PixelGenius PKS2 best practices?

[howardm]

Happy New Year!

I guess this is probably directed a lot to JeffS and AndrewR but can others share any 'rules of thumb', 'cheat sheet' or 'best practices' for choosing one of many choices of sharpener (esp. creative) available in PKS2, beyond what the manual has to offer?

I find the 'just try them all' idea unsatisfying simply based on the sheer # of choices.

Best,
Howard

[Schewe]

The guide for using the Capture and Output sharpening is very easy to grasp. The Creative sharpening is, of course, a different animal. The bottom line is to try to achieve an optimal result without "breaking" the image. But one must remember there will be a 3rd round of sharpening for Output Sharpening so be sure to not over sharpen in the Creative Sharpener...and experience is the best teacher...

[howardm]

Hello B&H, here's my credit card, send more ink and paper, stat!!

Question:  my display (PA272) is about 109dpi, do you subscribe to the idea that it'd be best to look at the post-sharpened images on-screen at approx 33% to get a better feel for what the printed output will look like?

Thanks Jeff!

[CynthiaM]

Happy New Year!

I guess this is probably directed a lot to JeffS and AndrewR but can others share any 'rules of thumb', 'cheat sheet' or 'best practices' for choosing one of many choices of sharpener (esp. creative) available in PKS2, beyond what the manual has to offer?

I find the 'just try them all' idea unsatisfying simply based on the sheer # of choices.

Best,
Howard

I use the creative sharpeners on most of my images. My favorite is HighPass 2 or 3. I usually direct it to merge the PKS layers; my files are bloated enough as it is and let it return with a mask. I then click the layer on and off to see if I like the effect. I will often invert the mask and paint in the sharpening where I want it. Sometimes with the layer turned off I will run a different sharpener (sometimes edge sharpening, sometimes luminance, sometimes auto dimensional), click them on one at a time, take a snap shop, then click the snapshots on and off to decide which one I like. I think I recall Jeff Schewe saying somewhere or reading somewhere that you should view these layers at an opacity of 25, 50, 75 or 100% because the algorithms are meant to work with multiples of 25. If I have run a creative sharpener I usually back down the output sharpening to low, especially if I have used High Pass.

Hope that helps.