Photokit Sharpener Manual
Contents
1. tte Stack Lack E aF i pai iine el E ag r 7 2 di a a ea oe a ee ayer CHN Duplicate Layer BESNA Layer Set Layer Properties yer Set From Linked Layer 5tyle P Layer via Copy 3 New Fill Layer b Er VAAL i then choose New gt Background From Layer 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt QKIT Capture Sharpeners Capture Sharpeners are designed to apply gentle sharpening early in the workflow The sharpening is concentrated in the midtones applying relatively little sharpening to shadows and highlights no sharpening is applied to pixels lighter than level 250 or darker than level 10 That way we leave sufficient headroom to apply sharpening tailored for different output processes while allowing you to work on a reasonably sharp image The Capture Sharpeners may be gentler than the sharpening techniques you re used to but when they re combined with Output and optionally Creative Sharpeners they produce very sharp results Capture Sharpener and Capture Sharpener Expert The only difference between Capture Sharpener and Capture Sharpener Expert sets is that the latter returns the sharpening mask as a Layer mask for the Light and Dark Contour layers Preserving the layer mask lets you fine tune the sharpening by editing the layer mask see page 19 for some examples If you don t edit the layer mask Capture Sharpener Expert effects produce identical r2. Choose a Capture Sharpener based on the image source the amount of noise and the characteristics of the edges Narrow Medium Wide that you want to emphasize gt Apply the Capture Sharpener gt Address any localized sharpening issues for example add extra sharpness to eyes using a Sharpening Brush or reduce skin texture using a Smoothing Brush gt If you intend to repurpose the image for multiple outputs save this version as an archive file it will serve as the master for the versions for different outputs gt Resize the image to final output size gt Apply the appropriate Output Sharpener Note that you can build multiple output sharpen ers into the same file as long as the resolution re quirements are the same for each output process For example a 300 ppi image may contain output sharp ening for 300 ppi inkjet print on matte 300 ppi inkjet print on glossy 300 ppi continuous tone and 150 Ipi halftone Just remember to turn off any existing output sharpening before adding a new output sharpen and remember to turn on the appropriate output sharpen when creating a print file If you prefer an automated workflow you can edit your workflow actions to call a Capture Sharpener as soon as the image is in 8 bit channel mode and an Output Sharpener as soon as the image has been re sized to final output dimensions TM PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual P M Zs NA KI i 33 8 27 04 PhotoK
3. Sharpener Set vV Contone Output Sharpeners Help y Halftone Output Sharpeners r inkjet Output Sharpeners Web and Multimedia Sharpeners Sharpener Effect l Info J Selecting a Contone Output Sharpener The Contone Output Sharpeners are designed for final output sharpening of images destined for continuous tone printing processes such as dye sublimation and photographic printers The effects are organized by resolution in pixels per inch at final output size For best results we recommend resampling images to the specific pixel resolution but if it s only slightly off 308 ppi for a 300 ppi device for example it s probably OK to apply the 300 ppi sharpening and send the file without resampling Simply choose the closest Output Sharpener to the file s actual resolution PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC NOTE The image must be at final output size Current Size 30 00 in x 41 22 in 200 00 ppi ox Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel Sharpener Set Contone Output Sharpeners r a Sharpener Effect y Contone 8 amp 0 H Info Contone 150 Contone 267 Contone 300 Contone 400 Contone 80 This very low resolution is typically used for creating very large prints on devices such as the Durst Lambda or the Cymbolics Gretag LightJet photographic printers Contone 150 This resolution is usually used as the low resolution option on 300 ppi printers Contone 200 This res
4. Output Sharpener The Inkjet Output Sharpeners are organized by output resolution and paper type glossy vs matte The matte effects apply slightly stronger sharpening than the glossy effects Our experience suggests that luster and semigloss papers behave more like glossy than matte but it s a good idea to run some tests on any specific paper you use a lot As with the other Output Sharpeners the Inkjet Output Sharpeners allow for considerable post effect tweaking to optimize for a specific paper stock PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel Inkjet Output Sharpeners bt _ _ LARISA OCS Se B Info NOTE The image must be at final output size Current Size 7 28 in x 10 00 in 240 00 ppi Sharpener Set Sharpener Effect Inkjet 180 Glossy Inkjet 180 Matte Inkjet 240 Glossy Inkjet 300 Glossy Inkjet 300 Matte Inkjet 360 Glossy Inkjet 360 Matte Inkjet 480 Glossy Inkjet 480 Glossy Fine Inkjet 480 Matte Inkjet 180 Glossy Designed for making very large inkjet prints on glossy papers where you don t have enough pixels to print at a higher resolution Inkjet 180 Matte Designed for making very large inkjet prints on matte papers where you don t have enough pixels to print at a higher resolution Inkjet 240 Glossy Designed for inkjet printing on glossy papers at moderate resolution 29 PhotoKit SHA
5. is already sharp these effects may indeed vastly oversharpen those areas in your image But the Super Sharpeners can actually create textural detail where none was vis ible before In general you should use these effects at the default opacity of 50 or less Also be sure you examine sharp edged areas of your image and either add a layer mask to locally reduce the opacities or use the eraser tool to eliminate those areas in your image that break The Super Grain effects add a digital replication of photographic film grain while sharpening an im age These grain effects can be usefully applied over retouching to help integrate the overall textural appearance and hide irregularities Adding a low level of photographic grain to digital captures can also make the capture look more film like As with all of the Creative Sharpeners you should use judgement and self discipline to resist over applying these effects Remember while the image is still in layer form you can exercise enormous control over the flavor and strength of sharpening or smoothing but once it s flattened you can t undo the effects Also remember to leave some headroom for the final stage of the sharp ening workflow the Output Sharpeners which will handle destination specific sharpening requirements Output Sharpeners The Output Sharpeners are designed to apply to images that have already had Capture and Creative Sharpeners applied and have been resi
6. lines or contains many important small details but a Quality Factor of 1 5 1s sufficient for most work If figuring out what 1 5 times the line screen is for a 133 line screen makes your brain hurt note that we ve done the math for you For each line screen the lower ppi value corresponds to a Quality Factor of 1 5 and the higher one corresponds to a Quality Factor of 2 PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC NOTE The image must be at final output size Current Size 30 00 in x 41 22 in 200 00 ppi oK Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel Sharpener Set Halftone Output Sharpeners e i I Sharpener Effect amp 5lpi Coated 127 5 ppi Info A 85lpi Uncoated 127 5 ppi 85lpi Coated 170 ppi 85lpi Uncoated 170 ppi 1270 pi Coated 180 ppi 120 pi Uncoated 180 ppi 120 pi Coated 240 ppi 120 pi Uncoated 240 ppi 133 lpi Coated 199 5 ppi 133 lpi Uncoated 199 5 ppi 133 lpi Coated 2766 ppi 133 lpi Uncoated 266 ppi 150 pi Coated 225 ppi 150lpi Uncoated 225 ppi 150 pi Coated 300 ppi 150lpi Uncoated 300 ppi 175 pi Coated 262 5 ppi 175lpi Uncoated 262 5 ppi 175lpi Coated 350 ppi 175lpi Uncoated 350 ppi 85 Ipi Coated 127 5 ppi For images printed with an 85 lpi screen on coated stock at a Quality Factor of 1 5 This combination is rare coated stocks are generally printed at a higher line screen but if you do print to coated stock at 85 lpi you ll get better results using a Qual
