Early Beta of CS4 Sharpening Panel

[gmitchel]

I'm working on a new USM sharpening panel for CS4. The basic USM functionality is already there. I'd like suggestions and feedback as this tool matures.

What's special about this panel right now is that you get a live preview of USM sharpening effects. You don't have to rely on that little thumbnail on the USM dialog. Instead, you can see your settings and changes you make to those settings displayed live on the photograph.

How's that done?! Well, the magic of Smart Filters. Fist setting you apply makes a Smart Filters layer. After that, any subsequent changes you make will update the Smart Filters effect.

More features are coming to this tool:

(1) An advanced panel where you can not only select USM settings but also
     set layer opacity, leyer blend, and Blend If settings.

(2) Ability to select presets on the Basic panel and even save presets on the
     Advanced panel.

Once  get this tool in final shape, I'll do the same for High Pass sharpening. The work at retooling all of the TLR sharpeners: capture sharpeners, creative sharpeners, and output sharpeners to use panels and allow for the same sort of live preview.

The early beta is open to all. The final tool will be available freely to the digital photography community.

http://www.thelightsright.com/EarlyBetaTLRProUSM

Comments and suggests will be appreciated!

Cheers,

Mitch

[gmitchel]

With the Basic panel, the preview will be similar to what you expect in Photoshop CS4. It is true that you can preview the USM settings themselves.

With the Advanced panel, you will also be able to adjust layer opacity, layer blend, and Blend If settings and preview their effect along with additional adjustments to USM. With CS4, the USM dialog is modal. So to tweak features like Blend If settings, you would have to accept the USM settings and then go to the Layer Style dialog. With the CS4 panel, those adjustments will be previewable as you work with the panel.

I'll also likely add a feature to the Advanced pane for selecting from existing alpha channels for an edge/surface mask to use. That together with adjustments to USM, opacity, blend, and Blend Ifs will let you preview the overall sharpening effect as you change settings.

Cheers,

Mitch