Sharpening Trick

Hey folks,

As a happy 10D owner I am not happy with Canon's rendering of sharpening in camera. USM in PS is also not a very good option as it produces hallowing. Here comes the "trick":

Open an image in PS.

1. Go to Image -> Mode -> Lab Color
2. In Channels select the "Lightness" channel
3. Filters - Sharpen -> Unsharp Mask
Use these settings:
Amount: 150%
Radius: 1.5
Threshold: 0
4. Image -> Mode -> RGB Color

Done!!!

WARNING: Converting from RGB -> Lab and back will FLATTEN all the layers. I do this as the 1st step in my workflow so that I can utilize adjustment layers & masks.

This is quite useful and is a great candidate for making it an action.

Opinions?

I've been using a very similar technique for a while now, and find it to be a bit better. It does seem to produce a cleaner edge without the artifacts.

I'm still trying to decide between doing it this way, or doing it during the RAW to TIFF conversion, or both. This all takes time, and falls under the general heading of 'playing' according to my wife.

Hi,

Most of the time I use the following.

Make a new layer.
Select filter Highpass, 10 pixels, 1.9 radius.
Now use USM 500% radius 1.2 and treshhold 19.
Select SOFTlight for that layer.
Use the transparacy slider to get the ammount of sharpenning you want.

Works a charm for me.

Greetings,
Frank

No need for the LAB conversion: Either fade the USM with a luminosity blend or sharpen a new top composite layer, and select luminosity as the blend mode. If you still have unacceptable halos (light/dark as opposed to colour) you can easily control them with the 'Blend If' sliders.

The extra layer trick will allow you to change your sharpening in the future should you wish to (such as for a different output device). Quick way to start this process: Select top layer, Cmd+Opt+Shift N, (new layer) Cmd+Opt+Shift E (stamps all visible layers onto layer). Set blend to luminosity & sharpen.

Very quick!

Hey Leony,

Great tip! I had to do a shoot yesterday for a windsurf mag and again i could not get that super sharp shot that you do get with slides...i tried your way and got super shots., the colour was not washed out anymore as i changed it a bit aswell..i'm super stoked about your tip, the only thing is i do feel now is that i'm not getting the shot myself but i have to arrange it trough PS and that sort of pisses me off (sorry for the language), if you know what i mean!

I just changed all the parameters again in my 10D and i will see what it gives now!
If anyone has more of those tips, let them come!

I hate to think how much time and effort went in by the people that worked out these tips for the first time. I'll have to give them a try.

Where do you do your wind surfing pictures? I started taking wind surfers and more recently kite boarders on the Columbia River at Hood River and sometimes The Dalles. It's about 90 miles from me, so I don't get over there all the time and sometimes when I do, there isn't enough wind to bring out the hordes of surfers. The hard core surfers are usually out but they are way out away from the bank and I can't get good shots of them. We didn't have that great of a summer for kite boarders this year, it seemed that we had a lot of non-wind days down the gorge. At least on those weekends when I was able to get over there.

Mike

Hi Mike,


I live in the Canary Islands (group of islands of the coast of Africa)in Tenerife. I do travel alot as my boyfriend does competitions in kitesurfing and do some work for the world tour aswell, so i've been shooting a bit everywhere but mainly here in Tenerife as that's when i have time!
I do know some people that live and ride in the Gorge, i would love to go there, seems like a very nice place!
Tenerife is super windy in winter we can have some off days but then the wind turns around and we have to move to another spot on the island but that's great,different backgrounds!
In summer it's super windy here, for most of the kiteboarders, too windy...then they go windsurfing!
Good for me, i can shoot different sports!

Sounds like you have some ideal shooting areas. There have been pictures in the magazines of kiteboarders and wind surfers with some of the big dams as backgrounds. Those are really neat and I hope to get something like that one of these times. They have had the dams not spilling water the last couple of years because of low snow pack in the moutains, so they aren't as dramatic as they would be other wise.

I know the locals talk about how great the wind sports are here, but when I look at web sites and magazines, I see that there are as nice or a lot nicer places around the world that these sports are done. But having to dodge football stadium size barges does add a bit of excitment to the sport. LOL!.

Thanks for the answer.

Mike

Yeah...Kinda like this...

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