PeterN
On 9/17/2014 7:34 PM, Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

Floyd L. Davidson
PeterN <peter@verizon.net>wrote:

PeterN
On 9/17/2014 4:02 AM, Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

<snip>

Floyd L. Davidson
The topic was sharpening, and the differences in ways to do that. Abobe's programs are not even close to the only way to sharpen. In fact *most* users that actually get into the more sophisticated aspects of sharpening cease using anything that Abobe provides for that purpose, and shift to better tools.

Generic atributes of sharpen tools can and should be discussed absent references to specific implementations. When specific attributes are discussed it doesn't make a great deal of sense to look at low end products designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator, as might well be discussed in your "Abobe Tools for Dummies" manual.

PeterN
OK, I am an admitted oversharpener.

What tools would you recommend, and why. I request that the why be in simplistic terms.

Floyd L. Davidson
Given what you like, it's really easy!

A good high pass sharpen tool and almost any USM tool.

Where everyone else has to look is into "smart sharpen" tools. Usually these use an edge detection scheme to mask off everything else, and then sharpen only the edges. That tends to reduce the amount of noise that gets sharpened.

People taking pictures of stars like to use Richardson-Lucy Deconvolutional sharpen, and in general wavelet sharpen does something similar. For general photography they amount to a lot of work for very little benefit. In particular they don't benefit your style at all!

I'd expect you would be relatively happy with just a high pass filter style of sharpen. The harshness that can be produced with a little effort can be easily controlled if the tool has adjustable parameters for radious, sigma, and amount. Unfortunately many sharpen tools only give you control of the amount. Most UnSharpMask tool have more parameters, and it will pretty much to the same thing.

PeterN
I have found that using high pass on the luminiscence layer in LAB tends to minimize halos.

When I am in the mood, I will use a light application of surface blur, with a mask, to eliminate noise. Having said that, noise doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother others in this group.