At 12:48 AM 3/27/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Thanks to everyone who replied to my questions. :-)
>
>My conclusion is that sharpening is not really needed for sky/clouds, but
>that a
>small amount may be beneficial to offset scan-induced softening and/or to help
>minimize the effects of downsizing to jpegs. My workflow takes 55mb TIFFs
>down
>to ~1mb TIFFs in a 5-step downsizing. These files are then used as
>"webmasters"
>to create several sizes of jpegs. I do not print from the large TIFFs
>(yet) but
>use them for stock, while all jpegs are for web or previewing.
>
>With the above in mind, at what stage would a small sharpening or contrast
>enhancement make the most sense *IF* I only want to do it once, at one
>point in
>the process? Should I leave the TIFFs alone but do something to make enhanced
>jpegs... or should this enhancement occur earlier on the TIFFs?
>
>Is there any consensus on which software for sharpening (excluding PS) offers
>the best results in the most simple, automated way?
>
>Thanks!
>Ed Verkaik
Well, given your "once" constraint the simple answer is . . . "USM
treatment should be the last thing you do before you save your
otherwise-completely-edited" file to whatever format (presumably JPEG for
online display) you use.
As for the best one-step USM process: Fred Miranda's IS action for PS is
the "best easy" (i.e., one-step) USM utility that I'm aware of. And it's
reasonably priced. And if you decide to buy it, please use my site's link
to get it, as then I'll receive a modest kickback from Fred. (All of this
money goes directly back into the maintenance of my site.) You could find
that link here:
My first page was devoted to a simple comparison test of the FM IS action
versus the one-shot USM utility offered by Picture Window Pro. I'm not
trying to pick on the latter, but it will give you a good idea of the
difference between USM utilities (the majority) which use a shotgun
approach as opposed to USM techniques which look rather only (or at least
primarily) to the _edges_ of the target image.
You can find that comparison here:
Happy sharpening!
Tris
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