Sharpening Equalization

[lobalobo]

Around 2004 there were a number of web discussions about QImage "sharpening

equalization." As I understand it, this is a filter that sharpened

differentially depending on color adding "presence" or "3D effect" to images

that lacked it because of Bayer interpolation. (The Fovean sensor wouldn't

need this.) The discussion at the time noted that the Q-Image filter did

essentially what Photoshop's luminance local contrast sharpening did in

Photoshop, but with less noise (presumably because the QImage filter was color-

specific). The problem described was that adding QImage to the RAW workflow in

Photoshop was cumbersome at best. (Didn't seem to be a plugin.) Then the

discussions disappeared. I'm hoping the reason is that Photoshop provided its

own version of color-based sharpening equalization and that now Lightroom or

CS3 can handle this. (I'm putting my digital toolbox together as I begin

learning digital darkroom techniques and am hoping not to have to add Q-Image,

at least not right away, but I do like the 3D look, at least in some images.)

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

[jim_hein]

Join the Qimage discussion at groups.yahoo.com.

This exact question was discussed at length in the last two weeks.

 

later

Jim

[lobalobo]

Jim: Couldn't find anything but "QLite". Any chance you have the link to the discussion?

[jim_hein]

Try this:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/qimage/message/45973

 

hope this helps

Jim

[lobalobo]

Helps a lot. As it turns out, there is (or was in 2004 and I imagine still is) a Photoshop Sharpening Equalization plugin, so no need to use Qimage just for this filter. That said, all this reading about QImage convinces me that it might be worth trying as an alternative to Lightroom for printing. I'll search the forums here for anyone comparing printed images from Lightroom versus Qimage. In the meantime, anyone who wants to comment further here, I at least am all ears.