Question on Photoshop Actions... your favorite?

I hope this can remain in this thread, as I'm interested in what people are using to improve image quality from the Rebel, 10D, 20D and MkII. Is there a collection of free actions out there anywhere to make USM or selective sharpening actions? I've been doing everything manually, but would like some minor sharpening that doesn't grain up the smooth areas to be used on most of my images in batch processing.

Thanks for any advice / URLs!

Adam

Fred Miranda Intellisharpen II

For sharpening, I use FocalBlade 1.03 in Photoshop CS.

Pierre

Any for PSE.

FocalBlade is a plugin, not an action. I love it too, though. It's one of my favorites.

It ain't free, though, which is what Adam was asking for.

Thanks guys... I'll look into those. I'll drop a few bucks if it's a tool that I'll get my money out of!

Thanks again,
Adam

Well this is actually a plugin.. but focus magic rocks. :P

I know intellisharpen II is by far the best...............

Fred Miranda's things are all great, made by a photographer for photographers, good stuff.

Cheers

My Favorite is PhotoKit Sharpener. Awesome.

I prefer to use Fred Miranda's CSpro for the 10D. It appears to work with 20D files as well. PhotoKit for creative sharpening.
Rick
www.rgroomphotos.us

Look at my thread from a couple days ago:

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=44102

And you can compare my results between UnshapenMask, Fred Mirandas Intelisharpen and Focus Magic.

Dont know of anything that selectivly shapens only some areas without touching others, but a fairly easy manual workaround is to create a duplicate layer ON TOP OF the "soft" layer and shapen only that. Then use the Erase Tool to get rid of some of the pixelated areas to reveal the smooth area below. Then just flatten the image.

Rad

Sharpen with an edge mask applied.

Pick your most contrasty channel.
Duplicate it.
Run the Find Edges filter.
Invert the channel.
Blur it.
Load it as a selection.
Run USM.

You'll sharpen only the edges (amount depending on "blackness" of the Find Edges and the blur) not the "open areas."

If you skip the "Invert the channel" step you'll get a mask perfect for Noise Reduction. It won't remove noise on edges, so you won't lose detail on edges.