Hasselblad FlexColor - Unsharp mask

[fino]

I've been looking on the web for info or a tutorial on using the

unsharp mask in FlexColor but to no avail.

 

Can anyone familiar with FlexColor and particularly the Texture /

Unsharp Mask menus offer some advice on getting the best results?

 

Fintan

[ellis_vener_photography]

wait until you have the image in Photoshop to do your USM or other sharpening routines. i

recommend usingthe Photokit Sharpener Expert toolkit for sharpening. It breaks the iamge

sharpening pocess ino three components; Capture, Custom (I rarely use this but have seen

it used to godd effect), and finally targeted outut sharpening. each of these steps works

works as a layer whcih means that not only is it very tunable to a specific image, you can

talso you can toggle it on and off to see the effect of what you are doing, and until you

flatten the layers it is removable. It is the best "sharpening" plug in on the market.

 

The reason I don't like to use the USM tool in Flexcolor, Capture 1, Nikon Capture, Adobe

Camera Raw, Bibble, or anyother 'raw' converter isthat it is irrevocable so if you realize

you've made a mistake about how much USM or Sharpening you've applied you have to

start fro mthe raw capture again. That wastes time.

[jeff.grant]

This is the only Imacon stuff that I have stumbled across: http://www.photoworkshop.com/registered/pages/digital_img13.html

 

On my scanner, I don't use it at all. I have USM set off and am happy with the results. The conventional wisdom is that to set it off completely it should be set to -120 and and set on.

[fino]

Thanks for the replies.

BTW I use FlexColor with a digital back and not a scanner. If anyone else has any more info, I'd be glad to hear it.

 

Fintan

[wayne_firth2]

There should be a video tutorial on the Flexcolor disk that came with your back. If you don't have it, your dealer should be able to get you one. BTW, nothing is irreversible with FlexColor. Just go back to the .fff file and start over.

[john_shipes]

There are many ways to work a sharpening into a digital file. Many publications discuss

that it is better to apply no sharpening and to work it after the files have been processed

and are opened into photoshop. And, certainly, the third-party programs perform well.

Flexcolor software was originally designed as a driver for the extremely high-end Imacon

scanners and the unsharp routines were written with this in mind. I have had over four

years experience with the software and have gone the gamut from using, not using this

feature.

 

My conclusion is that it performs exceedingly well with a minimum of fringing when

applied carefully. And, the advantage to using the features in Flexcolor is that it is not

permanent, and can be applied differently for different file output sizes.

 

I would experiment.