7. positive film 4x5 4x5 Negative Film for scans from large format negative film 4x5 The Digital Capture sets are organized by capture size and by the degree of smoothing they apply from least to most Unless it s obvious that an image needs smoothing it already has visible noise or artifact ing we recommend that you try the option without smoothing first The amount of noise present in a digital image usually correlates with the ISO speed at which the image was shot But cameras vary widely in their behavior so it s difficult to provide a set of magic numbers that dictate when smoothing is required As a general rule it s unlikely that images captured at 400 ISO or slower will need smoothing and equally unlikely that images captured at 1600 ISO or faster wont require smoothing but there s a large gray area in between The images on the following page are illustrative of varying degrees of noise and show the effects of sharpening alone and sharpening with smoothing 10 me T PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual q 8 27 04 K ao Sharpening and Smoothing Shown below are details from versions of the image at left shot at 100 400 and 800 ISO unsharpened sharpened and sharpened and smoothed The 100 ISO image definitely does not benefit from smoothing the 800 ISO image definitely does while the 400 ISO image is a judgement call Original image unsharpened sharpened sharpen
8. such as JPEG there is rarely any benefit to upsampling from 8 to 16 bit channel mode Selecting a Capture Sharpener Set The Capture Sharpener sets are named for the image source The film sets are effective at almost any scanning resolution the key factor is the relationship between the edges you wish to sharpen and the inherent noise structure grain of the film The digital sets are organized by capture size Choose the Capture Sharpener set that corresponds most closely to your image source The Capture Sharpener sets are described in more detail on the following pages PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt 8 27 04 35 Positive Film for scans from 35mm positive film 35 Positive Film METW for scans from 35mm positive film of close subjects with soft detail and very wide edges such as portraits The METW Modified Edge Transition Width algorithms are designed to emphasize wide edges while minimizing grain A 35mm positive image with soft detail and wide edges may benefit from the 35 Positive Film METW sharpeners 35 Slow Negative Film for scans from 35mm negative film at speeds of up to 400 ISO 35 Fast Negative Film for scans from 35mm negative film at speeds faster than 400 ISO 6x6 Positive Film for scans from medium format positive film 6x6 6x7 6x9 KIT 6x6 Negative Film for scans from medium format negative film 6x6 6x7 6x9 4x5 Positive Film for scans from large format
9. thumbnails can benefit from some sharpening Note this effect is only available in Photoshop 7 Photoshop 6 doesn t support the required blending modes PhotoKit SHARPENER Workflow for Photoshop 6 and 7 PhotoKit SHARPENER allows many different workflows but they all share the following common characteristics gt Capture Sharpening is applied shortly after conversion to 8 bits channel gt Creative Sharpening when used is applied after Capture Sharpening and before Output Sharpening gt Output Sharpening is always applied at final output resolution and is only intended for one specific output process Aside from these very general guidelines there are no hard and fast rules PhotoKit SHARPENER lends itself equally well to automated workflows that use batch processes and to labor of love handwork intensive workflows that require human intervention at every stage of the process you can download some detailed sample workflows at www pixelgenius com sharpener workflows What follows is a general over view of the sharpening workflow gt If possible make any major necessary corrections to tone and color on high bit more than 8 bits channel data either by editing in the scanner or capture software or by importing the image into Photoshop as a 16 bit channel file If you shoot JPEG you re limited to 8 bits per channel so you can apply the Capture Sharpener immediately if you wish 32 8 27 04 gt
10. 133 Ipi Uncoated 266 ppi For trade magazines mid range books and other materials printed at 133 lpi on uncoated stock with a Quality Factor of 2 150 Ipi Coated 225 ppi For high quality offset print on coated stock with a Quality Factor of 1 5 150 Ipi Uncoated 225 ppi For high quality offset print on uncoated stock with a Quality Factor of 1 5 150 Ipi Coated 300 ppi For high quality offset print on coated stock such as trade magazine covers with a Quality Factor of 2 150 Ipi Uncoated 300 ppi For high quality offset print on uncoated stock with a Quality Factor of 2 175 Ipi Coated 262 5 ppi For premium printing on Coated stock such as high quality magazine covers or coffee table books with a Quality Factor of 1 5 175 lpi Uncoated 262 5 ppi For premium printing on uncoated stock such as high quality posters or coffee table books with a Quality Factor of 1 5 175 Ipi Coated 350 ppi For premium printing on Coated stock such as high quality magazine covers or coffee table books with a Quality Factor of 2 175 Ipi Uncoated 350 ppi For premium printing on uncoated stock such as high quality posters or coffee table books with a Quality Factor of 2 Post Effect Controls After you ve run the effect PhotoKit returns a Layer Set named for the Halftone Output Sharpener that contains a Light Contour and a Dark Contour layer both at a default opacity of 66 This allows for substantial tweaking of the sharpen
11. If resizing is desired resize the Capture sharpened file using Bicubic Smoother to upsample or Bicubic Sharper to downsample As with scanned images digital captures will gen erally produce better results when edited in high bit mode and since the files are typically smaller than scans you may not hit the pain point quite as soon as you would with scans The operations listed above are the ones we strongly recommend performing on the image in high bit mode After that we recommend staying in high bit mode until it hurts 35 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual 8 27 04 We hope that PhotoKit SHARPENER will be a useful addition to your digital workflow We welcome feedback and input Towards that end we ve created a Yahoo Groups email list You can join the email list by sending an email to PhotoKit subscribe yahoogroups com The PhotoKit Users Group home page is http groups yahoo com group PhotoKit For a set of sample workflow tutorials please visit http www pixelgenius com sharpener workflows html The PhotoKit SHARPENER product page is at http www pixelgenius com sharpener For answers to frequently asked questions visit http www pixelgenius com sharpener PhotoKit Sharpener FAQ html If you have questions about your order or purchase transaction please email customerservice esellerate net and put SHARPENER in the subject line If you have technical questions regarding installation or use of PhotoKit
12. PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual PhotoKit SHARPENER A Complete Sharpening Workflow Solution Sharpening has long been one of the most essential but least understood aspects of digital imaging PhotoKit SHARPENER provides not just a set of sharpening tools but a complete sharpening workflow from capture to output that is designed to produce optimum sharpness on any image from any source reproduced on any output device while still leaving enough control to address both the differing requirements of individual images and the differing tastes of individual users If you simply want to start using PhotoKit SHARPENER right away you can skip ahead to Using PhotoKit SHARPENER on page 4 but the following discussion may be useful to help you understand why we created the sharpening workflow and how it works Why sharpen Sharpening is necessary for several reasons each of which imposes its own demands and sometimes those demands contradict each other Whenever we turn photons into pixels we lose some sharpness because no matter how high the resolution of our capture devices they sample a fixed grid of pixels turning the continuous gradations of tone and color that exist in the real world into discrete pixels Some lenses render the scene more sharply than others but even the finest lenses still introduce some softness Sometimes we want to make the image sharper than it really was to tell a story make a point or emphasize
13. RPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt 8 27 04 Q KIT Inkjet 240 Matte Designed for inkjet printing on matte papers at moderate resolution Inkjet 300 Glossy Designed for inkjet printing on glossy papers from files that are already at the ubiquitous 300 ppi resolution Inkjet 300 Matte Designed for inkjet printing on matte papers from files that are already at the ubiquitous 300 ppi resolution Inkjet 360 Glossy Designed for normal high resolution inkjet printing on glossy papers Inkjet 360 Matte Designed for normal high resolution inkjet printing on matte papers Inkjet 480 Glossy Designed for super high resolution inkjet printing on glossy papers Inkjet 480 Glossy Fine Designed for super high resolution inkjet printing on glossy papers using the printer s highest resolution This effect is optimized for Epson printers printing on glossy papers at the printers 2880 dpi setting On other papers we found no benefit to creating a special sharpener and very little difference except in speed between 1440 dpi and 2880 dpi Inkjet 480 Matte Designed for super high resolution inkjet printing on matte papers Post Effect Controls After you ve run the effect PhotoKit returns a Layer Set named for the Inkjet Output Sharpener that contains a Light Contour and a Dark Contour layer both at a default opacity of 50 This allows for substantial tweaking of the sharpening effect after it has bee
