can't get any of your panels to work. Don't know about anyone else's because yours are the only ones that I have tried. The panel appears in Photoshop, but doesn't do anything. I suspect that I am not doing something right in how I am loading it. So if you could comment on this, it would be appreciated.

Regards,

gmitchel850

Hi, Cynthia:

Are you using Photoshop CS4?

The new .SWF panels are not compatible with earlier versions of Photoshop CS4.

Does the panel open for you but nothing happens after that? If so, did you also copy the .JSX file to the same subfolder as the .SWF file? They have to be named the same except for their extension and stored in the Plug-ins/Panels subfolder. The panel uses Javascript to communicate with Photoshop.

Also, you need to be sure to load the actions (the .ATN file) that is included with the .ZIP file. If you have an older version of the actions, they might not work. So, be sure you have the most recent version.

The early beta for the new CS4 sharpening panel does not have an action set. Instead, it uses a number of Javascript functions. Actions are not involved for that panel.

Cheers,

Mitch

CynthiaM

Mitch: (Don't know where I got Glenn from? Sorry!)

I thought I had it set up correctly but I will double check. Yes they open,look pretty but are non functional. Will double check the set up.

When you say early versions of CS4, I've had it close to a year, but it's updated. So what does that mean?

Ric Grupe

CynthiaM wrote:

Mitch: (Don't know where I got Glenn from? Sorry!)

I thought I had it set up correctly but I will double check. Yes they open,look pretty but are non functional. Will double check the set up.

When you say early versions of CS4, I've had it close to a year, but it's updated. So what does that mean?

Mitch's first name IS Glenn.:D

I think Mitch (nickname) meant earlier versions of PS not CS4.