Real world sharpening by Bruce Fraiser?

[sniper]

I have been given Bruce Fraisers "real world sharpening" as a present (in return for a big favour) trouble is it's the CS2 version (and I use CS4) I was wondering how much things have changed since CS2, have the actual sharpening algorithm's changed much or at all, and if so does that affect what the book says?
It's a cracking read, and really opened my eyes to sharpening anyway.
Thanks  Wayne

[Schewe]

No particular change with Photoshop's sharpening, no. But major changes with regards to the workflow concept since Camera Raw and Lightroom now have substantially improved it's parametric editing and sharpening capability and Lightroom 2 got PhotoKit Sharpener's output sharpening along with Camera Raw in workflow settings and the save as batch.

In that regard it's not really suggested to ignore the raw sharpening as Bruce wrote in CS2 (and using Camera Raw 3.6 which is way out of date) but doing sharpening for both source and content in raw, creative sharpening in Photoshop and output sharpening either in Lightroom, Camera Raw or Photoshop depending on your preferences...

There have been some movement with regards to devonvolution kernels and some exotic image sharpening algorithms but nothing really has made it into a product except for FocalBlade and one type of sharpening in Raw Developer. Smart Sharpen (which was in CS2) has a simplified deconvolution algorithm but it's nothing much to write home about...

As for the book, I'm working on an update which will cover Photoshop, Camera Raw and Lightroom due out this fall. The updated book will be very different.

[sniper]

Thanks for the reply Jeff.  I'll look forward to the updated book.   Wayne

[Mike Louw]

Looking forward to the book too. Jeff, do you have plans to update Photokit Sharpener at all? Or would you say that Camera Raw and Photoshop sharpening are now on a par with PK for capture and output sharpening respectively?

[Jeff Kott]

Looking forward to the book too. Jeff, do you have plans to update Photokit Sharpener at all? Or would you say that Camera Raw and Photoshop sharpening are now on a par with PK for capture and output sharpening respectively?

Yes, I'm also interested in whether there is any update in the works for PK Sharpener.

I know you don't like to hear this Jeff, but there are a number of us who find other raw converters to be better in some respects than ACR and Lightroom.  But we still like to use PK Sharpener to sharpen in Photoshop  

[Schewe]

Yes, I'm also interested in whether there is any update in the works for PK Sharpener.

I know you don't like to hear this Jeff, but there are a number of us who find other raw converters to be better in some respects than ACR and Lightroom.  But we still like to use PK Sharpener to sharpen in Photoshop  

Yes, Mac Holbert (of Nash Editions) is the new product manager for PSK. He's been working on total re-writes on all the actions and PG has a new UI capability (that you can see a bit of with PhotoKit Color). Can't say "when", but it's coming.

As for some people liking other raw processors better than ACR or Lightroom, heck, no skin off my nose if you guys wanna use inferior software bud :~) Most people who complain about ACR or LR simply don't know how to use the tools–which I try to address in RWCR and will address in RWIS but hey, no everybody can be a super star.

You would also be mistaken if you think for a moment that ACR and LR is standing still. They aren't, but of course I can't really say much of anything due to NDAs.