14. SHARPENER please send an email to sharp ener_support pixelgenius com and put SHARPENER in the subject line Pixel Genius will be working on an entire suite of PhotoKit versions including color correction B amp W toning and others You can check for updates at any time by clicking on the Update button of the PhotoKit SHARPENER dialog box or by visiting http pixelgenius com updates html PIXELGENIUS Version 1 2 Plug in 2004 by Pixel Genius LLC All rights Reserved Product Design Martin Evening Bruce Fraser Seth Resnick Andrew Rodney and Jeff Schewe Engineering Design Mike Skurski Engineering Pixel Genius LLC amp Mike Skurski http www pixelgenius com info pixelgenius com 36
15. a Pass Through H Opacity Lock JEJ Se Fil S j gy MROC M Sharp Light Contour jell Dark Contour Fill view the cumulative results Light Contour Background B PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual 8 27 04 Sharpening Basics Sharpening is basically a very localized contrast adjustment Increasing the contrast along edges in the image produces the appearance of increased sharpness If you ve ever wondered why Photoshop s principal sharpening tool the Unsharp Mask filter is called Unsharp Mask when the result is to make the image appear sharper the simple answer is that it replicates an analog darkroom technique called unsharp masking The original negative is duplicated then the original and the duplicate are attached to one side of a transparent carrier often a piece of window glass When the enlarger is focused on the negative on the bottom of the glass the negative on top acts as an out of focus or unsharp mask that increases the contrast along the edges in the image Digital sharpeners simulate this effect by looking at each pixel deciding whether or not it represents part of Unsharpened 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 This image and graph depict an edge transition from 40 to 60 percent Each tick mark across the bottom of the graph represents a column of pixels an edge and then increasing the contrast around it The typical resul
16. all images exhibit some cross category tendencies Additionally the content of an image may dictate that certain areas of an image need more sharpening or even more smoothing to optimize the composition The Creative Sharpening effects are divided into three sets Sharpening Brushes Smoothing Brushes and Sharpening Effects PhotoKit Creative Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect K Cancel sharpener Set Sharpening Brushes Hd i Smoothing Brushes Help Sharpening Effects FA Sharpener Effect 4 Info Sharpening and Smoothing Brushes Sets Each Sharpening Brush category uses the same concept of selecting sharpening based upon narrow medium and wide edges as do the Capture Sharpeners However each category also has three strengths of sharpening from 3 with 3 being the strongest In addition we have added a special effects sharp ener called HazeCutter which adds a warming color correction to sharpening that can particularly help images where aerial haze causes both softening and cooling color balance in distant scenes 2 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual LE fa PE NA Ki The Depth of Field Brush has the ability to add additional edge sharpening above and beyond tradi tional sharpening While it s impossible to make an out of focus object appear to be in focus the DOF Brushes add as much edge contr
17. an area of interest Sharpening can be a creative tool Output devices also introduce some softness When we turn pixels into halftone dots or stochastic dithers of inks or even into continuous tone dots on dye sub printers or film recorders we lose sharpness again We need to apply sharpening to counteract the softness introduced by both capture and output and to satisfy our creative goals The Sharpening Problem When we try to use a single round of sharpening on a digital image we immediately encounter a problem The image source requires one kind of sharpening the image content needs another while the output medium needs still another sharpening treatment Why is this gt Different capture mechanisms film formats and digital cameras have their own signature combinations of detail and noise The challenge is to sharpen the detail without exaggerating the noise so successful sharpening must take into account the relationship between image detail and the noise of the image source whether film grain or a digital camera filter mosaic Incorrect sharpening makes the grain or noise more rather than less obvious PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual 8 27 04 gt Different subjects need different treatments Apparent sharpness depends on the contrast along what we see as edges A close subject with soft detail such as a head shot has wider edges than a high frequency image such as a forest full of trees so each requires a differ
18. ark glow around shadows The Smoothing Brushes apply a gentle low level blur that can be very useful for smoothing skin or other areas of unwanted texture PhotoKit Creative Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect ean Sharpener Set Smoothing Brushes el Help _ Sharpener Effect EA rE AR Fog Brush Fog Brush 3 r Diffusion Brush 1 Diffusion Brush 2 Diffusion Brush 3 Smoothing Brush 1 Smoothing Brush 2 Smoothing Brush 3 Edge Protected Smoothing Brush 1 Edge Protected Smoothing Brush 2 Edge Protected Smoothing Brush 3 Edge Protected Smooth Noise Brush 1 Edge Protected Smooth Noise Brush 2 Edge Protected Smooth Noise Brush 3 JPEG Brush 1 JPEG Brush 2 JPEG Brush 3 22 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual eS m gt 8 27 04 We ve also included three special smoothing brush es for solving specific image problems The Edge Protected Smoothing and the Edge Protected Smooth Noise brushes only apply their effects to non edge ar eas of the image so you can apply the smoothing to large open areas without applying special layer masks to protect the edges The Edge Protected Smooth Noise brush has the added benefit of adding back in a low level of soft noise or grain that can help when working on images with higher ISOs The JPEG Brushes are special effects brushes to help mitigate the noisy magenta and green shadow artifacts found with some cameras App
19. ast as possible and can indeed considerably improve soft areas of an image PhotoKit Creative Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Cancel Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Sharpener Set Sharpening Brushes H Sharpener Effect Hep Sharpen Brush Narrow Edges 1 Sharpen Brush Narrow Edges 2 Sharpen Brush Narrow Edges 3 Sharpen Brush Medium Edges 1 Sharpen Brush Medium Edges 2 Sharpen Brush Medium Edges 3 Sharpen Brush Wide Edges 1 Sharpen Brush Wide Edges 2 Sharpen Brush Wide Edges 3 HazeCutter Brush Narrow Edges HazeCutter Brush Medium Edges HazeCutter Brush Wide Edges Depth of Field Brush Narrow Edges Depth of Field Brush Medium Edges Depth of Field Brush Wide Edges One trick to making an area of an image appear sharper is to add a suggestion of softness elsewhere in the image While applying a Sharpening Brush to a person s eyes and lips for example you may add smoothing to skin or other areas you wish to de emphasize using the Smoothing Brushes There are three simple smoothing brushes Fog Brush Diffusion Brush and Smoothing Brush Each brush comes with three strengths 3 The Fog Brushes apply a lightening blur effect similar to shooting with a fog filter over the lens so highlights attain a soft glow The Diffusion Brushes apply a darkening blur simi lar to applying diffusion over an enlarger lens when making B amp W prints so the shadows expand and you see a d
20. e capability of your hardware It s generally true that you ll get better results working in high bit mode than in 8 bit mode but after the big initial edits the advantages get smaller The file size limit in Photoshop CS is 4 gigabytes but files that size tax current hardware and often the user of said hardware to its limits We all have differ ent pain points so we recommend staying in high bit mode until it starts to hurt SHARPENER and Adobe Camera Raw ACR Our recommended workflow for images acquired through ACR is gt Adjust Color Temperature Tint and Exposure in ACR gt Optionally make other adjustments in ACR s Adjust panel Color Temperature Tint and Exposure are the only adjustments that cannot be replicated in Photoshop so they must be done in ACR The other adjustments may be performed wherever it s more convenient for you to do so gt In the Detail panel set Sharpness to a low value we recommend a default of 0 and in no case do we recommend a value higher than 10 Adjust Luminance Smoothing and Color Noise Rreduction to taste gt If you need to make adjustments in the Lens or Calibrate panels do so 34 8 27 04 za PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual LE fa PE NA Ki gt Acquire the image in 16 bit channel mode at the camera s native resolution 1 e with no upsizing or downsizing gt In Photoshop apply the appropriate Capture Sharpener gt
