Computer gurus & PS Wizzards

Sam

While going through my old Pentium 4 winbox looking to delete all data and programs in preparation of selling it I noticed a few things.

Loading PS4, opening images, minor processing and smart sharpen was surprisingly fast.

In particular smart sharpen took a second or two. There was no speed difference between an 8 bit or 16 bit 5D file.

So I tried a few scenarios in my Mac Pro. Smart sharpen takes about 25 to 27 seconds on a 16 bit file in CS5. The same file in 8 bit mode takes a second or so. Huge difference.

Using CS4 Smart sharpen takes about 2 seconds or so on ether an 8 bit or 16 bit file.

The same 5D image file was used for all tests.

Is this normal?? If so why??

Thanks!!

Sam

basflt

you compare apple with eggs [ expression ]

if one computer is faster then another means nothing
they have different hardware and software ,
thus different results

Sam

basflt wrote: »

you compare apple with eggs [ expression ]

if one computer is faster then another means nothing
they have different hardware and software ,
thus different results

Nay my friend......Different computer (old, slow) pointed me to this. The comparison used the same computer (Mac Pro), same image 5D psd file. The speed test was using Smart Sharpen with the same settings between CS4 and CS5.

Why is CS4 10X faster?

Sam

ziggy53

Check the following speed related settings to see if the Mac Pro is fully optimized:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404439.html

Sam

ziggy53 wrote: »

Check the following speed related settings to see if the Mac Pro is fully optimized:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404439.html

I just read this info and all looks good?? I have 16GB of Ram, dedicated scratch disk (Note efficiency stays at 100%).

I ran an online speed test and with a 5D II psd file running the test on a 16 bit file took close to 2 minutes 44 seconds. The CPU was running between 95% and 97%. Efficiency stayed at 100%.

When running the test on an 8 bit version of the same image the test took about 30 seconds and the CPU was running between 8 and a high of 62%.
Last week or so I downloaded the test action and the sample image. Someone else had posted a time of 15 or 16 seconds for a new screaming machine. My time was 17.5 seconds so it doesn't seem like there is anything amiss except the long time it takes to run Smart sharpen on a 16 bit file.

Can someone else with CS5 and a full resolution 5D II (or equivalent size) file, run Smart sharpen with an amount of 200 and a radius of .03 and let me know who long your computer takes??

Note: Unsharp mask is faster than a blink of an eye.

Is Smart sharpen that much more complex in CS5 than CS4?

Thanks

ziggy53

I'm still at PS CS4 and I run Windows 7 and I can confirm that on my machine 16 bit processing against Canon 5D MKII RAW files and using Smart Sharpen can be "very" slow with some settings. I note that using the "More Accurate" setting (in Smart Sharpen) seems to have some effect on the processing duration.

Sam wrote: »

...
Can someone else with CS5 and a full resolution 5D II (or equivalent size) file, run Smart sharpen with an amount of 200 and a radius of .03 and let me know who long your computer takes??
...

I can only set a radius value of 0.1 or larger.

You don't mention the other settings that would be important to know for a benchmark:

Basic/Advanced - Anything done in the Advanced mode will dramatically slow the Smart Sharpen render speed.

Gaussian Blur/Lens Blur/Motion Blur - Each has its own speed signature.

pathfinder

16 bit Smart Sharpen is very slow, Sam, I never use it.

I am running a 2008 MacPro with 20 Gb 800Mhz Ram and OS 10.6

I do my Sharpening in LR3 for capture, and for output in the Printing module in LR 3 also.

I sometimes use a little USM in PS if I feel it is beneficial, or a high contrast masK.

Sam

Ziggy,

You the man.clap

Somehow, sometime, somewhere I changed the advanced settings.

Once I set the advanced setting back to the default (zero) on all sliders the sharpening is too fast to measure.

Thanks,

Sam

Of course I will now have to find out what the advanced sliders do.

Sam

pathfinder wrote: »

16 bit Smart Sharpen is very slow, Sam, I never use it.

I am running a 2008 MacPro with 20 Gb 800Mhz Ram and OS 10.6

I do my Sharpening in LR3 for capture, and for output in the Printing module in LR 3 also.

I sometimes use a little USM in PS if I feel it is beneficial, or a high contrast masK.

Thanks Jim,

Right now Smart sharpen on a 16 bit full res 5D II file is a blink of an eye. I am a happy camper now. I just couldn't fathom why the Smart sharpen was taking so long.

I don't bring everything into CS5, but I do all my printing from CS5. LR doesn't have the ability to soft proof. That's a killer for me.Canon has a nice print plugin that allows me to print 16 bit files, and controls all the paper choices, sizes etc, etc. I have never printed from LR. Doubt if I ever will.

Sam

gecko0

While going through my old Pentium 4 winbox looking to delete all data and programs in preparation of selling it I noticed a few things.

Hi...a bit off topic, but unless you are selling the pc to someone you know very well, I would strongly encourage you to wipe the hard drive(s) completely with an app such as DBAN prior to selling it. Unless you've been using a "file shredder" along the way, you are asking for trouble by selling a hard drive without scrubbing it.

/paranoia

Sam

gecko0 wrote: »

Hi...a bit off topic, but unless you are selling the pc to someone you know very well, I would strongly encourage you to wipe the hard drive(s) completely with an app such as DBAN prior to selling it. Unless you've been using a "file shredder" along the way, you are asking for trouble by selling a hard drive without scrubbing it.

/paranoia

A little paranoia is good. My plan was to delete all the apps and data files from the C drive, D partition, and the second E drive. Then reformat the second drive, and defragment the first drive with C and D partitions.

There really isn't anything much in a sensitive way on the computer, and I thought that defragmenting the drives would first copy the undeleted data and then would write over the deleted files.

Do you think this would be sufficient?

Sam

ziggy53

Sam wrote: »

... Of course I will now have to find out what the advanced sliders do.

Smart Sharpen is to sharpening as Gaussian Blur is to unsharpening (blurring). Gaussian Blur uses the process of "convolution" as the blur mechanism, while Smart Sharpen uses the process of "deconvolution" to try to recreate prior focus.

Since Smart Sharpen does not have the benefit of knowing the prior state of focus, it attempts to recreate the "likely" state of focus by using statistical analysis of the image to predict sharper focus. To do this it needs to set a 2 dimensional array of the image and then it plots corrections based on a specific algorithm, typically Richardson–Lucy based.

Using the adjustments in the "Advanced" tab introduces additional dimensions to the array, complicating the mathematics tremendously. That's the reason for the slowdown you experienced.

---

As an aside, deconvolution is also the method used by seismologists to estimate both the surface epicenter and the depth of earthquakes, using just surface mounted sensors.

Sam

I now officially declare from this date hence the individual formally known as Ziggy be known to all in the land as professor Ziggy, master all things photographic.

Sam