Sharpening plugins

[Alan Smallbone]

Hi,

I am curious about other sharpening plugins/filters and I was wondering if anyone has done a comprehensive comparison? I currently use Lightroom and use it for sharpening and also going into Photoshop, and I am not unhappy with my results, I am just wondering what other solutions might be out there that might be better as part of workflow. I have read Jeff's, et. al. book on Real World Image Sharpening and it gave me a lot of good info. I have seen but not really tried, Nik Sharpener Pro, Topaz Infocus and Detail, Focalblade but wonder if there is a comparison of all of them out there on the same image and any others out there.  I also do some astrophotography and there are quite a few methods like deconvolution but I don't really see that mentioned as part of regular photography, I know there might be issues with determining a PSF that would work for daylight images.

Thanks,
Alan

[Schewe]

ACR and LR has deconvolution sharpening simular to Photoshop's Smart Sharpen for lens blur. Move the Detail slider towards 100 to get more deconvolution and less halo reduction.

[louoates]

I use Nik's on every image. Its Output Sharpener is stunning. The secret is to run it at its default settings.  That takes into account your printer resolution, paper/canvas surface, image size, and viewing distance. I'll warn you though...it will look TERRIBLE on your monitor. Way over sharpened. Ignore that. Print the damn thing and prepare to be astounded with the print. Once I learned how to ignore my monitor when output sharpening I literally threw away my older prints.

[sniper]

I have tried a few over the years and personally find PK sharpener the best of the bunch.

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I use Lightroom for output sharpening.

Regarding capture sharpening, if you pull the detail slider all way to the right it will do some kind of deconvolution sharpening according to Eric Chan (madmanchan on these fora). It actually works well.

Smart sharpen in PS is also using deconvolution.

I sometimes use Topaz in focus but the other tools are more often than not preferable IMHO.

Best regards
Erik

Hi,

I am curious about other sharpening plugins/filters and I was wondering if anyone has done a comprehensive comparison? I currently use Lightroom and use it for sharpening and also going into Photoshop, and I am not unhappy with my results, I am just wondering what other solutions might be out there that might be better as part of workflow. I have read Jeff's, et. al. book on Real World Image Sharpening and it gave me a lot of good info. I have seen but not really tried, Nik Sharpener Pro, Topaz Infocus and Detail, Focalblade but wonder if there is a comparison of all of them out there on the same image and any others out there.  I also do some astrophotography and there are quite a few methods like deconvolution but I don't really see that mentioned as part of regular photography, I know there might be issues with determining a PSF that would work for daylight images.

Thanks,
Alan

[Alan Smallbone]

Thanks for the input so far. I am happy with the output sharpening in Lightroom. I think I could do better on capture and creative sharpening, but that is a matter of practice and learning. I might give some of the plugins a whirl, but I do like staying in Lightroom.

Alan

[Pete Berry]

ACR and LR has deconvolution sharpening simular to Photoshop's Smart Sharpen for lens blur. Move the Detail slider towards 100 to get more deconvolution and less halo reduction.

Yes, this works beautifully (with less halo production - not reduction!).

The bonus in ACR, and I presume in LR, is that there is a masking slider to mimize smooth area noise accentuation, as does "threshold" in CS5 USM. But why no similar control in Smart Sharpen, which to me is its main limitation? Opening a TIFF as RAW to ACR through CS5 just for further controlled deconvolution sharpening remains a PIA.

Pete

[Alan Smallbone]

I wonder if any of the plugins use any other sort of deconvolution. It appears that Topaz Infocus uses it, any others? It would be nice to see the smart sharpen feature that allows the choice of blur and I am assuming that the in the types that have a direction is modifying the point spread function for the deconvolution. Having a smart sharpen in Lightroom with the masking and non-destructive editing would be really nice. I had never thought of the strength slider in this manner but I am guessing it is the equivalent of setting the iterations. I know there are a lot of different types of deconvolution. Interesting well it has me thinking about it and ready to try some experiments. Thanks again for all the input.

Alan

[Martin Kristiansen]

I have tried many plug ins over the years and went on a big learning drive to try and understand sharpening better. It is an immensely complicated field.

Finally I found PK sharpen and that was the end of all that. I use nothing else and would not consider running without it. It allows a lot of creativity on one hand with faultless defaults providing you take the instructions seriously regarding output sharpening at the correct size and resolution.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Finally I found PK sharpen and that was the end of all that. I use nothing else and would not consider running without it. It allows a lot of creativity on one hand with faultless defaults providing you take the instructions seriously regarding output sharpening at the correct size and resolution.

And, as Jeff will no doubt confirm, Lightroom's capture and output sharpening are pretty much the same (perhaps exactly the same) as PK's. The thing that's missing from LR is PK's creative sharpening.

Jeremy

[Schewe]

And, as Jeff will no doubt confirm, Lightroom's capture and output sharpening are pretty much the same (perhaps exactly the same) as PK's. The thing that's missing from LR is PK's creative sharpening.

ACR/LR capture sharpening is not the same as PK Sharpener but it was developed with Bruce's philosophy in mind and under contract with Adobe as a consultant. The output sharpening in Lightroom was licensed by Adobe for inclusion into ACR/LR.

I would say either sharpening routines in ACR/LR are the same as PhotoKit Sharpener...personally, for raw files I think ACR/LR is better. But I also think using either ACR/LR or PKS for output sharpening will "get you there". And yes, PKS's Creative Sharpening (which got new stuff added for version 2) is a lot more expansive than ACR/LR. (although LR4's noise and morie' brushes are pretty cool).

[digitaldog]

And, as Jeff will no doubt confirm, Lightroom's capture and output sharpening are pretty much the same (perhaps exactly the same) as PK's. The thing that's missing from LR is PK's creative sharpening.

To add what Jeff wrote and based on the above, be aware that LR’s output sharpening is optimized for ink jet or screen. PKS can be optimized for other output devices like halftone, Contone etc. That is missing from LR.

[jonathan.lipkin]

I've used  Pixel Genius Photokit Sharpener for years and was very happy with it. This fall, I tried Nik Sharpener and liked it for inkjet prints a bit better.

[Ellis Vener]

Another long time Photokit Sharpener fan here, but these days i mostly use Lightroom 4' capture sharpening and noise reduction tools (Develop Module) and  the targeted for media/ size / resolution sharpening in the Print, Book, and Web Gallery modules and in the Export Dialog.

But i still use PK Sharpener 2's Creative Sharpeners for serious client and fine printing.

[bwana]

pardon me, but where is the detail slider in LR 3.6?

[Schewe]

The order in the Detail panel is:
Amount
Radius
Detail
Masking