How do you sharpen? Whats your workflow?

[Andrew O'Neill]

- I use a cable release
- I always use a tripod
- I focus carefully
- I wait a moment for the camera to settle after pulling the dark slide and setting the shutter
- I'm careful not to jiggle the camera when I trip the shutter

Mike

... then add an unsharp mask overtop of the negative...

[Richard Mahoney]

I do a very slight global unsharp mask via Silverfast. I do all the rest of my sharpening, using the high pass filter technique applied to only those areas of the image needing sharpening, at the very end after all the adjustments, cropping, and sizing.

I tend to leave all digital file prep to the fellow who does my prepress -- he has more experience than I'll ever have. Initial sharpening is via the drum scanner. Secondary sharpening is via Photoshop after all other changes.


Best, Richard

[paulr]

How would one go about doing this? I tried duplicating the layer, but after setting the blending mode to luminosity I'm lost

There's a pulldown menu for blend modes. Selecting "luminosity" means that your sharpening will work only on the luminosity channel and will leave the color channels alone. This keeps you from creating or accentuating any color artifacts.

The blend sliders are not very intuitive ... I'll see if I can find a web tutorial to link to for you. I'd just make it more complicated than necessary by trying to describe. The general idea is to exclude the shadows and highlights. This keeps you from pushing any pixels into clipping, and helps keep you from exaggerating shadow noise.

The biggest benefit to this kind of workflow is that all your sharpening is non-destructive. You're only sharpening this layer, which can be discarded and remade if necessary. You're not touching the original pixels.

If Adobe ever gets it together and invents a sharpening Adjustment Layer, most of this will be taken care of for us.

[bob carnie]

I sharpen selectively on the L channel for this very reason.

There's a pulldown menu for blend modes. Selecting "luminosity" means that your sharpening will work only on the luminosity channel and will leave the color channels alone. This keeps you from creating or accentuating any color artifacts.

The blend sliders are not very intuitive ... I'll see if I can find a web tutorial to link to for you. I'd just make it more complicated than necessary by trying to describe. The general idea is to exclude the shadows and highlights. This keeps you from pushing any pixels into clipping, and helps keep you from exaggerating shadow noise.

The biggest benefit to this kind of workflow is that all your sharpening is non-destructive. You're only sharpening this layer, which can be discarded and remade if necessary. You're not touching the original pixels.

If Adobe ever gets it together and invents a sharpening Adjustment Layer, most of this will be taken care of for us.

[paulr]

I sharpen selectively on the L channel for this very reason.

Same result, but luminosity mode allows you to work in RGB. I realize some people prefer to work in LAB for other reasons.

[Peter Gomena]

This thread is why I love this forum. I've learned more here today than in the past year from other sources. Thanks to all for the enlightening discussion.

[bob carnie]

Quick question, when you work with the luminosity blending mode are you able to see the image in BW ?

Same result, but luminosity mode allows you to work in RGB. I realize some people prefer to work in LAB for other reasons.

[Ari]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7Jqc...eature=related

Works for me and is well-suited to architectural subjects.

[Greg Miller]

Quick question, when you work with the luminosity blending mode are you able to see the image in BW ?

Yes. Layer blending modes work for any image where a layer can be created (pretty much everything).

I also use blending mode of Hue for making color balance changes (e.g. a Color Balance layer or Selective Color layer), and a blending mode of Saturation for making saturation changes (e.g. a Saturation layer, or Vibrance layer), or luminosity for a contrast changes (e.g a Curve layer or a Levels layer). I like to isolate hue, saturation, and luminosity changes so they do not affect the other color properties.

[bob carnie]

I would like to see some examples if you don't mind of hue and saturation, blending... I use blending modes quite a bit but usually multiply, screen and soft light then painting in the effect. maybe some screen shots on an image as you work through them if possible as I really never touch hue saturation other than a deliberate bling to a colour..

I use blending modes when I make BW conversions, basically I go into LAB do a spread of colours in curves which separates the colour info, (looks pretty brutal on screen) then back to RGB and Apply Image, picking the right channel is pretty easy *usually the green* and then apply the red to it in moderation and sometimes the blue. then by going through the blending modes I pick the best result , do a simple curve adjustment on the green channel and go to greyscale and get rid of the channels I do not want.

I have found this move to LAB gives the absolute best BW conversion in conjuction with RGB apply image moves. By separating the colours in LAB their seems to be more information to glean in the conversion which give much more tonal separation , specifically in colours that are close to each other and could convert to the same tone which basically increases deadend detail. If that makes any sense to you.

I never use the Adobe BW conversion method .

Yes. Layer blending modes work for any image where a layer can be created (pretty much everything).

I also use blending mode of Hue for making color balance changes (e.g. a Color Balance layer or Selective Color layer), and a blending mode of Saturation for making saturation changes (e.g. a Saturation layer, or Vibrance layer), or luminosity for a contrast changes (e.g a Curve layer or a Levels layer). I like to isolate hue, saturation, and luminosity changes so they do not affect the other color properties.