21. ed and smoothed 100 ISO 400 ISO 800 ISO PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual E 8 27 04 SH Digital Low Res Sharpen for digital captures of up to approximately 4 megapixels pixel dimensions of up to approximately 2500 x 1600 that are relatively free of noise and hence don t require smoothing Digital Low Res Smoothed Sharpen for noisier digital captures of up to approximately 4 megapixels pixel dimensions of up to approximately 2500 x 1600 that require some smoothing in addition to sharpening Digital Mid Res Sharpen for digital captures of up to approximately 6 megapixels pixel dimensions of up to approximately 3072 x 2048 that are relatively free of noise and hence don t require smoothing Digital Mid Res Sharpen and Smooth for noisier digital captures of up to approximately 6 megapixels pixel dimensions of up to approximately 3072 x 2048 that require smoothing in addition to sharpening Digital Mid Res de JPEG Sharpen and Smooth for digital captures of up to approximately 6 megapixels pixel dimensions of up to approximately 3072 x 2048 shot as JPEG that display obvious magenta green JPEG artifacts as well as noise see below We typically only see this on images shot at 800 ISO and above Digital High Res Sharpen for digital captures of 8 or more megapixels pixel dimensions of approximately 4000 x 2700 and upwards that are relatively free of noise and hence don t require smoothing Digi
22. effect PhotoKit returns a Layer Set named for the effect that contains a Light Contour layer a Dark Contour layer and in some cases a Smoothing Layer This allows for substantial tweaking of the sharpening effect after it has been applied Layer Opacity You can vary the strength of the effect by adjusting layer opacities using the Opacity slider in the Layers palette Layers 5 LumimEty F Opaciry fiia l Lack C a fE y DUH Shar L iaht Comtour 7 Ook cortou al mich aT i p G ale J 7 Layer Masking You can localize the sharpening effect by adding a layer mask to the Sharpening Layer Set by selecting the layer set then either choosing Add Layer Mask from the Layer menu or by clicking the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers palette New Duplicate Layer Delete Layer Properties Layer Style New Fill Layer New Adjustment Layer The Sharpening Layer Set always appears with 100 opacity You can reduce the strength of the sharpening by lowering the opacity of the layer set The individual Light and Dark Contour layers for Capture Sharpeners always appear with a default opacity of 66 so you can increase or decrease the strength of the light and dark contours independently by varying the respective layer opacities You may find that you often want to reduce the opacity of the smoothing layers or even turn them off entirely But the sharpening layers are based on the result of the smoothing layers so ev
23. en near right and Wide Edge Sharpen far right The Wide Edge Sharpen actually obscures some of the finer details and produces wide sharpening contours that look unnatural PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual l H 8 27 04 H Medium Edge Sharpen is designed for normal images like the examples shown here When in doubt it s the safest setting to use think of it as the standard setting with SuperFine Narrow and Wide Edge Sharpening being reserved for those images that need them 7 TM PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual E 9 KI i l SHA Wide Edge Sharpen is designed for close subjects with relatively soft detail where the goal is to emphasize edges without applying significant sharpening to textured areas such as skin such as the examples shown below These images all have relatively wide edges as their dominant features making them good candidates for Wide Edge Sharpen PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual gt SH SuperFine Narrow Medium and Wide Edges Compared On any single image the differences between SuperFine Narrow Medium and Wide Edge Sharpen may be quite subtle The image details below show the same image with SuperFine Narrow Medium and Wide Edge Sharpen applied SuperFine Edge Sharpen Narrow Edge Sharpen Medium Edge Sharpen Wide Edge Sharpen 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual P H gt Post Effect Controls After you ve run the
24. en if you wind up discarding them they ve still played a useful role Layer masks appear on the chennem Channels palette whenever the layer to which they belong is selected Click the layer mask s tile to activate it for editing To reveal the effect then paint it out choose Add Layer Mask gt Reveal All from the Layer menu or click the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers palette then paint on the Layer Mask with Black paint To hide the effect then paint it in choose Add Layer Mask gt Hide All from the Layers menu or Option click Alt click the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers palette then paint on the Layer Mask with White paint Reveal All Hide All Add Vector Mask Reveal All Enable Vector Mask Hid Hide All F veg a ection I ect oe Layers Lumine E Chee itp bir tock SLI a Layer masks appear on the Layers palette beside the layer to which they belong Click the layer mask s icon z Cah orien to activate it for editing JEF geer omt when it s active the icon has A Atono ii a border Sara ress F LADE H Shar 8 27 04 Capture Sharpen Expert In PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 we ve added a new Capture Sharpen Expert set These sets work identically to the similarly named Capture Sharpen sets The only difference is that they preserve the mask through which sharpening is performed as a layer mask Layer masks control the visibility of the layer to which they apply white
25. ent treatment in terms of sharpening radius Incorrect sharpening either obscures small details or oversharpens textured areas such as skin tones gt Output processes differ in the way they render the conversion from pixels to printed dots so sharpening that works well for an inkjet printer may fail when sent to a halftone output process such as a web press or to a continuous tone process like a film recorder Incorrect sharpening either produces insufficiently sharp results or makes obvious sharpening haloes along high contrast edges No matter how hard we ve tried to reconcile these three demands in a single round of sharpening we ve never been happy with the results Independently several of the PixelGenius team had developed a two pass approach to sharpening performing a round of gentle sharpening close to capture time and a second round tailored for the specific output process but we each did things a little differently proceeding as much by instinct as anything else To create PhotoKit SHARPENER we first analyzed what we d been doing independently then we tested thousands of images from different sources and sent them to a variety of outputs The result is PhotoKit SHARPENER The Sharpening Workflow Solution The solution a well thought out sharpening workflow is relatively simple in concept Rather than try to address all the factors that influence sharpening in a single edit The sharpening workflow splits sharpening
26. esults to Capture Sharpener effects Applying Capture Sharpeners in Photoshop 6 or 7 Before applying Capture Sharpeners in Photoshop 6 or 7 we recommend that you make any large initial tone or color edits on a high bit capture whenever possible Two ways of accomplishing this are gt Make large initial corrections in the scanner or capture software gt Bring the file into Photoshop in 16 bit channel mode perform the large initial corrections then downsample to 8 bit channel mode The two are functionally equivalent choose whichever method is more comfortable for you We make this recommendation simply because it s always better to make big corrections in 16 bit channel mode and because it s often necessary to make these corrections before you can begin to make any reasonable decisions about sharpening Once you ve made your initial corrections in high bit mode you can apply a Capture Sharpener Applying Capture Sharpeners in Photoshop CS Since Photoshop CS supports 16 bit layers Sharpener works on 16 bit channel images in Photoshop CS Hence we recommend that you acquire images in 16 bit channel mode make your initial corrections in 16 bit channel mode apply Capture Sharpener in 16 bit channel mode and stay in 16 bit channel mode until the file size makes it uncomfortable to do so or you need to use Photoshop tools that don t work on 16 bit channel images Note however that for 8 bit channel captures
