ronaldmilne

Can you let us know the programme or company so that we can have a look at it. You need to google more than sharpen to find it

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Reviews are good. Looks like they have a trial version. Normal price is $99 but it looks like they occasionally have deep-discount promotions. You may want to subscribe to the Franzis newsletter and wait for a discount price. Also, monitor http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/category/publisher/franzis-verlag-gmbh/ for Franzis deals.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Beats LR & PS? I downloaded the trial and took a look, but quite frankly can't see where it does better than sharpening in LR or unsharp masking in PS. WHAT did I miss?

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

In Lightroom, Sharpening and Luminance (Noise) go hand in hand. Sharpening makes the noise more visible. And what you really want to do is to apply the sharpening to the edges and not to the rest of the image. There is a Masking slider below the sharpening slider that can help you control what gets sharpened. To use masking, hold the Alt key down (on a PC) and drag the masking slider. You will see black areas on the detected edges and as you drag the slider father to the right, those areas will become more and more narrow. This is showing the places that sharpening will be applied.

Then start moving the Luminance slider to improve the noise situation (but don't move it too far since it tends to reduce detail.


But another way to improve the sharpness is with a product called Piccure+ 3. It uses deconvolution to mathematically figure out how the image should have turned out, essentially making a cheap lens perform more like a much more expensive lens. It has noise reduction also. But I find that if I treat the noise first, before using Piccure+, I get the best results. If using LR, you can add a little bit of Noise Reduction (Luminance slider) but don't add too much and then call Piccure+ using LR settings. Or for even better results, treat the noise with DxO Optics Prime (Elite Edition) with the Prime Noise Removal (and turn off lens correction since it will impact Piccure+'s ability to properly sharped.


When sharpening, the source of the problem may not be sharpening. Instead it may be vibration. I will often have Piccure+ try to correct movement first and to see if that does the job. It often can solve the problem. Photoshop has a filter similar to this called "Shake Reduction" and it too can remove some amount of movement.

Here is a review of Piccure+ from Steff Huff Photo:

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2016/05/04/fixing-the-shakes-piccure-plus-plug-in-by-rudiger-wolf/

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I do things a little differently sometimes. I employ "local sharpening, clarity and contrast enhancement" using either Lightroom, ON1 or Photoshop. There are times when I use selective focus with a larger aperture, and want to further enhance the sharpness differential, or If I am doing a portrait, I will selectively focus the eyes, hairline, mouth, and mask out the rest of the face so it is less "crisp" and likely to show unflattering detail.

blackest Loc: Ireland

I guess the point was that what should be sharpest should be in the plane of focus more specifically the focal point that was chosen when taking the shot. Something off the plain of focus would have some degree of blur and should have some blur.

Thats why I am suggesting it's best to try for the best sharpness at the focal point used and then you can mask to ensure you are not sharpening what should be soft. There seems to be a noticeable difference overall when you try to get the sharpening right for the focal point.

What pushed me towards this line of thought was focusing film for printing, essentially it is common to focus on the film grain, although that would tend to make a better print of film grain wouldn't it. The alternative is to concentrate on greatest contrast at the focal point. The latter being close to the digital experience.

It seems to work for me, to look closer at the focal point than not too when post processing. Maybe others will find the same result.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

Multiple way to sharpen in LR so you can do it any way you want. There is the global sharpen under details and effects all the pixels. Then you have the brush, radial filter and graduated filter tools with allow you sharpen some subset of a picture. Seems like you can have your cake and eat it too!!!

dpswbab

If you focus and recompose, the indicated focus point in your plugin will probably be in the wrong place, since you will have moved the target to another position in the image.

blackest Loc: Ireland

correct and hopefully you will know what you wanted to be in best focus. Even if the focus point doesn't line up, which makes things a little harder, your sharpest objects will still be in the plane of focus. Stacked exposures would be even harder to gauge but lets not run before we can walk, figure out where should be optimally focused in the easy cases and how much to apply and you should be able to apply that practical knowledge to harder images. If you have missed focus and haven't got lucky then that should probably be one of your rejects. Why waste time on a photo which isn't very good.

Sinewsworn Loc: Port Orchard, WA

Another German sharpening product is called piccure+. It uses math to calculate the best view. Not always great but sometimes gives stunning results!

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Funny, how I can usually do that just by looking at an image. Just the other day on the UHH a member was asking about the focus issues with their image. I wrote back and in part explained where I thought their focus point was. Sure enough while I was writing they posted more info and gave the same focus point! Actually I think it was appropriate but they needed way more depth of field.

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

I agree!!! You can always blow up the picture, be it full screen or even larger, and it becomes quite obvious to the naked eye.

blackest Loc: Ireland

Provided the zoomed in area contains the point focused on when shot :)

Seriously, what it boils down to is this. Optimal sharpening will only be when you adjust for the best result at the focal plane or focal point which was determined when you took the photo, rather than some other object with high contrast away from that plane. If your trying to adjust for an object away from that focal plane you will not be getting the best IQ at the point of focus. Now that may be obvious for some but for others it may be a new thing to consider. Remember to mask so you are not sharpening what should be soft.

If you haven't got the focus close enough to where you wanted it then that seems to be the point where you junk that image and move on to the next. If it is a miss it is a miss and it will never be the shot you intended it to be. Knowing where the focal points are on your camera and better still which ones got a lock when the photo was taken will at least guide you to the right point to concentrate your efforts. With an experienced eye that will be pretty easy. The biggest waste of time in post processing is working on junk shots when you could be working on your best.

russjc001 Loc: South Carolina

I find that NIk detail enhancement filter does a good job of bring out the details in the image and you can choose where to apply it using the control points. Plus in LR, you can mask the areas where you don't want to sharpen and apply the amount to taste.