photoshop sharpening is lame

why is it that photoshops smart sharpening is not as good as picasa's which a FREE program??? honestly i actually open my photos in picasa to sharpen them as the results are much better. Why doesnt photoshop have the ultimate in sharpening when it is supposed to be the premier photo editing program? the method i use for sharpening is described here (http://www.earthboundl​ight.com …sharpen-cs2-and-more.html) , and it is much more cumbersome than picasa AND doesnt do as nice a job

I don't think it's the tool that is giving you poor results, it's the method that you're employing. Picasa may *look* sharper to you, but I bet it's ruining your images. I'm not sure what method you are using in the link, there are four described, but if you are using an edge mask, you might try applying a curves adjustment to make it stronger. I'd also recommend that you sharpen the light edges and dark edges seperately. Actions and scripts make this repeatable and pain free. You may want to try TLR scripts. Mitch's scripts run sharpening in multiple passes at different phases of the workflow. I highly recommend that you completely digest the pdf documentation.

Hi Mike,

I have Picasa 2.0 but i don't see any sharpening tool. Is it something introduced recently?
Can you tell me how to get to the tool? Thanks.

Fee

It's the first item in the 'Effects' tab when you open a picture for editing.

Can we see a sample, ideally back to back, so we can see where you are having issues or where Picassa is doing it better. Does it evaluate the shot in any way, as no - one size fits all sharpening works for all images.

Graham

The only option in Picasa's Sharpen function is undo.

Ah, i see it now. Thanks.

No problem. Personally, I see Picasa's sharpen as a last ditch, deblur or decamera shake tool. The sharpening is way too dramatic and destructive, and doesn't take into account what output you are sharpening for.

jfrancho- thanks for the input. to answer some of the questions you raise...
in the link i posted I am using smart sharpening after i use the find edges filter. using the sharpening tool in picasa, in my opinion, does not cause much noticable damage to the picture (introduce noise to the areas that i do not want sharpened like cheeks in a portrait for instance). I have used this sharpening technique for portraits that i then had printed at 11 x 17 in size and I can honestly say there is no noticable noise introduced into the shot. I do not think that picasa is as good as photoshop in terms of being able to selectively sharpen items, it just seems that for the extra time spent running photoshop actions, it just doesnt seem like it is worth the extra time to spend running these actions when picasa does a comparable, if not better, job and takes 2 seconds. i will absolutely take a look at the method you posted a bit closer, but it just seems that something that is as important as sharpening should be handled better by ps.

It is handled better in PS, but it can be resource intensive. I avoid smart sharpen unless time is of the essence - it uses a little less RAM, and runs a little faster. Time adds up when you process a bunch of images. I truly suspect that it's a matter of using the advanced techniques with more aggresive settings to acheive a result similar to that what you're seeing in Picasa. Bottom line, Picasa is applying changes to the background image, and resaving. It may not hurt once or twice, but it is destructive, and the destruction compounds exponentially. Be sure that when comparing sharpening results in PS that you are at 25%, 50%, or 100% zoom. Personally, I view them at 50%, at about a 3' viewing distance for print output. For Web output, I have my nose stuck to scrreen at 100%.

I actually think the sharpening in Photoshop is quite good. I don't use smart sharpen, however, I prefer to use unsharp mask.

I also prefer USM. Sharpening is a complex topic that really deserves its own book.

Photoshop's USM is good. When you know what you're doing it's excellent. When you know what you're doing and use the rest of PS's arsenal along with USM it's fantastic. In the hands of a knowledgable, experienced, skilled person nothing beats Photoshop's USM.

Now it depends on a combination of how much time you want to spend learning it and how much time you want to spend applying it. Both are generally influenced by how good you want your images to look. It can also take some experience to tell the difference between good and great. And it will require an experienced and discerning eye to tell the difference between great and fantastic.

Nothing beats PS's USM in the end, but a lot of other sharpening methods can be much easier to learn and use.

ok so what is the method you use? i would be mor ethan interested in learning the BEST way, as I am planning on making an annual photo album of my family and would spend the time neccesary to ensure i get the best results, at least on the 70 or so shots i put in there (probably less). as you can see by the method i am currently employing (the link i posted) i am not afraid of a little leg work. but you have to admit, in the end, adobe has to do a little better work on its sharpening tools. it should nt require a 20 minute sharpening technique to get decent results.

This is one of the best sharpening tutorials I have seen anywhere: http://ronbigelow.com …les/sharpen1/sh​arpen1.htm. He covers several methods and explains the pros and cons of each.