27. hotoKit SHARPENER s default settings are designed with automation in mind You can safely batch process images using PhotoKit SHARPENER without worrying whether or not it will wreck your images Control Most sharpening tools offer a take it or leave it result PhotoKit SHARPENER produces layers at default opacities that allow you to increase or decrease the amount of sharpening after you ve run the effect For even more control the Capture and Output Sharpener effects return separate layers for the light and dark sharpening contours Additionally those Capture Sharpeners that apply Smoothing do so on a third separate layer Finally for even more control the Capture Expert Sharpeners return the sharpening layer mask with each sharpening layer allowing further fine tuning by editing the layer mask PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt 8 27 04 KIT Using PhotoKit SHARPENER PhotoKit Basics All PhotoKit products including PhotoKit SHARPENER follow the same basic rules First and foremost PhotoKit never harms the original image All PhotoKit effects are applied on additional layers leaving the original source image untouched Second PhotoKit effects offer great flexibility by using all currently visible layers as the source for the effect This lets you control exactly how effects are applied For example if you want to compare two different effects two different Capture Sharpeners for example you simply r
28. ightly Adjusting the opacities of the light and dark contours independently to 70 for the light contour and 45 for the dark contour produces a result that s sharp but is closer to the original tonal values Light contour at 70 dark contour at 45 Capture sharpen at default opacities oco Oco i Layers Layers Co a Cress B oco bor Lock gjalt a Lock Blata y HROC M Sharp S al Dark Contour e y HRDC M Sharp a A Light contour s g Dines erosen PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual 4 8 27 04 SH F PhotoKit SHARPENER Menus As we explained earlier good sharpening has to take into account the characteristics of the capture medium the content of the image and the properties of the output device Addressing all these issues in a single round of sharpening is we believe impossible so PhotoKit SHARPENER divides sharpening into three phases Capture Sharpen Creative Sharpen and Output Sharpen The three sharpening phases appear as separate commands on Photoshop s Automate submenu PhotoKit Capture Sharpener Expert PhotoKit Capture Sharpener PhotoKit Creative Sharpener and PhotoKit Output Sharpener arranged in the order in which they re typically used New N Open 0 Browse O Open Recent be Edit in ImageReady 36M Close W Close All CEW Save AS 3S Save for Web VES Place Online Services Import gt Ba
29. in the layer mask makes the layer fully visible black hides intermediate grays make it partly visible Editing the layer mask allows you to fine tune the effect of the Sharpening layer One very easy way to fine tune the sharpening is to adjust the contrast of the Layer mask using Levels Curves works too but Levels offers the advantages of speed and simplicity In the example shown here we pull the white input slider down creating more white pixels in the Layer mask and hence more sharpening On the Light Contour layer we also make a midtone adjustment using the gray slider to darken the mid tones compensating for the white slider move so that areas we want to leave unsharpened are indeed left that way i Levels Channel Light Contour Mask input Levels 0 E aor lt Queputtevels 0 255 Br HA 1 F Preview E Levels Channel Dark Contour Mask Input Lewels o i0a Output Lavels lfzss A D Luminasity E j Opacity feex PH Lock jla Fill 100 fi l v an oo SF Sharp Selected Layer mask Dark contour edit before editing her editing PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H 8 27 04 Capture Sharpener Expert Often a simple gamma adjustment using the gray slider in Levels is useful In the example shown here a gamma correction of 1 8 was applied to the Light Contour layer s mask to produce slightly increased shar
30. inal step before color space conversion from working RGB to an RGB or CMYK output color space In the majority of cases you should be able to take your image sharpened with Capture and Creative Sharpeners simply resize it to the required output resolution then apply the Output Sharpener If the re sizing is extreme more than 50 you may want to perform the resizing in increments but you generally shouldn t have to apply any additional sharpening be fore running the Output Sharpener Like the Capture Sharpeners the Output Sharpeners return a Layer Set containing a Light Contour sharp ening layer and a Dark Contour sharpening layer However with the exception of the Halftone Output Sharpeners the default opacity of the output sharpen ing layers is 50 so you have somewhat more free dom to increase or decrease the sharpening effect The default settings should provide good results the extra headroom lets you tailor the effect for specific output conditions or for image specific concerns The Output Sharpeners are divided into four sets to address four different types of output Contone Output Sharpeners Halftone Output Sharpeners Ink jet Output Sharpeners and Web and Multimedia Out put Sharpeners PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC NOTE The image must be at final output size Current Size 30 00 in x 41 22 in 200 00 ppi E amp x Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel
31. ing effect after it has been applied 28 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt 8 27 04 Layer Opacity You can vary the strength of the effect by adjusting layer opacities using the Opacity slider in the Layers palette 2 0 5 Layers Sich Channels F Paths Ga pr Luminosity 1 Opacity sex y L3ipiC 199 5ppSharp al Light Contour Sy Lal a ark Contour l Gy Enshsmooth Et fi BrushSharp M3 i gg LRDC XW Sharp 2 21010 light Contour The Sharpening Layer Set always appears with 100 opacity You can reduce the strength of the sharpening by lowering the opacity of the layer set The individual Light and Dark Contour layers for Halftone Output Sharpeners always appear with a default opacity of 66 so you can increase or decrease the strength of the Light and Dark Contours by varying the respective layer opacities You can address apparent tone shifts by adjusting the opacity of the Light and Dark Contours independently to achieve the desired result While it s possible to add a Layer Mask to an Output Sharpener and apply the effect selectively we strongly advise against doing so because the result will almost always look unnatural It s much better to address any localized sharpening concerns using the Capture and Creative Sharpeners and apply the Output Sharpener globally Selecting an Inkjet
32. into three Stages gt Capture Sharpening is applied early in the image editing process and aims simply to restore any sharpness that was lost in the capture process gt Creative Sharpening is usually applied locally to accentuate specific features in an image for example we often give eyes a little extra sharpness in head shots gt Output Sharpening is applied to files that have already been sized to final output resolution and is tailored to a specific type of output process The benefit of dividing sharpening into these three phases is that it lets us handle the various competing needs separately Capture Sharpeners compensate for the image source and image type without having to worry about output issues Creative Sharpeners apply directly to the image at hand without having to worry about image sources since they ve already been handled by the Capture Sharpeners and Output Sharpeners concentrate solely on the needs of the output process since the image has already been sharpened adequately in the two previous phases 8 27 04 TM PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt J NA KI The three sets of sharpeners have been carefully tuned to work together You can archive images that have had Capture Sharpening and Creative Sharpening applied then when you want to produce a printed or web version of the image you can simply resize to the required dimensions apply the appropriate Output Sharpener and output the fi
