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8 Feb 2005, 17:06 (Ref:1220582)
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Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,748
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Good Photoshop image sharpening techniques
Perhaps you can help me. I understand that is generally preferable to sharpen digital images, once they have been taken, as they are usually a little soft.
But I don't really know any specific settings for motorsport. I've used the Unsharp Mask tool, but not really sure about the values, I just fiddle with the sliders till I get something reasonable... Also, do you tend to sharpen just the car, and leave the background, or sharpen the whole image? Basically a few ideas, tutorials etc. would be much appreciated! |
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Renault/MSA Young Photographer of the Year 2006 
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8 Feb 2005, 17:58 (Ref:1220625)
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Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 656
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Photoshop Unsharp Mask...
Amount: 300 Radius: 0.3 Threshold: 0 is a pretty standard way of doing it. Just experiment and actually print it - the visual effect of sharpening is different between screen and print. For the book, I'm having to leave sharpening to the publisher and I'll be livid if they get it wrong or don't sharpen at all (which would meke investing in 'L' lenses utterly pointless...) Have look at this - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...ding-usm.shtml - understanding what it all means might help a bit. |
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8 Feb 2005, 18:08 (Ref:1220634)
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Racer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 303
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Mike.. There's loads of guidance out there on the web.. canon have published a good guide recently and robgalbriath.com is a good starting point (browse the forums)..
You need to understand why sharpening is required though.. The image sensor has an anti alias filter in front of it that "defocuses" the image.. Why? Well, without that, you get unacceptable jagglies (where straight diagonals appear jagged).. The more pro your camera, the more pronounced the anti aliasing. They work on the principal that pros understand this, are not "put off" by seeing softness in the image, require the minimum jagglies possible and will deal with the softness by post processing. The point and shoot brigade need something more immediate and so there is less anti alias in those cameras.. Right, so it's accepted why you need to sharpen.. How.. Ooh, well, there's a million and one ways.. I suggest you search the web and have three or four alternatives in your arsenal.. 1. unsharp mask.. search for an online tutorial and learn what it actually does to learn how to use it (it works on increasing contrast and the optical effect it has).. 2. sharpening in layers and blending for a more subtle effect.. 3. using plug-ins like focal blade and/or nic sharpener and/or dFine.. Remeber, horses for courses, don't over sharpen, and sharpen differently for print that you do for VDU.. Finally, no ammount of sharpening will compensate for something that is out of focus or blurred.. You should be able to tell is anything is worth bothering with in the first place without sharpening.. Regards Last edited by David L; 8 Feb 2005 at 18:10. |
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-- David Lister
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8 Feb 2005, 19:05 (Ref:1220687)
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Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,748
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Cheers David, I realise you can't really sharped an out of focus image. This is more for enhancing an image. I've had a play and had some good results, and I've got a load of tutorials to read through now.
Couple more things, how does the High pass filter work, I played with that, got some good results, and some not so good results, I've heard of it being used for sharpening. Secondly, what about in-camera sharpening? I turned it off, should I have it on. In case of queries I use a Nikon D100. |
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Renault/MSA Young Photographer of the Year 2006
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9 Feb 2005, 21:42 (Ref:1221378)
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#5 | ||
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Racer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 303
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High pass.. dunno without looking it up.. I don't use it..
In camera sharpening, I don't bother.. But you should play about an decide for yourself what settings you want to use.... Canon's tips can be found from HERE D100? Do you want to buy a D2H that I used for last season? I have it on eBay just now.. PM and I'll give you the link if you're interested.. |
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__________________
-- David Lister
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10 Feb 2005, 01:52 (Ref:1221549)
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#6 | ||
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Racer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 130
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I convert the image to LAB - go to the "Lightness" layer and UnSharp mask that (300, 0.3, 0) and then convert back to RGB.
That's my usual way anyway... of course it differs depending on your cam and res... |
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10 Feb 2005, 09:12 (Ref:1221727)
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#7 | |
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Racer
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 273
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Guess you must have your name down for an early D2x then David. Hope you get it before the 'season' starts. Good luck
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10 Feb 2005, 12:57 (Ref:1221932)
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#8 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 656
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or maybe a switch to Canon...
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10 Feb 2005, 15:11 (Ref:1222037)
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Racer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 248
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BigRed450 gave me this technique. Create a new action then record the steps below. I find this work great on those soft images.
Dark & Light Sharpen 1- Duplicate document (to protect original) All work will be done on this duplicate. 2- Duplicate Layer and name "Dark Sharpen" 3- Duplicate Layer again and name "Light Sharpen" 4- Choose the Dark Sharpen Layer - use Unsharp Mask set to A- 500 R- 0.6 T- 2 - set layer "Blend Mode" to Darken - set layer opacity to 20% 5- Choose the Light Sharpen Layer - use Unsharp Mask set to A- 500 R- 0.6 T- 2 - set layer "Blend Mode" to Lighten - set layer opacity to 5% 6- Flatten Image 7- Duplicate Layer and name "Luminosity Sharpen" 8- Choose the Luminosity Sharpen Layer - use Unsharp Mask set to A- 500 R- 0.2 T- 0 - set layer "Blend Mode" to Luminosity - set layer opacity to 60% 9- Flatten Image I have produced beautiful 13x19 posters with this sharpening process and can atest that it works awesome with Canon 10D images... The USM radius for the Dark and Light Sharpen layers can be changed to either 0.3, 0.9, or 1.5 dependant on subject. Last edited by MolsonBoy; 10 Feb 2005 at 15:12. |
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Rob
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10 Feb 2005, 17:49 (Ref:1222168)
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#10 | ||
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Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,748
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I think I read that one here and tried it.
