Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: CynthiaM on January 15, 2019, 09:07:47 am
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For the better part of the last year I have been out of touch with photography and photo editing. Just this past week I learned that PixelGenius will no longer be supporting further developments of their software. I had really come to rely on the creative sharpening element of Photokit Sharpener2 and used it judiciously on almost every image that I edited in Photoshop. Loved that it made sharpening a no brainer; ran the plugin, reversed the mask, painted in where I wanted the effect. Also like to use some of the smoothing effects.
While the plugin may continue to work I fear any continued reliance on it as one day, there will likely be a Photoshop update that will render the plugin unusable. Using Photoshop CC 2019, desktop version, through creative cloud.
What can be recommended as a worthwhile substitute to Photokit Sharpener2?
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While I do most of my work in Lightroom, including sharpening, when I do need to use Photoshop I still use Photokit Sharpener 2 despite its being discontinued and I shall continue to do so until it no longer works. It's that good. Now, in terms of options: did you do a search in this Forum for posts on sharpening applications before you posted this? You will find enough reading and enough differing opinions to keep you busy for .... well it depends on how fast you read......but you get the idea. Just download a few of the better known ones, try them, and use the one you like best.
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Thanks, Mark. I did search the forum but a lot of the discussion was in regard to sharpening in Lightroom. My understanding is that LR does capture sharpening on raw files in the develop module and output sharpening when you export or print, which I have it set to do, but I frequently like to add selective sharpening in Photoshop especially in portraits to bring out eyes, lips, hair or to bring out textures often painted in through a black mask. And while I may take your approach and continue to use Pk Sharpener, there's a part of me that says start using something else. I guess I'll just have to try the various programs and see which works the best for me.
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check some of the Topaz Lab products
Neat Image
Noiseware
NIK Dfine
for starters.
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Hi Cynthia,
For Creative "Sharpening", it's hard to beat Topaz Precision Detail (https://topazlabs.com/precision-detail/) (a plugin to the free Studio host application which can be used standalone, or invoked by Photoshop as a plugin).
Cheers,
Bart
P.S. Some of the strengths of "Precision Detail" are its Halo free detail modifications (enhance with positive control settings, or subdue with negative settings), it leaves color unaffected but only changes detail strength, and can optionally be used with the powerful integrated masking capabilities of the plugin. Since 'Detail' is defined as a percentage of output size, it can also be used as presets for a faster workflow with an identical 'Look'.
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I generally am working on large numbers of images at one time and I find the detail brush in Lightroom to be really good. I don't have to move to another program to do my sharpening.
Located at the top of the "Develop" module the detail brush (next to crop tool, etc.) there are many presets for lip and eyes sharpening and and for skin smoothing. I tend to modify the presets. Click on "Effect". All of the tools in the basic Develop panel are available to use where you paint in with the detail brush and you can control feather, size and flow. It is easy to reselect the area you worked on and modify at will.
The sharpening algorithms in Lightroom were created by Pixel Genius.
Jim
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To be accurate, PG didn't create any LR algorithms. The sharpening workflow and some of the sharpening routines applied in PS from PhotoKit Sharpener were and Adobe created the sharpening to then mimic what was done.
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Andrew,
Thanks for the clarification. I thought Jeff Schewe had a hand in this. In any case I find the sharpening tools built into Lightroom work for me.
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Andrew,
Thanks for the clarification. I thought Jeff Schewe had a hand in this. In any case I find the sharpening tools built into Lightroom work for me.
Jeff indeed did have a big hand in it. Bruce Fraser then Mac Holbert were PKS's product managers, Jeff was the product manager for PhotoKit.
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Hi Cynthia,
For Creative "Sharpening", it's hard to beat Topaz Precision Detail (https://topazlabs.com/precision-detail/) (a plugin to the free Studio host application which can be used standalone, or invoked by Photoshop as a plugin).
Cheers,
Bart
P.S. Some of the strengths of "Precision Detail" are its Halo free detail modifications (enhance with positive control settings, or subdue with negative settings), it leaves color unaffected but only changes detail strength, and can optionally be used with the powerful integrated masking capabilities of the plugin. Since 'Detail' is defined as a percentage of output size, it can also be used as presets for a faster workflow with an identical 'Look'.