33. it SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt QKIT Sharpener Workflow for Photoshop CS 16 bit Workflow Photoshop CS supports layers in 16 bit channel mode and hence allows PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 1 to oper ate on high bit images While SHARPENER s func tionality is otherwise unchanged high bit operation changes our workflow recommendations for Capture Sharpening as follows SHARPENER and High bit Scans Our recommended workflow for high bit scanned im ages 1S gt Open or Acquire the high bit image in Photoshop CS gt Before carrying out any other operations apply the appropriate Capture Sharpener gt Apply at least your major tone and color corrections in 16 bit channel mode prior to downsampling to 8 bits per channel Doing so produces sharpening that allows a wider range of subsequent tonal and color adjustments than is the case when sharpening is applied to an already corrected image as we recommend in our 8 bit chan nel workflow We always recommend performing major tone and color correction on high bit images rather than 8 bit channel ones What s changed is that we can now ap ply sharpening in high bit mode before applying the tone and color corrections After sharpening and major corrections you may wish to either merge some layers or downsample to 8 bits per channel to avoid working with huge files The question of when to merge or downsample is largely a matter of personal preference and th
34. ity You can reduce the strength of the sharpening by lowering the opacity of the layer set The individual Light and Dark Contour layers for Contone Output Sharpeners always appear with a default opacity of 50 so you can increase or decrease the strength of the Light and Dark Contours independently by varying the respective layer opacities The adjustments are designed to address two issues variations between the apparent sharpness of the image on different papers and image specific concerns such as apparent tone shifts caused by sharpening Matte papers can typically tolerate a little more sharpening than glossy ones If you find that that s the case you can adjust the opacity of the Light and Dark Contours equally to produce the desired degree of sharpening You can address apparent tone shifts by adjusting the opacity of the Light and Dark Contours independently to achieve the desired result While it s possible to add a Layer Mask to an Output Sharpener and apply the effect selectively we strongly advise against doing so because the result will almost always look unnatural It s much better to address any localized sharpening concerns using the Capture and Creative Sharpeners and apply the Output Sharpener globally 26 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual l H gt OKIT Selecting a Halftone Output Sharpener The Halftone Output Sharpeners are designed for final output sharpening of images desti
35. ity Factor of 2 so this setting 1s recommended only when you don t have enough resolution for a Quality Factor of 2 85 Ipi Uncoated 127 5 ppi For typical newspaper printing with a Quality Factor of 1 5 85 lIpi Coated 170 ppi Again its rare to print an 85 Ipi screen on coated stock but if you do using a Quality Factor of 2 and applying this sharpener will produce the best possible results 85 Ipi Uncoated 170 ppi For high quality newspaper printing with a Quality Factor of 2 27 8 27 04 EE TM PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual M e B N KI 120 lpi Coated 180 ppi For typical flyer and blow away card work on coated stock with a Quality Factor of 1 5 120 Ipi Uncoated 180 ppi For typical newspaper advertising inserts with a Quality Factor of 1 5 120 Ipi Coated 240 ppi For high quality flyers and bulk mailers on coated stock with a Quality Factor of 2 120 Ipi Uncoated 240 ppi For high quality newspaper advertising inserts with a Quality Factor of 2 133 Ipi Coated 199 5 ppi For trade magazines mid range books and other materials printed at 133 Ipi on coated stock with a Quality Factor of 1 5 133 Ipi Uncoated 199 5 ppi For trade magazines mid range books and other materials printed at 133 lpi on uncoated stock with a Quality Factor of 1 5 133 lIpi Coated 266 ppi For trade magazines mid range books and other materials printed at 133 Ipi on coated stock with a Quality Factor of 2
36. kground layer or if you wish to keep your Background layer intact merge the effect into a new layer The trade off in doing so is that you make a smaller file but you lose editability since you no longer have separate sharpening layers We recommend that you flatten images before a mode change from RGB to CMYK for example but you needn t do so for RGB to RGB conversions Flattening the image Choose Flatten Image from the Layer menu All layer based edits are burned into the Background layer Merge to a new layer Create a new layer by choosing New gt Layer from the Layer menu or by clicking on the Add Layer icon in the Layers palette If a Layer Set is currently targeted the new layer will appear inside the layer set drag it out of the set before proceeding Then choose Merge Visible from the Layer menu while holding down the Option Mac or Alt Windows key or press Command Option Shift E Mac or Control Alt Shift E Windows The sharpened image is copied to the new layer Finally delete the sharpening Layer Set to reduce the file size Creative Sharpeners The Creative Sharpeners are designed to apply to images after running Capture Sharpeners and before Output Sharpeners By nature the primary use of Creative Sharpeners is for localized sharpening or smoothing of areas in an image While most images may fall into one of the primary categories we ve chosen such as Narrow Medium and Wide edges in general
37. le This provides three key benefits gt Ease of use At each stage of the sharpening workflow you can make relatively simple decisions rather than try to address all the sharpening issues with a single edit You can even automate large parts of the sharpening workflow by writing Photoshop Actions to call the individual Sharpeners gt Optimal sharpening Addressing each sharpening issue separately means that you can produce much better results than would be possible using a single round of sharpening so your output is tack sharp without obvious and offensive sharpening haloes gt Repurposability Uncoupling output sharpening from the rest of the sharpening process means that you can keep a single version of the image and simply produce different versions optimally sharpened for output when you need them The PhotoKit SHARPENER Advantage Many other great sharpening tools are available to Photoshop users but PhotoKit SHARPENER is the only one designed from the ground up to provide a complete sharpening workflow And PhotoKit SHARPENER offers some other significant advantages Non Destructive Sharpening All sharpening effects are implemented as Layers or Layer Sets leaving the source image untouched whether it s a flat file or a complex layered construction Sharpening effects remain non destructive and adjustable until the user flattens the layered image or merges the sharpening effects into a normal pixel layer Automation P
38. lying the Sharpening and Smoothing Brushes The Sharpening and Smoothing Brushes return a layer with the sharpening effects applied to the pixels of the layer but hidden by a layer mask When run the layer mask is auto generated and to reveal the sharpening you need only paint white on the layer mask The Sharpening Brushes automatically select a large soft brush and set your color swatches to the layer mask default of white black however due to certain limits we can not automatically reduce either the opacity or the flow of the paintbrush You the user need to actively reduce the overall opacity or flow of the layer masks brush yourself An easy keyboard method of changing a brush s opacity is to simply press a number key after the effect is run Pressing the 5 key will give you 50 opacity or flow depending on your brush options a 3 gives 30 We suggest using an opacity of between 10 30 for gentle buildup of effects and a 50 opacity for a quick buildup Remember you can always paint away the effect by selecting black as the foreground color so you can always adjust your final blend very precisely An easy way to toggle between White Black and Black White is to type the x key This exchanges the foreground and background colors Sharpening Effects Set The Sharpening Effects Set is a collection of heavy duty effects They include the three sharpening routines found in the original PhotoKit plug in bu
39. n applied Layer Opacity You can vary the strength of the effect by adjusting layer opacities using the Opacity slider in the Layers palette The Sharpening Layer Set always appears with 100 opacity You can reduce the strength of the sharpening by lowering the opacity of the layer set amp E Paths i o 0 i tay Layers Rg Chann Overlay als Opacity sm x M jy inkjet 240 Matte a 5 Dark Contour ORF Ell m gA E Brushimooth meoo Om Aig hsharp N3 y Boe xW Sharp S Aa econo I A Al a a an 8 A eactaround 4 Oo o rel al lw 14 The individual Light and Dark Contour layers for Ink jet Output Sharpeners always appear with a default opacity of 50 so you can increase or decrease the strength of the Light and Dark Contours by varying the respective layer opacities The adjustments are designed to address two issues variations between the apparent sharpness on different papers and image specific concerns such as apparent tone shifts caused by sharpening 30 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual 8 27 04 SH 1 Matte papers typically tolerate more sharpening than glossy ones while Luster and Semigloss papers fall somewhere inbetween You can adjust the opac ity of the Light and Dark Contours equall
