Smart sharpening – CS2

R
Posted By
ronviers
Oct 10, 2006
Views
437
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hi,
I am sharpening an image and I need to combine three layers; a rocks (really a dried up creek) layer, a foliage layer and a sky layer. Each layer has been sharpened to various degrees using an edge mask created with the channel mixer then inverted and blurred as needed. The masks are then added to rocks, foliage or sky layers then smart sharpened (I like the lens blur results). The edge masks were then ‘applied’ to their respective layers then reveal masks added to those layers to ‘show’ the foliage, rocks or sky. I can combine these localized sharpening layers (with great results) to the base layer (background plus associated adjustment and correction layers merged) using luminosity, opacity and blend if – but only one at a time. So my question is:
What is the best and least destructive method of combining the three localized sharpening layers with each other and the base (all visible merged) layer?

Thanks,
Ron

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K
katyp
Oct 11, 2006
Is the purpose of combining all of the layers to make the file size smaller? There isn’t a non destructive method of combining layers that I am aware of… if you combine them without duplicating them first, then you cannot go back and make changes to the individual layers again. I would leave them in layers if I were you, or put them each in their own file and then work on combining them in InDesign, if that is possible.
R
ronviers
Oct 12, 2006
katyp wrote:
Is the purpose of combining all of the layers to make the file size smaller? There isn’t a non destructive method of combining layers that I am aware of… if you combine them without duplicating them first, then you cannot go back and make changes to the individual layers again. I would leave them in layers if I were you, or put them each in their own file and then work on combining them in InDesign, if that is possible.

Hi katyp,
I was hoping for something like a meta-layer but I seem to have gone down a cul-de-sac, no surprise really since with all the layers, masks, styles, blend modes etc the whole project feels like a house of cards. I have decided to shelve it for a while to focus on better understanding blend modes. I will try again in few days. Thank you for the reply,
Ron
J
jenelisepasceci
Oct 13, 2006
"" wrote:

katyp wrote:
Is the purpose of combining all of the layers to make the file size smaller? There isn’t a non destructive method of combining layers that I am aware of… if you combine them without duplicating them first, then you cannot go back and make changes to the individual layers again. I would leave them in layers if I were you, or put them each in their own file and then work on combining them in InDesign, if that is possible.

Hi katyp,
I was hoping for something like a meta-layer but I seem to have gone down a cul-de-sac, no surprise really since with all the layers, masks, styles, blend modes etc the whole project feels like a house of cards. I have decided to shelve it for a while to focus on better understanding blend modes. I will try again in few days. Thank you for the reply,
Ron

Hi Ron,
I use to Copy Merged and Paste in such cases. This creates a one layer representation of the actual state of the image on top of the layer stack or in a separate document.
Peter
R
ronviers
Oct 13, 2006
Hi Ron,
I use to Copy Merged and Paste in such cases. This creates a one layer representation of the actual state of the image on top of the layer stack or in a separate document.
Peter

I think I see what you mean – sequentially merge and remask. I was hoping it would not come to that. Thanks for the help.

Just to get my thoughts together I went ahead and wrote down my assumptions about sharpening and what I am trying to achieve. Maybe you or others will have time to comment. My attitude about sharpening has changed quite a bit over the last three or four months so I am open to suggestions. Eventually I can get this system to work but it may always be cumbersome – especially after I add the sharpening for printer steps.

Sharpening assumptions and guidelines

Sharpening is more or less bad.
Sharpening is not a creative tool.
While almost all images will require some sharpening, most images have some areas that will not benefit from sharpening.
Any areas of an image that do not benefit from sharpening should be protected from sharpening.
Any sharpening that does not visibly improve an image output (video or print) should be avoided.
Sharpening should be deferred as long as possible.

Minimum necessary steps for technically competent sharpening: (More may be necessary depending on variability of detail)

1. Maximum detail extracted from image using ‘Channel Mixer’ to create the ‘detail’ channel.

2. A specific Gaussian blur radius should be selected and applied to separate copies of the newly created ‘detail’ channel (inverted) to create edge masks for each of the following:
A non-sharp mask
A fine detail mask
A coarse detail masks

3. These masks should be applied to their respective sharpening layers in such a way that will allow the use of:

Smart sharpen w/ lens blur (with carefully chosen settings) Luminosity blend – with the adjusted and corrected image Tuned with opacity and Blend if
J
jenelisepasceci
Oct 16, 2006
"" wrote:

Hi Ron,
I use to Copy Merged and Paste in such cases. This creates a one layer representation of the actual state of the image on top of the layer stack or in a separate document.
Peter

I think I see what you mean – sequentially merge and remask. I was hoping it would not come to that. Thanks for the help.

Just to get my thoughts together I went ahead and wrote down my assumptions about sharpening and what I am trying to achieve. Maybe you or others will have time to comment. My attitude about sharpening has changed quite a bit over the last three or four months so I am open to suggestions. Eventually I can get this system to work but it may always be cumbersome – especially after I add the sharpening for printer steps.

Did you look at the sharpening filters at www.fredmiranda.com and the tuts at www.ronbigelow.com?

Peter

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