JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

After 3 or 4 weeks of playing with this product, I have to conclude it is a game changer when it comes to sharpening pictures. It does work better with RAW, but it also does good things to JPG images too.

I will add some before and after shots here:

This first shot was taken with a Fujifilm HS30EXR and shot in JPG. The camera was at max zoom, and set into close focus mode with the dragon fly about 4 feet away. Also manually focused.

The after shot is after sharpening in Piccure+ and then adjusting the lighting and clarity in Lightroom.

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Original shot of spider


After sharpening and then some Lightroom adjustments


Original JPEG

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Sharpened and adj in Lightroom

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Original JPEG

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After sharpening and adjustments

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This one was in RAW format

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After sharpening and adjustments

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ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good job Jim.

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

This makes sense, since JPG images have already been sharpened once from original raw capture file. Sharpening again can result in over-sharpening.

vdeforest Loc: Marlborough, nh

That's spectacular. Can you estimate how much improvement is due to PiccurePlus and how much is Lightroom?

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Almost all the sharpen effect came from PiccurePlus. When I went back to Lightroom, I slightly tweak Luminance if I saw any noise. Then went to clarity and perhaps contrast. And then I worked on the exposure.

One difference I see is when I sharpen Lightroom, or any other photo tool, that noise always goes up with sharpening. Not so with PiccurePlus. As long as I don't over sharpen, there is very little noise.

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

I agree Jim, it is an amazing product.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

I echo your sentiments Jim. I call it from LR5.7 as one of the first steps in my workflow now, and it's made a huge difference.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Yes, I use Lightroom 5.7. And I am constantly getting my best results if I load the picture into Lightroom 1st. I will adjust luminance very slightly if I see much noise, and then call Piccure+. Piccure+ has a noise reduction option, but I like the results better if the noise is first reduced in Lightroom. I think the reason for this is that luminance slightly softens the picture. But Piccure+ has the ability to sharpen in spite of the softness, and when the noise is gone, it has a better shot at some real success.

When I go back to Lightroom, I first double check luminance and maybe I have to touch it very slightly. Then I go to Clarity. After that, I work on exposure and perhaps contrast.

Piccure+ also has the ability to determine adjustments needed for lens correction. But I haven't played with that yet. I haven't been shooting subjects that distortion would show up. Interesting to note that Piccure+ figures out lens distortion on its own. It does not depend upon tables for each lens.

DigitalDon Loc: Calgary, Alberta

Perhaps its my monitor, but I see very little sharpening to ALL these images. There is a BIG difference in image quality but it appears to be mostly the result of increasing the contrast. The "original" images are quite sharp but do lack the contrast. I still think the best sharpening is on RAW images using Photoshop. For sharpening JPEG's Photoshop can do quite an adequate job but won't match the result of working with RAW. Just my opinion and I have NEVER been wrong, at least thats the way my grandchildren understand it.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I am using a 27" big monitor and it is very, very noticeable.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Don took the words out of my mouth. The experimental method flawed. For this whole thing to be valid, you cannot add any adjustments whatsoever. I suggest that you expose your pictures properly, import into LR, apply PiccurePlus and then compare the before and after. For the most accurate test, you should find a black and white test target in the Internet and shoot that.

Fortunately in digital photography, we can tweak several characteristics such as clarity, contrast, vibrance, luminance and saturation that we perceive as increasing sharpness. I do not know about you but I think of sharpness as how well a lens picks up detail. Contrast is the range between blacks and whites and can alter fine details. That is not a property of the optics but can appear to be.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Does this product work as a standalone, or do you need a more advanced (LR, etc) program to,run with it?

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

It does have a stand alone option. It can also batch process many files.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

Thanks.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

You can certainly get the same sharpening results using Photoshop with or without add ons like NIK and you have local control, sharpening that which needs it and leaving other areas alone. Picture+ sliders are global not local. For example, you take an image wide open for a soft creamy and intentionally blurry background but you want to sharpen the subject. Picture+ will sharpen it all and that is not what you want.