reactions, please!
Friday, July 25, 2008
New Photos from Jerry
Jerry's latest efforts (click for slightly larger version)...
reactions, please!
reactions, please!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Updated Unsharp Mask technique
Hi all,
Just a heads-up. I checked my work at home and discovered that I was a little 'off' on that sharpening technique that I detailed. Please see the updated post below. :)
Sean Mc.
tinywight@comcast.net
Monday, July 14, 2008
I tried it!
Thanks Sean! I tried your technique and it is great. I am not much of a 'sharpener' in general but I was really impressed with these results.. could you explain how changing the opacity of the applied background image (set to darken) affects the overall effect? It seems like an 'add more to get less' scenario and I want to wrap my mind all the way around the technique so I can understand what I'm doing...
Here are the BIG versions of my before and after images, since you really can't see the difference much in smaller/resized compressions.
Keep up the good work!
: D
Friday, July 11, 2008
PS Tips 1 - Roll off sharpening halos
Hi Folks,
I checked my previous posting on the technique of rolling off sharpening halos and it was a bit flawed (by memory). Sorry 'bout that. Please find the updated post below. You may want to make an action out of this when you've got the settings the way you like them.
In summary: As a final image editing step, we will apply quite a lot of Unsharp Masking (sharpening) to a copy of our image on a new layer. What would otherwise be way too much sharpening is kept in check by a layer mask that uses the Apply Image command to find highlights and shadows and masks out the brightest highlights completely while allowing the darker areas of the sharpened layer to show through. The result is (well, should be...) a sharp image without the nasty highlight halos that USM can cause.
These instructions assume you are working with an RGB image and that all of your other editing has been done already. For commands, I'll use BLUE and for names/labels/options I'll use RED.
1. Flatten your image and make a copy of the Background layer.
2. Set the layer style of the copied layer to Luminosity. This will let us sharpen the image without affecting the color of the image.
3. Add a Layer Mask to the Background copy layer. This will allow us to be selective about which aspects of the USM (Unsharp Mask) filter we want to let through. We're going to use this mask to tame down the highlight halos that USM creates while leaving the darker halos intact.
4. Now let's use the Apply Image command in the Image menu on the Layer Mask that we created to generate a mask that maps the tonal regions of our image. Make sure that you've got the Layer Mask selected, then open the Image menu and select Apply Image. I use these settings, then apply 1px of gaussian blur to finish the mask:
5. Now that we've got our mask in place, let's use the USM filter to sharpen the image. Because we're reducing the amount of highlight halos that USM is creating, we should be able to add quite a lot of sharpening. You'll want to zoom in to 100% to see the actual effect. The USM dialogue will show you only what it's doing to the unmasked image. Here are the settings that I used, along with a 100% view of the image detail that I'm previewing in USM (In fact, the Layer Mask below was created at 100% instead of 85% to show that no highlights are making it though. See the difference?):
Furthermore:
(Again, please note that the masked image above has an opacity of 100% to accentuate the effect of this technique. The lower the opacity, the more white halos you'll get. There's a happy medium somewhere around 60-85%. Use your own discretion.)
6. When you're done with USM, feel free to roll back the opacity of the sharpened layer if you feel it's a bit too much, merge and save - and you're done! This can very easily be made into an action, and because it uses a separate layer for the sharpening effect, it's completely non-destructive. It may seem strange and convoluted, but the whole process takes no more than about 10 seconds once you've got the hang of it.
Hope you enjoy this!
Sean Mc.
tinywight@comcast.net
Ps. Here's a link to the finished image with this sharpening technique applied:
I checked my previous posting on the technique of rolling off sharpening halos and it was a bit flawed (by memory). Sorry 'bout that. Please find the updated post below. You may want to make an action out of this when you've got the settings the way you like them.
In summary: As a final image editing step, we will apply quite a lot of Unsharp Masking (sharpening) to a copy of our image on a new layer. What would otherwise be way too much sharpening is kept in check by a layer mask that uses the Apply Image command to find highlights and shadows and masks out the brightest highlights completely while allowing the darker areas of the sharpened layer to show through. The result is (well, should be...) a sharp image without the nasty highlight halos that USM can cause.
These instructions assume you are working with an RGB image and that all of your other editing has been done already. For commands, I'll use BLUE and for names/labels/options I'll use RED.
1. Flatten your image and make a copy of the Background layer.
2. Set the layer style of the copied layer to Luminosity. This will let us sharpen the image without affecting the color of the image.
3. Add a Layer Mask to the Background copy layer. This will allow us to be selective about which aspects of the USM (Unsharp Mask) filter we want to let through. We're going to use this mask to tame down the highlight halos that USM creates while leaving the darker halos intact.
4. Now let's use the Apply Image command in the Image menu on the Layer Mask that we created to generate a mask that maps the tonal regions of our image. Make sure that you've got the Layer Mask selected, then open the Image menu and select Apply Image. I use these settings, then apply 1px of gaussian blur to finish the mask:
5. Now that we've got our mask in place, let's use the USM filter to sharpen the image. Because we're reducing the amount of highlight halos that USM is creating, we should be able to add quite a lot of sharpening. You'll want to zoom in to 100% to see the actual effect. The USM dialogue will show you only what it's doing to the unmasked image. Here are the settings that I used, along with a 100% view of the image detail that I'm previewing in USM (In fact, the Layer Mask below was created at 100% instead of 85% to show that no highlights are making it though. See the difference?):
Furthermore:
(Again, please note that the masked image above has an opacity of 100% to accentuate the effect of this technique. The lower the opacity, the more white halos you'll get. There's a happy medium somewhere around 60-85%. Use your own discretion.)6. When you're done with USM, feel free to roll back the opacity of the sharpened layer if you feel it's a bit too much, merge and save - and you're done! This can very easily be made into an action, and because it uses a separate layer for the sharpening effect, it's completely non-destructive. It may seem strange and convoluted, but the whole process takes no more than about 10 seconds once you've got the hang of it.
Hope you enjoy this!
Sean Mc.
tinywight@comcast.net
Ps. Here's a link to the finished image with this sharpening technique applied:
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