The final result shows the selected setting of 70 for the Masking. This left
the model with a slight residual glow on her skin but with sharp eyelashes
and facial details such as her lips and nostrils
ABOVE: We compared an identical shot taken in both RAW and JPEG with the Nikon D3x. We used 'sharpness– normal' for the JPEG and the Portrait settings from the table, for RAW file. The RAW processing was superior, although it may or may not show in reproduction in the magazine (and take note that if you cannot see the difference there is effectively no difference!).
Smart Sharpen
This is an area where you can control the sharpening specifically within
highlights and shadows, as well as deal with motion blur in an image.
Controlling shadow sharpening is of particular importance to the wedding
photographer if they have been forced into using high ISO setting, which
bring increased noise, particularly in shadow areas. However the Smart
Sharpen should not be taken as a more clever sharpening method than others –
in the wrong hands it can produce quite a lot of artefacts. It is slow in
operation and therefore not quite as suited to general workflow sharpening –
use with caution and on a selective basis.
ABOVE: The dialogue box for Smart Sharpen, with the shadow
tab open. Not for everyday use the method is worth having in your armoury
for a tricky image perhaps shot under less than ideal conditions.
BELOW: The HiRaLoAm method in operation on a nature shot. In general it is
possible to use stronger sharpening techniques on this type of shot as there
are no skin tones to worry about. Insects too will take quite heavy
sharpening.
And then there's the paid-for stuff! A quick trawl on the
web produced the list tabled below of sharpening or focus-recovery software.
We have tried many of them at Professional Imagemaker – many make boasts
that are not substantiated when you get down to it. Many demonstrate rescue
jobs that would make a professional photographer blush with shame – probably
better to pretend the shot was never taken!
The two which seem to receive the highest accolades are Nik Sharpener Pro
and the suite of actions called PhotoKit Sharpener which was originally
masterminded by Bruce Fraser and completed, and updated after Bruce's death,
by Jeff Schewe. Given that Fraser was collaborating with Adobe to build his
methods into Photoshop and that Jeff Schewe completed this task, the methods
outlined in the review part of this feature should suffice for most people's
needs. When we did some blind testing a few years ago nobody could tell the
difference between the various methods, they all worked reasonably well,
however.
HiRaLoAm Sharpening
The acronym stands for High Radius Low Amount sharpening, a technique which
is much loved by the geeky sharpening fraternity and has been greatly
promoted by Dan Margulis (who might also be the creator!). The technique
consists of using the standard unsharp mask filter but with a massive radius
and a very low amount. People have evolved different ways of using the
method. Gry Garness (see
www.grygarness.com and our review in October 2008) sets the amount
to 100 (ie too high), brings the radius up to a high level (around 100),
ignoring the contrast but looking for the best modelling, then drop the
amount down to 1 and bring it slowly up to the desired level. One additional
trick is to highlight the number field (ie so it turns blue) then use 'shift
up-arrow' to increment the setting quite quickly, again watching so as to
judge the optimum value. In practice, we found the method a bit confusing
and certainly not as effective as the latest sharpening in ACR.
Action Stations
If you find a method of sharpening that you like, and suits your style,
making an action is the best way to replicate and repeat the procedure. You
will find that the effort involved in creating the action is soon repaid. We
have one that we use a lot for High Pass sharpening of portraiture. It
involves making layer and layer groups with Layer masks and is quite a
rigmarole so it is worth recording an action for! The action finishes with a
layer mask hiding all the image and you paint in sharpness just where you
want it.
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