Photokit Sharpener the "the choice"?

[Mike Louw]

You misunderstood what tech support told you. PKS runs scripts that drive Photoshop. If Photoshop runs slower under Snow Leopard (which I have yet to see), PKS will appear to be slower. But PKS doesn’t run anything on its own that would affect speed, it simply scripts Photoshop to run what could be called actions. If USM runs 20% faster or slower under Snow Leopard, it will do this with or without PKS (assuming in this example PKS is simply running that one routine which of course its not).

Thanks digitaldog. Photoshop is definitely not slower on my Snow Leopard machine. USM (for example) also runs as quickly as ever. The problem appears to be solely with PKS: when I select File -> Automate -> Photokit Output Sharpener I get the dreaded beach ball for 20-30 secs (timed 5 times). Once the dialog box pops up everything runs as usual, but there is always the long delay before it does. I've tried re-installing, but to no avail.

[digitaldog]

The problem appears to be solely with PKS: when I select File -> Automate -> Photokit Output Sharpener I get the dreaded beach ball for 20-30 secs (timed 5 times). Once the dialog box pops up everything runs as usual, but there is always the long delay before it does. I've tried re-installing, but to no avail.

Can’t duplicate that on this end. On my MacPro, the dialog appears nearly instantly. You’ve got 1.2.6?

Try trashing your Photoshop preferences. Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop. You will be prompted to delete the current settings.

Or, Open the Preferences folder in the Library folder, and drag the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder to the Trash.

[Mike Louw]

Can’t duplicate that on this end. On my MacPro, the dialog appears nearly instantly. You’ve got 1.2.6?

Try trashing your Photoshop preferences. Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift (Windows) or Option+Command+Shift (Mac OS) immediately after launching Photoshop. You will be prompted to delete the current settings.

Or, Open the Preferences folder in the Library folder, and drag the Adobe Photoshop CS Settings folder to the Trash.

Thanks again, Andrew. Tried that (both ways), but still get the beach ball for 30 secs. Strange....

[digitaldog]

Thanks again, Andrew. Tried that (both ways), but still get the beach ball for 30 secs. Strange....

Anything else in the Automate folder you can try (and if so, beach ball)? What hardware (ram)?

[Mike Louw]

Anything else in the Automate folder you can try (and if so, beach ball)? What hardware (ram)?

A few things (Genuine Fractals, Batch, Create droplet...) all work fine in that dialog boxes come up instantly, sans beach ball. Only the PKS options are slow with the ball. Am using PKS 1.2.6.

I have a Mac Pro 2 x 2.8 Quad Core Xeon with 16 Gb RAM.

[Radeldudel]

So, is PK sharpener still the recommended sharpening software?

I just bought and red the new edition of "Real World Image Sharpening" from Fraser/Schewe. As the recommendation for PK sharper was from Schewe himself, I found the following sentence from page 283 of the book answered my question nicely:

[!--quoteo(post=0:date=:name=Real World Image Sharpening)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE (Real World Image Sharpening)[div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Truth to be told, Jeff [Schewe] really no longer does output sharpening in Photoshop for anything except images for halftone reproduction.[/quote]

He is recommending Lightroom for capture and output sharpening  now.

Nice read, by the way. Very exhaustive go at the whole theme.

[tomb18]

PKS works fine under Vista 64 and Windows 7 x64.  I have had no issues at all.
As for an installer, all you need to do is put the plug in in your automate folder.

[artobest]

Just to resurrect an oldish thread here, the PK creative sharpening brushes have no equivalent that I'm aware of in LR or PS, and they are, IMHO, essential tools. I use them all the time.

[Brad Proctor]

I used to use PKS a lot but now days I use Lightroom for capture and output sharpening and I use Photoshop high pass filter for "creative" sharpening.  PKS has the options of High Pass 1, 2 and 3 which I used to use most of the time.  But if you just use the photoshop high pass filter you get a lot more control over the results which I've found to be superior.

[alexramsay]

I used to use PKS a lot but now days I use Lightroom for capture and output sharpening and I use Photoshop high pass filter for "creative" sharpening.  PKS has the options of High Pass 1, 2 and 3 which I used to use most of the time.  But if you just use the photoshop high pass filter you get a lot more control over the results which I've found to be superior.

A quick question, which I have tried posting elsewhere. I use CS3 and not Lightroom. Now that capture sharpening in ACR is greatly improved I use it as a matter of course. If I want to use PK sharpener later on, presumably I no longer need to use PK capture sharpening but can go directly to creative and output sharpening. Is this correct?

[digitaldog]

Correct.