Best way to sharpen in CS3?

Dogdots

I was wondering which is the best way to sharpen a picture in CS3?

Is high pass sharpening the best? I'm sure this software program has many ways in which to sharpen a picture.

Could anyone give me the best way to do this?

I did do the high pass way, and I won't really know how the picture will print out as I haven't taken it in to be printed yet.
I am out of ink in mine :cry --happens more then I wish it would.

arodney

http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html

Dogdots

Thank you for the link.

I always thought that sharpening should be done in intervals, but always was told "don't do that". I will try this system and see how it works.

Sharpened pictures are in the eye of the beholder so to speak. I've seen pictures that I think are really to sharp and they see it as just right.

CatOne

You could probably also spring for Photokit Sharpener which has the 3-phase workflow that Bruce mentions. $99 and takes a lot of the guesswork out of it, and almost never over-sharpens.

Dogdots

Do you have this Photokit sharpner? And how does it work with CS3?

CatOne

Dogdots wrote:

Do you have this Photokit sharpner? And how does it work with CS3?

I do have it. It's a set of sharpening actions, so they show up under the scripts menu.

I used it a fair bit with CS2. Since Aperture and Lightroom came out, I actually have been using them for nearly all sharpening work (I've only been using Photoshop for Panoramas). I actually can't seem to get it installed in CS3... but I only spent a few minutes trying.

Dogdots

I don't have lightroom. I hear it is pretty good. Are you really happy with it? And what can it do? I know it has a good filing system, but what about the editing part?

colourbox

Dogdots wrote:

I don't have lightroom. I hear it is pretty good. Are you really happy with it? And what can it do? I know it has a good filing system, but what about the editing part?

Well, as far as sharpening goes, it is designed around the workflow and techniques suggested in the article posted by arodney at the beginning of the thread. Here is an article about Lightroom sharpening.

As far as general editing, Lightroom is an excellent raw editor/converter; if you have Camera Raw 4.1 or later, it's the same control set.

Dogdots

Thank you for the link. Very detailed in the explaination for sharpening. Looks like I may be purchasing Lightroom soon

rfreschner

I'm using Lightroom almost exclusively now also, but I just shelled out the money for Photokit Sharpener because the output sharpening capabilities of LR are pretty meager at this point. Hopefully, they'll do something about that in v. 2.0! In the meantime, I find that PK Sharpener takes a lot of the guess work out of it while allowing you ultimate control.

Dogdots

rfreschner wrote:

I'm using Lightroom almost exclusively now also, but I just shelled out the money for Photokit Sharpener because the output sharpening capabilities of LR are pretty meager at this point. Hopefully, they'll do something about that in v. 2.0! In the meantime, I find that PK Sharpener takes a lot of the guess work out of it while allowing you ultimate control.

What is and where do you get Photokit Sharpener?

I did a photo in LR (my trial version)....color adjustments, sharpening, crop, etc and had it printed -- was not impressed with the sharpening ability. What looked sharp to me on the computer looked soft in print.

---Mary

rfreschner

Dogdots wrote:

What is and where do you get Photokit Sharpener?

It's a set of sharpening actions for Photoshop created by the folks at Pixel Genius that follow the 3 step sharpening workflow outlined by the late Bruce Fraser (one of the founding members of Pixel Genius). You can find the product at http://www.pixelgenius.com/sharpener/index.html.

Dogdots

rfreschner wrote:

It's a set of sharpening actions for Photoshop created by the folks at Pixel Genius that follow the 3 step sharpening workflow outlined by the late Bruce Fraser (one of the founding members of Pixel Genius). You can find the product at http://www.pixelgenius.com/sharpener/index.html.

Thanks for the link---3 step process.....more steps to the finished image

rfreschner

Dogdots wrote:

Thanks for the link---3 step process.....more steps to the finished image

Since I use LR for my processing, I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep using its Capture Sharpening and I really don't know how much I'll be using the Creative Sharpening. Where I'll be using it the most is for the Output Sharpening. So, for me, it's really a 2 step process for most cases.

arodney

Dogdots wrote:

Thanks for the link---3 step process.....more steps to the finished image

One step is totally optional.

rfreschner

arodney wrote:

One step is totally optional.

There you have it, straight from Andrew, one of the those very talented folks at Pixel Genius.

Dogdots

rfreschner wrote:

Since I use LR for my processing, I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep using its Capture Sharpening and I really don't know how much I'll be using the Creative Sharpening. Where I'll be using it the most is for the Output Sharpening. So, for me, it's really a 2 step process for most cases.

Sharpening is such a careful process. Its amazing how one can mess up on that.

I do have one question tho. If one were to sharpen just once....where in the process does one do it. Ex..... before layers are flattened or after they are flattened---this has always confused me?

dmmattix

Dogdots wrote:

Sharpening is such a careful process. Its amazing how one can mess up on that.