For my web images, which I'm mainly doing at the moment I prefer gi_gav's technique. |
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__________________
Renault/MSA Young Photographer of the Year 2006
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10 Feb 2005, 18:49 (Ref:1222237)
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Racer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 303
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Quote:
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__________________
-- David Lister
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10 Feb 2005, 18:54 (Ref:1222243)
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Racer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 303
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Quote:
There are pro's and con's to both but, FWIW, I think that the Nikon D2 has better (richer, anyway) colour than Canon 1D.. Though both can produce real class when images are handled properly, and it's a matter of taste.. Camera handling, there isn't much in it between the 1D series and the D2's. The D2 series battery life is mega.. 1000 shots on a charge is easy.. The Canon glass is more advanced at dealing with the problems of the reflectiveness of the sensors in dig causing bright light to bounce back up the lens.. But I think that my 500 is a match for the canon in sharpness and Nikon are playing catch-up with VR and ghosting.. |
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-- David Lister
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10 Feb 2005, 19:42 (Ref:1222307)
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Rookie
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 50
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Quote:
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__________________
John Brooks
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10 Feb 2005, 20:11 (Ref:1222351)
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#14 | ||
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Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,748
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Back to the sharpening, here's what I did...
Original http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...metro_orig.jpg Sharpened http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...etro_sharp.jpg Pretty good I think. |
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Renault/MSA Young Photographer of the Year 2006
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10 Feb 2005, 21:57 (Ref:1222447)
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#15 | ||
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Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,744
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Quote:
don't worry david...i also still believe in the dark side.  
Last edited by kdr; 10 Feb 2005 at 22:00. |
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__________________
I want you to drive flat out
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10 Feb 2005, 22:50 (Ref:1222506)
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#16 | ||
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Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,748
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Me too...
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__________________
Renault/MSA Young Photographer of the Year 2006
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11 Feb 2005, 10:09 (Ref:1222814)
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#17 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 656
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I should have mentioned, as JamesC did later, that the '300, 0.3, 0' routine gets applied just to the Lightness layer in LAB mode.
Minimises the halos you get when you do it in RGB. |
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11 Feb 2005, 13:07 (Ref:1222929)
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Racer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 130
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Quote:
In this digital age I think we're too used to over sharpened images - slightly softer images often look better to my eyes... |
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11 Feb 2005, 17:54 (Ref:1223134)
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Racer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 303
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Quote:
Honestly folks, you think you've got somebody under control and then they go and do things like THIS He must have bought a Nikon on the sly... |
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__________________
-- David Lister
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11 Feb 2005, 23:16 (Ref:1223357)
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#20 | |
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Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,744
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hopefully its the equipment between your ears thats the most important thing!
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__________________
I want you to drive flat out
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12 Feb 2005, 07:02 (Ref:1223512)
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#21 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 50
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Quote:
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__________________
John Brooks
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15 Feb 2005, 07:33 (Ref:1225922)
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#22 | ||
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Veteran
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 979
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I used to use unsharp mask, but it's problem is it's non selective and sharpens the entire image. I work with an "action" I have set to run when i want it, that concentrates on sharpening the edges in the photo:
-go to channels palette and chose either red, green or blue whichever has the greatest contrast in it -Duplicate that channel -choose filter,stylise and find edges -filter, blur, gaussain blur, use a radius of around 1 -choose image, adjust, levels & bring the black and white levels closer together, say about in 1/3rd each -choose select, load selction and click invert -select rgb channel there should be marching ants all over the screen -choose filter, sharpen and USM, and set the amount to around 200 -press Ctrl H to get rid of the marching ants and you should find that just the edges in the picture are sharpened. Obviously it doesn't work in every situation but its better than justy USM |
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17 Feb 2005, 00:05 (Ref:1227769)
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#23 | ||
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Rookie
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 34
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With all the many hours of comparing, test prints/strips and different techniques I've used to sharpen (including pluggins) for large Prints, I still prefer turning in-camera sharpening OFF and sharpen using the Dark and Light Blend layers for 10D files. However, I also have a 1DMkII that requires a different sharpening approach, A simple Luminosity Blend layer sharpening works well for the MkII Raw or JPG. Every different camera I have used requires its own tailored settings to bring out the best...
I have tried many versions of High Pass and Edge Sharpening, but they are more for just a one image at a time process and don't work well for bulk image processing. Sometimes you must sharpen the whole image to bring out all the very fine detail that High Pass will miss. L*a*b* mode conversion: this is an interesting one that I used almost exclusively on Fuji S602Z images, however it does no justice to my virtually noiseless Canon files. The idea with lab is to sharpen the lightness (L) channel and slightly Blur the a* and b* color channels so you don't sharpen the color noise, but you are still sharpening the gray noise in the L channel. It was also noted that there may also be slight color loss or shifts during conversion to Lab and back to RGB. My suggestion is my friends to take an afternoon and bring up your favorite image, try a few well know processes and compare for yourself on-screen and in print. You will surprized to see the difference between the printed version and what you see on your monitor... Have a GREAT Day all.... |
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__________________
Jeff tenHave PhotoGraphics
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17 Feb 2005, 00:53 (Ref:1227787)
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#24 | ||
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Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,748
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Thanks for all this info, I've learnt a fair bit, and have found a few good methods, that I can do fairly quickly.
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Renault/MSA Young Photographer of the Year 2006
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