40. n the second effect The second effect then takes the first effect into account when it runs This is the normal workflow for applying a Capture Sharpener followed by an Output Sharpener for example A possibly non obvious consequence of this behavior is that when you want to add layer based edits for example a Curves or Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer to an image that already contains one or more PhotoKit effects you should add the new adjustments at the top of the layer stack above the PhotoKit effects rather than underneath them in the Layer stack Stacking effects CEW OS LCRA VOTE WIRDE W harp ALE 7 PhotoKit Capture Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Sharpener Set _ Digital Mid Res Sharpen Help Sharpener Effect v SuperFine Edge Sharpen A Info Narrow Edge Sharpen Medium Edge Sharpen Wide Edge Sharpen Run the first effect then a 0 UJ Layers x Or if Pass Through KA Opacity Lack Hl atp lal leave the Hs Y Mepc M Sharp result visible B S A toht contour Dark Contour r a Background 3 PhotoKit Capture Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect ae Cancel Sharpener Set Digital Mid Res Sharpen SuperFine Edge Sharpen p s Sharpener Effect Narrow Edge Sharpen TP Medium Edge Sharpen v Wide Edge Sharpen Run the second effect then
41. ned for output processes that use a conventional halftone rosette such as the majority of printing presses as well as dot based digital proofing systems such as the Kodak Approval In addition some color laser printers and some inkjet printers driven by RIPs use conventional halftone rosettes The key parameters for halftone output sharpening are coated or uncoated paper stock the frequency of the line screen expressed in lines per inch lpi and the pixel resolution at final output size in pixels per inch ppi Uncoated papers generally benefit from a slightly stronger sharpen than coated ones while the interaction between pixels and halftone dots which is dictated by the Quality Factor the relationship between pixel resolution and screen frequency 1s key to sharpening the pixels to produce the desired halftone dots The Halftone Output Sharpeners are organized by screen frequency lpi coated vs uncoated stock and resolution in ppi For each supported screen frequency we offer a set that corresponds to a Quality Factor of 2 a resolution of double the line screen which is typically used for premium work and a Quality Factor of 1 5 a resolution of 1 5 times the line screen which is often used to save storage space and transmission time on less critical work We don t recommend using a Quality Factor of less than 1 5 for halftone output We recommend using a Quality Factor of 2 when the image contains fine diagonal
42. olution is usually used as the low resolution option on 400 ppi printers Contone 267 This is the low resolution setting for the Fuji Pictrography 3500 25 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual P M gt Contone 300 This setting is for files sent to 300 ppi printers at true 300 ppi resolution Most dye sublimation printers and many models of the LightJet have a native resolution of 300 ppi Contone 400 This setting is for files sent to 400 ppi printers at true 400 ppi resolution The Fuji Pictrography 3500 and the Durst Lambda for example are 400 ppi printers Post Effect Controls After you ve run the effect PhotoKit returns a Layer Set named for the Contone Output Sharpener that contains a Light Contour and a Dark Contour layer both at a default opacity of 50 This allows for substantial tweaking of the sharpening effect after it has been applied Layer Opacity You can vary the strength of the effect by adjusting layer opacities using the Opacity slider in the Layers palette E JAE e Channels T Paths gt gt Pr Overlay l Opacity sox y i Contone 200 as F Fj 2 Light Contour i al Dark Contour fa i mi Brush mooth EPL E E mie BrushSharp N3 y ig LADC XW Sharp 2 Ase a age Contour T al The Sharpening Layer Set always appears with 100 opac
43. pening The simple rules to follow gt Adjusting the black input slider in Levels creates more black pixels and hence protects more of the image from the effect gt Adjusting the white input slider in levels creates more white pixels and hence applies the effect to more of the image gt Adjusting the gray input slider in Levels changes the slope between pixels that are affected and pixels that are protected OOO i ee a a A ia A ET ia Before ANA PEET The Capture Sharpener Expert sets are designed for those users who want the ultimate in control The examples shown here are relatively unsubtle we wanted to make sure that the before and after difference is obvious Use them only when you want to make subtler changes than can be achieved by adjusting the layer opacities BREED _ W JAJ V I aSo PT TT TEL 0466 26 8721 HEM Fax oass 26 is fy A E 0468 34 0102 FOR ATES sR 1 15 91 mens 7 D hi i P 4 i l m aie Al ai pe a E Sakai oe me Ss 7 RS j After gamma TEE T iL ue Fd 20 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt Flattening the Capture Sharpen Layer Set Once you re happy with the results of the Capture Sharpener you may wish to flatten the layer set to reduce the file size and the concomitant demands on memory scratch disk space and storage You can either flatten the image which burns all the changes into the Bac
44. rather than right or wrong sharpening The following examples however may provide a general rule of thumb SuperFine Edge Sharpen is designed for busy images with tiny details right at the limit of the capture medium s ability to resolve This effect is rarely needed but we added it to PhotoKit SHARPENER after receiving a small but significant number of images from users who found that the Narrow Edge Sharpen effect was still too coarse and obscured useful detail PN Ve AVA f eS Er Pie Ei An F j These detail images show SuperFine Edge Sharpen near right and Narrow Edge Sharpen far right pe PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual E 8 27 04 Narrow Edge Sharpen is designed for high frequency busy images with lots of tiny details The differences between Narrow Edge Sharpen and SuperFine Edge Sharpen are quite subtle but unless you re concerned with details around the single pixel level Narrow Edge Sharpen is usually a better choice for high frequency images than SuperFine Edge Sharpen Bear in mind that all the effects will sharpen all edges to some extent the difference is simply one of emphasis Each of the edge widths emphasizes a different general tendency in the image Once you gain some experience using PhotoKit SHARPENER you ll find that it s relatively easy to match the effect to the image to produce the results you want These detail images show Narrow Edge Sharp
45. t be at final output size Current Size 1024 pixels x 1407 pixels ex Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel Web and Multimedia Sharp Sharpener Set rT ES 1024 pixel SuperFine Edge 1024 pixel Narrow Edge Sharpen p 1024 pixel Medium Edge Sharpen 1024 pixel Wide Edge Sharpen 800 pixel SuperFine Edge Sharpen 800 pixel Narrow Edge Sharpen 800 pixel Medium Edge Sharpen 800 pixel Wide Edge Sharpen 600 pixel SuperFine Edge Sharpen 600 pixel Narrow Edge Sharpen 600 pixel Medium Edge Sharpen 600 pixel Wide Edge Sharpen 400 pixel SuperFine Edge Sharpen 400 pixel Narrow Edge Sharpen 400 pixel Medium Edge Sharpen 400 pixel Wide Edge Sharpen 250 pixel SuperFine Edge Sharpen 250 pixel Narrow Edge Sharpen 250 pixel Medium Edge Sharpen 250 pixel Wide Edge Sharpen 100 pixel SuperFine Edge Sharpen 100 pixel Narrow Edge Sharpen 100 pixel Medium Edge Sharpen 100 pixel Wide Edge Sharpen Sharpener Effect 3 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt 8 27 04 QKIT 1024 pixel Narrow Medium Wide Edge Sharpen For 1024 pixel wide images 800 pixel Narrow Medium Wide Edge Sharpen For 800 pixel wide images 600 pixel Narrow Medium Wide Edge Sharpen For 600 pixel wide images 400 pixel Narrow Medium Wide Edge Sharpen For 400 pixel wide images 250 pixel Narrow Medium Wide Edge Sharpen For 250 pixel wide images 100 pixel Narrow Medium Wide Edge Sharpen Yes even