I do have one question tho. If one were to sharpen just once....where in the process does one do it. Ex..... before layers are flattened or after they are flattened---this has always confused me?

Like so many things with this, it depends. I usually use a duplicate layer because for many thing I use the High Pass Filter to do sharpening. Another reason to use a duplicate layer is the ability to add a mask to it and then selectively sharpen. You can also change the opacity of the duplicate layer to decrease the sharpening effect. I also like to turn it off and on to see the impact of the sharpened layer.

I almost hesitate to post this as Sharpening can get to be a bit of a religious issue. Kinda like backups...


Regards,

Mike

Dogdots

dmmattix wrote:

Like so many things with this, it depends. I usually use a duplicate layer because for many thing I use the High Pass Filter to do sharpening. Another reason to use a duplicate layer is the ability to add a mask to it and then selectively sharpen. You can also change the opacity of the duplicate layer to decrease the sharpening effect. I also like to turn it off and on to see the impact of the sharpened layer.

I almost hesitate to post this as Sharpening can get to be a bit of a religious issue. Kinda like backups...


Regards,

Mike

I like that...kinda like backups Made me chuckle some.

If you could help me on this...:D
Ok, I do control>J and work off of that----is that a duplicate layer ?
Then I do my editing.
I then flatten.
Then sharpen doing the contro>J. I do use the High Pass method sometimes and my success rate is 50/50 as I have a hard time telling how well it works.
How does one do a masking layer?

I love the opacity slider---works wonders.

I was making the mistake and maybe this isn't a mistake. You could let me know about this....I would save my photo after editing to a psd and open it into my DPP for sharpening then save it as a jpg. I really like the sharpening tool in DPP. Its just so much easier to see what is happening to the image. As for the other tools....don't use them.

----Mary

dmmattix

Dogdots wrote:

I like that...kinda like backups Made me chuckle some.

If you could help me on this...:D
Ok, I do control>J and work off of that----is that a duplicate layer ?
Then I do my editing.
I then flatten.
Then sharpen doing the contro>J. I do use the High Pass method sometimes and my success rate is 50/50 as I have a hard time telling how well it works.
How does one do a masking layer?

I love the opacity slider---works wonders.

I was making the mistake and maybe this isn't a mistake. You could let me know about this....I would save my photo after editing to a psd and open it into my DPP for sharpening then save it as a jpg. I really like the sharpening tool in DPP. Its just so much easier to see what is happening to the image. As for the other tools....don't use them.

----Mary

Mary,

Yes, ctrl-J creates a duplicate layer. Sometimes I High Pass (normally my first choice), sometimes I Smart Sharpen, sometimes UnSharp Mask. It is kinda your choice and it depends upon the image. If you use the High Pass you must change the Blending mode to Overlay. If you use one of the others you are really just looking at the duplicate layer. The opacity gives you control over how much of the sharpening you want to apply.

To add a Layer Mask you look in the Layers pallet. Click on the duplicate background you just created to select it. Look at the bottom of the pallet for the icon that is a rectangle with a circle in it. If you hover the mouse over that icon it will say "Add Layer Mask". Click it and a mask will appear on the duplicate layer you have selected. Now you can use the Brush to control how much and where you want the sharpening to apply. This is useful with portraits where you want sharp eys and maybe some pieces of jewelry but in general want a softer look for the rest of the photo. You put a slight (or more) blur on the background, paint on the mask the eyes that you want to sharpen and it just works. Layer Masks are an important feature of Photoshop and there limit is basicly your imagination.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Mike

Dogdots

dmmattix wrote:

Mary,

Yes, ctrl-J creates a duplicate layer. Sometimes I High Pass (normally my first choice), sometimes I Smart Sharpen, sometimes UnSharp Mask. It is kinda your choice and it depends upon the image. If you use the High Pass you must change the Blending mode to Overlay. If you use one of the others you are really just looking at the duplicate layer. The opacity gives you control over how much of the sharpening you want to apply.

To add a Layer Mask you look in the Layers pallet. Click on the duplicate background you just created to select it. Look at the bottom of the pallet for the icon that is a rectangle with a circle in it. If you hover the mouse over that icon it will say "Add Layer Mask". Click it and a mask will appear on the duplicate layer you have selected. Now you can use the Brush to control how much and where you want the sharpening to apply. This is useful with portraits where you want sharp eys and maybe some pieces of jewelry but in general want a softer look for the rest of the photo. You put a slight (or more) blur on the background, paint on the mask the eyes that you want to sharpen and it just works. Layer Masks are an important feature of Photoshop and there limit is basicly your imagination.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Mike

It did help alot. Thank you. I would always hear about masking and never really knew what it was all about much less how to do it. You have given me a good start

---

Mary