unsharp mask settings

[shaun_carter]

Is there an unsharp mask setting that anyone uses that will give nice even

sharpening across the face? I typically get the eyes a lot sharper than the

rest of the face. When that happens I just back up off the radius. Am I not

using enough threshold? I start off with amount=150, radius=1, threshold=3

and tweak from there. I normally keep the threshold between 2 and 4.

[david_bain1]

There is no one setting which will work with every photograph. It's necessary to juggle the various settings to get an effect you're happy with and, as always, practice makes perfect. Most importantly, make usm the last thing you do. In particular you must do it after resizing to your desired finished size.

[lb-]

hi delanza,

 

I see you have a 20D. Fred Miranda sells a PS sharpening plugin for $20 that's supposed to be optimized for 20D files and in my experience works very well.

 

It allows for high and low iso settings, mulitple levels of sharpening, noise reduction, halo adjustments etc.

 

I use it and I'm very happy with it.

 

I find the number 1 setting, set to normal halo and color noise reduction off for low iso files (400 and under) to be almost perfect for my taste in sharpening and I just run a batch on all my files.

 

then as I finalize the images I can add a bit more to taste on ones that benefit from it.

 

check it out

 

http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/20DmCSpro

 

I have no affiliation with fred or his products other than using them.

[EricM]

Are you using CS2, Delanza? You may want to try 'smart sharpen' if so.

[jake_holt]

My batch action is 300/.5/3, although if I'm doing adjustments for a particular image for

reprints or an album, I'll vary that a bit. If an image is very clean, and the subject has very

good skin, I'll often go as high as 400/.5/1 - I've found that a higher thershold helps a bit

with minimizing noise and skin blemishes.

[leya216]

I use High Pass. Make a copy of your final layer. Filter it with High Pass (choose an ODD

number between-ish 0.5 - 1.3) then change in the layers window from normal to overlay. I

find it generally works better than unsharp mask.

Leah

[laurenm]

Do you all use unshrp or similar on every image every time or just ones you think "need" it?

[EricM]

Lauren, all raw images need it, jpg images would depend on in camera settings. USM should be done in lab mode too, btw. Smart sharpen doesn't need to be converted and can be done in any rgb mode.

[laurenm]

Thanks Eric, I started another post in relation to my question. So I can do USM beofre converting to sRGB, but do it after I have done all other processing?

I'm also wondering, just because something needs to be done in PS instead of bridge, doesn't mean it has to be done in jpeg right? I can open a raw file in PS and work on it and then it will still be saved in raw format and in bridge until I convert to jpeg?

[EricM]

Sharpening from RAW should be done in 16 bit mode so yeppers, do it before it's a jpg or converting to sRGB.

 

If you were doing it manually as a sngle file, without the Image Processor, open your raw, apply sharpening, convert to sRGB, convert to 8 bit, save as a jpg. You always want to do as much work possible in 16 bit and in the largest colour gamut. This allows finer gradations between the tones or levels when ps is doing its math.

[EricM]

Lauren, are you using smart sharpen or usm?

[laurenm]

USm only because its what I have sort of learned so far

[EricM]

If you're using CS2 switch to Smart Sharpen. For USM to be done correctly, well, there's a couple ways, but I went with the camp that felt the file needs to converted out of RGB and into lab mode, then USM, then converted back to RGB. Adobe came up with smart sharpen in CS2 to to stop all this conversion people were doing in CS and prior. Smart Sharpen can be done in aRGB or sRGB effectively.

[laurenm]

Thanks eric, I will look that up hoping its in my Kelby book. -Maybe too late for the Christening batch, but can use it on my friend's wedding pictures.

[EricM]

no worries Lauren.

[laurenm]

I like it. -have only done basic but like it. thanks again!

 

delanza, hope this was some help to you too

[jon jacobson]

I have this postit note above my computer with the formulas in Scott Kelby's book.<p>

 

Basic - 125/1/3<br>

Soft Subjects - 150/1/10<br>

Portraits - 75/2/3<br>

Moderate - 225/.5/0<br>

Max - 65/4/3<br>

All Purpose - 85/1/4<br>

Web - (200-400)/.3/0

<p>

I don't recall what that last one was in the book. I changed it to the range of 200-400.

<p>

I've got a folder full of various actions for sharpenting, which changes color mode to L*a*b and back to RGB. And my favorite action is set to F12 for easy usage.

<p>

But like it was noted earlier, different cameras and different print sizes and even different printers require different sharpness.

<p>

Take multiple copies of an image and set it to different USMs, embed the setting on the image, send to the lab, and you've got a handy reference.

[john carter]

Great discussion, I put in my favorites.

[laurenm]

Hey John, is there a real way to do that within pn and are they saved forever?

[EricM]

you can save it a few ways Lauren. Most popular is bookmarking it. Or you can right click on the page and 'save as' and keep it as a .htm doc that will open in any browser even off line. You can probably import the whole page into word as well with select all, copy and paste.

[laurenm]

Eric, you're on a roll! I just thought maybe there was some way to save it in pn like in my profile or something. For stuff I really like, I paste into word and even print and file (old fashioned as it is)

[EricM]

on a roll? nah, just talkative today, it's freakin hot here! i've been batching processing in the nude for two days :)

[laurenm]

LMAO - I've never used that- but had to for that comment!

 

We have Ac and have been reminding ourselves for weeks how lucky we are and what life was like pre-AC.

I even did some nature photography from indoors today

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00HO2B&photo_id=4714158&photo_sel_index=0

 

Whoa! That's a long link

[shaun_carter]

thanks everyone! i'm glad this generated some good discussion. i currently use photoshop cs, 20D w/17-55 2.8 and the rebel xt w/85 1.8. i don't sharpen all my images, only the ones that need it. these two lenses are pretty sharp right out of the camera. but now i have a few things to look into (upgrade to cs2, the fred miranda plug in, i have the scott kelby book). there's a video out there that talks about sharpening raw images and i believe it on one of canon's website. i believe he was one of those guys that believes in sharpening the heck out of images.