46. t enhanced by returning a layer set with Light and Dark Contour layers the original series only returned single layers PhotoKit Creative Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect OK Cancel Sharpener Set Sharpening Effects ve Help a Edge Sharpen 2 Edge Sharpen 3 Luminance Sharpen 1 Luminance Sharpen 2 Luminance Sharpen 3 Luminance Sharpen 4 High Pass Sharpen 1 High Pass Sharpen 2 High Pass Sharpen 3 Super Sharpener 1 Super Sharpener 2 Super Sharpener 3 Super Sharpener 4 Super Grain 100 Super Grain 200 Super Grain 400 Super Grain 800 Super Grain 1600 Sharpener Effect 23 8 27 04 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual l H gt The Edge Sharpen effects apply sharpening only to simple edges in three strengths from 1 3 The High Pass Sharpen effects use an Overlay blend mode to enhance edge halos while the Luminance Sharpen has an additional strength and applies sharpening only to the luminosity of an image All result in global sharp ening over the entire image but they can be manipu lated by adjusting the default 66 layer opacities or by adding your own layer masks The two additional effects included in the Sharpen ing Effects are Super Sharpener and Super Grain in varying strengths and in the case of the grains various sizes of grain The Super Sharpeners are special purpose tools use them with caution If your image
47. t is a sharpening halo along edges Edges in images consist of lighter pixels contrasting with darker ones so when that contrast gets exaggerated to increase the apparent sharpness of the edge the resulting halo has darker pixels that we refer to as the Dark Contour and lighter pixels that we refer to as the Light Contour In an ideal scenario the dark pixels are darkened to exactly the same visual extent as the light pixels are lightened However this ideal is rarely met in practice so often we see some tonal shifting between the sharpened and unsharpened versions of the image In many cases this tonal shift is unobjectionable or even desirable but we recognize that such judgements are highly subjective so in PhotoKit SHARPENER we provide the ability to adjust the strength of the light and dark contours independently Sharpened After sharpening the transition is accentuated its darker on the dark side and lighter on the light side creating a halo around the edge PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual 8 27 04 This is a capability that we ve long wished for required considerable ingenuity Now that we have in Photoshop As it turns out the capability was it we wonder how we managed to do without it for there all along but finding it and rendering it usable all these years Controlling Dark and Light Contours On this image the default sharpener settings darken the image sl
48. tal High Res Sharpen and Smooth for noisier digital captures of 8 or more megapixels pixel dimensions of approximately 4000 x 2700 and upwards that require smoothing in addition to sharpening Scanning Back for digital captures made with scanning back cameras at almost any resolution The key difference between scanning backs and more typical one shot digital cameras is that scanning backs capture real red green and blue data for every pixel producing an essentially grainless capture unsharpened De JPEG Sharpen and Smooth OF T PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual Pr NI 8 27 04 Choosing a Capture Sharpener Effect Each Capture Sharpener set contains four effects tailored to emphasize different edge widths and labeled SuperFine Edge Sharpen Narrow Edge Sharpen Medium Edge Sharpen and Wide Edge Sharpen respectively The sole exception is scanning backs where the images are so clean that there s no need to emphasize edges and downplay non edges Choosing between these four flavors of sharpening is not an exact science if it were we d have a less ambiguous naming convention and is to some degree a matter of taste In some rare cases applying Wide Edge Sharpen to an image with tiny details may obscure rather than reveal them and applying SuperFine Edge Sharpen to a head shot may over emphasize skin texture but on the vast majority of images the differences will be subtle and a matter of nuance
49. tch Export gt PDF Presentation Gene Senet Scripts P Conditional Mode Change Crop and Straighten Photos Fit Image Page Setup EP Multi Page PDF to PSD Print with Preview X P Picture Package Print P Web Photo Gallery Print One Copy CAEP Photomerge Jump To gt Pon PhotoKit Capture Sharpener Expert PhotoKit Capture Sharpener PhotoKit Creative Sharpener PhotoKit Output Sharpener PhotoKit SHARPENER s three types of sharpening appear on Photoshop s Automate submenu in the order in which they re typically used For best results we recommend starting out with unsharpened files turn off any sharpening in the scanner or capture software and using PhotoKit SHARPENER to apply all sharpening Turning off sharpening in scanner or camera capture software isn t always easy though we haven t yet encountered a case where it was impossible If Capture Sharpening oversharpens images it s likely that some sharpening is being applied beforehand in which case you Il need to dig deeper in the capture software to find the Off switch PhotoKit SHARPENER Image Requirements PhotoKit SHARPENER has only two requirements for images If your image doesn t contain a Background layer you can create one in Photoshop 6 or 7 by selecting the bottom layer in the stack then choosing New gt Background From Layer from the Layer menu Layers m Select the bottom layer in the ay cose
50. un the first effect then turn off the visibility for that effect in the Layers palette before running the second one Comparing effects PhotoKit Capture Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect 0K ponerse z Cancel Sharpener Set _ Digital Mid Res Sharpen Help Sharpener Effect v SuperFine Edge Sharpen A Info Narrow Edge Sharpen Medium Edge Sharpen Wide Edge Sharpen Run the first effect then aoe Layers SJormal Uppert Lock x of i hide the result E y OMRDC M Sharp T Ea Light Contour E Af Dak Contour A A AE A te tbe teat C A T Background PhotoKit Capture Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel p Sharpener 5et Digital Mid Res Sharpen SuperFine Edge Sharpen Kelp Sharpener Effect v Narrow Edge Sharpen gt Medium Edge Sharpen v Wide Edge Sharpen Run the second effect then Lock Ei x sek F ei compare the results by turning each layer set on and off z Light Contour TT GGpMROE M Sharp E Light Contour Ea Dark Contour S Background a alo alolalalZ PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual H gt 8 27 04 KIT If on the other hand you want to look at the cumulative result of running two effects run the first effect and leave the result visible then ru
51. y to produce the desired degree of sharpening for different paper stocks You can address apparent tone shifts by adjusting the opacity of the Light and Dark Contours indepen dently to achieve the desired result While it s possible to add a Layer Mask to an Output Sharpener and apply the effect selectively we strongly advise against doing so because the result will almost always look unnatural It s much better to address any localized sharpening concerns using the Capture and Creative Sharpeners then apply the Output Sharpener globally Selecting a Web and Multimedia Output Sharpener The Web and Multimedia Output Sharpeners are designed to apply a final sharpening to images destined for on screen viewing on the Internet on CD ROM on multimedia kiosks or for any other situation where the monitor is the final output The Web and Multimedia Output Sharpeners resemble the Capture Sharpeners more than they do the other Output Sharpeners in that they are organized in terms of pixel dimensions and SuperFine Narrow Medium or Wide Edges The pixel dimension refers to the width of the image in pixels The criteria for choosing SuperFine Narrow Medium and Wide Edge Sharpen are the same as for the Capture Sharpeners In the vast majority of cases you Il want to use the same choice of edge width on both Capture and Web and Multimedia Output Sharpeners PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC NOTE The image mus
52. zed to final output dimensions They add the final snap to images that are almost ready for output To make life easier the Output Sharpener sets for print show you the current image size and resolution using the units you ve chosen in Photoshop s Rulers and Units preference if your rulers are set to pixels PhotoKit SHARPENER shows you the current pixel dimensions and the resolution in pixels per inch The Web and Multimedia Output Sharpeners simply show the pixel dimensions because that s all they care about PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC NOTE The image must be at final output size Current Size 7 21 in x 9 90 in 266 00 ppi ox Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel Sharpener Set Halftone Output Sharpeners aaa Sharpener Effect 133 ipi Coated 266 ppi Info The Output Sharpeners for print display the current image size and resolution PhotoKit Output Sharpener by Pixel Genius LLC NOTE The image must be at final output size Current Size 1024 pixels x 1407 pixels Eak Please Select a Sharpener Set and Effect Cancel Sharpener Set Web and Multimedia Sharp gt Help Sharpener Effect 1024 pixel Narrow Edge 5 Info The Web and Multimedia Sharpeners display the current image pixel dimensions 24 PhotoKit SHARPENER 1 2 2 User Manual l a 8 27 04 SF F Applying Output Sharpeners We recommend applying Output Sharpeners as the f
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