The Topaz Precision Detail plugin, this is not eh same as what was always referred to as Topaz Detail?
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I generally am working on large numbers of images at one time and I find the detail brush in Lightroom to be really good. ........
Located at the top of the "Develop" module the detail brush (next to crop tool, etc.)
Jim
What version of Lightroom are you referring to? I have 7.1 LR Classic CC and I don't have any such tool. There is an adjustment brush, and it's menu allows for sharpening, but that's it.
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The Topaz Precision Detail plugin, this is not eh same as what was always referred to as Topaz Detail?
Yes, almost the same but much faster. The Topaz Detail plugin was a direct plugin to Photoshop plugin aware applications. It will not be developed any further. The Precision Detail Plugin is a newer version plugin specifically for the Topaz Studio host application that uses the GPU for speed, and Studio itself (which is a free host application) can run as a stand-alone application, or as a plugin to Photoshop / LR, or similar editors that support Photoshop type of plugins.
Cheers,
Bart
P.S. I just used it to enhance some NASA images of the full moon I needed for a project, with amazing results. Incredible level of detail, even when one starts with good image quality.
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Yes, almost the same but much faster. The Topaz Detail plugin was a direct plugin to Photoshop plugin aware applications. It will not be developed any further. The Precision Detail Plugin is a newer version plugin specifically for the Topaz Studio host application that uses the GPU for speed, and Studio itself (which is a free host application) can run as a stand-alone application, or as a plugin to Photoshop / LR, or similar editors that support Photoshop type of plugins.
Cheers,
Bart
P.S. I just used it to enhance some NASA images of the full moon I needed for a project, with amazing results. Incredible level of detail, even when one starts with good image quality.
Bart,
Does the Topaz Detail Plugin within Studio employ deconvolution sharpening?
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Bart,
Does the Topaz Detail Plugin within Studio employ deconvolution sharpening?
Hi Rajan,
There is indeed 1 slider control that does Deconvolution sharpening of the finest (1-2 pixel size) detail only. In addition there are controls for 3 different larger feature size levels, but those are not deconvolution sharpened. They probably use Wavelet enhancement with bilateral (edge preserving) filtering for the other slider controls.
Cheers,
Bart
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It is a tough one we hope we don't face for a long time. You have to specify 32 or 64 bit for PC and I'm guessing for Mac it is 64 bit (?) which would survive what comes after Mojave for Mac users.
I use LR for 90% of my work these days so if I lost the Sharpener it would not be as much of a blow. I'm not a huge fan of 3rd party anything as I just find it easier to work under one umbrella. It just slows things down for me. I really like the export page and the process you mentioned - a no brainer.
I'm not sure if you just have PS 2019 or the plan. LR's export page offers virtually the same for export sharpening with a few less refinement options. The final quality is excellent. One main reason I went with the plan. You could create a workflow between both but it will be a more cumbersome. You loose the reversed mask thing which allows you to paint the effects after using PK Sharpener and before final export. As mentioned you can paint in LR but that is during the Creative sharpening phase where you touch up before final export. The bottom line with LR is you get the no brainer export benefit and the DAM. In LR the Detail Window which is responsible for capture sharpening is very effective when you get all the sliders working together. Lot's of good tutorials out there.
LR to PS to LR creates more storage but that is pretty inexpensive these days. I will send select files to PS for additional edits but try to stay in LR as much as I can. If you have LR maybe give it a shot. You might be surprised.
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What version of Lightroom are you referring to? I have 7.1 LR Classic CC and I don't have any such tool. There is an adjustment brush, and it's menu allows for sharpening, but that's it.
Mark sorry it took so long to get back to this thread.
Thanks for correcting my misuse of the tool name. I also use Lightroom Classic CC. When using the "Adjustment"brush (my mistake for calling it the detail brush, I use it for adjusting details in the image) you have the option to apply any of the Basic Panel adjustments to the area you are working on. Not just sharpening. I regularly apply skin smoothing and eye sharpening to portraits by "painting" in those areas. In addition to "sharpening" I typically adjust contrast, highlight and shadow detail, saturation and sometimes color temperature.
Jim
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No problem Jim, thanks for clarifying; I thought perhaps I may have been missing something.