Photokit Sharpener, Lightroom, CS5, I'm confused

[jnmoore]

Hello,

I've been printing for several years with the PhotoKit Sharpener in Photoshop with good results on my inkjet printers. The concept that was promoted was that different sharpening was needed for smaller and larger paper sizes. This worked well with my home set-up and archival inks/paper etc.

Now I have Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 and I can't seem to install Photokit. (Mac OS) As well, I have heard that this software was folded into Lightroom 3.

I'm proofing some metal prints (Bay Photo) and the results were good but not right including the sharpening. (no Photokit involved). In fairness, these images are very detailed Mandala photo collages so not your normal portrait or landscape.

Does this mean that my best bet is to do final sharpening in Lightroom for a commercial printer? Does the print size not matter anymore?

Any help much appreciated.

John

johnagon.com

[sniper]

Photokit sharpner works fine with CS5 (on windows) I  use it every day, don't have a mac handy and it's not installed in work (won't go into why here) more lightly it's a compatability issue?

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

The capture sharpening in LR3 is actually PKS on steroids. It's has been developed by the late Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe. The reason it's PKS on steroids is that Adobe added new code to implement capture sharpening.

Output sharpening in LR is also based on PKS. LR knows the print size and applies the correct sharpening for the chosen size and resolution. Much of this is coming from Jeff Schewe and Eric Chan ('madmanchen' on these forums).

PKS may still be needed/useful for "creative sharpening".

I'd recommend the LR3 tutorial or Bruce Fraser's and Jeff Schewe's book, Real World Image sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw and Lightroom .

Best regards
Erik

[digitaldog]

PKS may still be needed/useful for "creative sharpening".

That indeed and output sharpening that isn’t Inkjet destined. Contone, Halftone output etc in PKS are available, in LR its intended for Inkjet (or screen).

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

A very good point that I entirely missed!

Best regards
Erik

That indeed and output sharpening that isn’t Inkjet destined. Contone, Halftone output etc in PKS are available, in LR its intended for Inkjet (or screen).

[jgbowerman]

Hello,

I've been printing for several years with the PhotoKit Sharpener in Photoshop with good results on my inkjet printers. The concept that was promoted was that different sharpening was needed for smaller and larger paper sizes. This worked well with my home set-up and archival inks/paper etc.

Now I have Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 and I can't seem to install Photokit. (Mac OS) As well, I have heard that this software was folded into Lightroom 3.

I'm proofing some metal prints (Bay Photo) and the results were good but not right including the sharpening. (no Photokit involved). In fairness, these images are very detailed Mandala photo collages so not your normal portrait or landscape.

Does this mean that my best bet is to do final sharpening in Lightroom for a commercial printer? Does the print size not matter anymore?

Any help much appreciated.

John

johnagon.com

PKS is not yet available in 64 bit with CS5 unless you first convert to 32 bit. CS4 is my preferred workaround until PKS updates their Mac plugin for CS5, 64 bit.

Best of luck,

Greg

[hacimd]

Is anyone familiar with Neat Image plug-in for Photoshop CS5?  I'm curious if Neat Image would be helpful if you are doing lots of high resolution negative scans for large format printing?  I've heard people speak highly of it.  Maybe there is a plug-in that is considered comparable/better or CS5 technology might have outdated this.
Thanks! 

[bjanes]

PKS is not yet available in 64 bit with CS5 unless you first convert to 32 bit. CS4 is my preferred workaround until PKS updates their Mac plugin for CS5, 64 bit.

This is one area in which Windows has an advantage over the Mac. PKS works fine on my 64 bit Windows 7 machine. It hasn't been updated for some time, but I understand that an upgrade is in the works.

Bill

[jgbowerman]

This is one area in which Windows has an advantage over the Mac. PKS works fine on my 64 bit Windows 7 machine. It hasn't been updated for some time, but I understand that an upgrade is in the works.

Bill

Yes, Windows had 64 bit a generation before Mac. It was not until CS5 that photoshop provided Mac users with 64 bit workflow. Apple is notorious for not giving the software industry an adequate heads up with their software upgrades, leaving third party providers in the rears and their engineers in a "catching-up" mode. Even with my Canon printer, I still have to work out of CS4 until Canon provides a Mac 64-bit plugin! It really is not all that big a deal, going back and forth between CS4 and CS5, and it is certainly worth the effort to have 64 bit workflow. However, it will be nice when the time comes everything can be done straight out of CS5 for us Mac users.

What I don't get is how OnOne has managed CS5 64 bit for Macs almost from the day CS5 came out! How is it OnOne managed to do this when many of the other third-party players are still trying to figure it all out?

[hacimd]

 I've heard some good things about Photo Kit Sharpener.  Would you recommend purchasing it for someone who does not have Lightroom?  Im currently running CS5 on a MAC system, but I've heard they have not released the update for CS5 yet.  Could anyone confirm this?  If so, any idea about a release date?  Thanks

[sniper]

I don't know about udates for Mac but I'd certainly recomend it, it's my sharpening of choice.

[Schewe]

...but I've heard they have not released the update for CS5 yet.  Could anyone confirm this?  If so, any idea about a release date?  Thanks

The official announcement will come out in a few days and it's expected to ship this quarter. The current version WILL run in Photoshop CS5 but only when Photoshop is launched as a 32-bit app. The new version will be fully 64-bit compatible and come with lots of new functionality. User who bought after Oct 1st, 2010 will get a free upgrade. Previous registered users will get a 70% discount toward the new version. I'll post a link to the announcement when it's ready. So, you could buy it now and start working with it (with Photoshop launched as a 32-bit app) and upgrade for free when version 2 ships later.