Picasa and PS Sharpening

DB
Posted By
David_Brewster
Oct 28, 2005
Views
371
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Ninty nine percent of my photo processing is done in Photoshop. I was always a Corel user in the past but I’ve since started relying more and more on Adobe products.
There is one problem though.
Sharpening.
For all the wonderful sharpening tools in Photo Shop (CS2), I find the quality of the sharping just not up to par. I’d sure I must be doing something wrong. I picked up a really good book (on PS CS2) that had a great section on sharpening and all the methods there for use. I tried them all.
They did sharpen but not as well as something that I’ve grown accustomed to using; Google’s Picasa2. I don’t like using Picasa2 though because of the image compression and all that – but I’ll be damned if the single Sharpen Image button click doesn’t do a superb job. One click and the sharpening was done great. When I zoomed in to the same image sharpened in PS compared to Picasa2 – there was a ton more noise in PS plus it just wasn’t as well sharpened.

Now Picasa2 is all automated – you don’t have access what sort of settings (threshold etc.) it’s employed for its sharpening.

My ultimate dream would be to know what those Picasa2 settings are and for those settings to work just as well in PS CS2 as it does in Picasa2. Picasa2 is a great little program for basic photo processing but it can’t compare to Photoshop for photo editing (with the exception of this sharpening).

Has anyone else found the same as me? I really want to stick to doing everything in PS but the sharpening is a big deal, especially since I shoot raw and it’s really needed there.

Help.

Dave
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D
deebs
Oct 28, 2005
Yes – empaticallally!

Picasa 2 and IrfanView are 2 core essential programs for me

Of course, IrfanView is free for non-commercial use but some of the effects in Picasa suggest a very highly skilled and effective bit of coding.

The are IMHO great compliments to Photoshop (but obviously Picasa is limited to being a JPEG editor unless I am mistaken)
PK
Philip_Kaszerman
Oct 29, 2005
Dave,
Why did you give up on COREL? I am a hobbyist — not a professional graphics person — but I use PhotoPaint an hour or two a day. In the last few years, I have become rather aggravated by the very poor documentation for PP. On the other hand, I do not like PS lack of button bars.
I was wondering why a professional made the switch.
Phil
BO
Burton_Ogden
Oct 29, 2005
David,

For all the wonderful sharpening tools in Photo Shop (CS2), I find the quality of the sharpening just not up to par.

My most-used sharpening tool is Focus Magic <http://www.focusmagic.com/>. You can explore the website at that link to see why.

For images that are noisy (digital images taken at low light levels and some grainy film images), sharpening just exaggerates the noise or grain. And even Focus Magic doesn’t solve the noisy image problem. For noisy images I use Neat Image <http://www.neatimage.com/>, which has an optional sharpening feature that sharpens an image without sharpening the noise.

I frequently use both Neat Image and Focus Magic on a image. In those cases, I always use Neat Image first to remove noise/grain and then Focus Magic to improve the focus of the clean image. The more advanced versions of Neat Image and Focus Magic include both standalone versions and plug-ins for Photoshop. I usually prefer to use the Photoshop plug-ins, although there are occasions when I use the standalones.

— Burton — (not associated with any vendor mentioned)
G
gruhn
Oct 29, 2005
My most-used sharpening tool is Focus Magic <http://www.focusmagic.com/>. You
can explore the website at that link to see why.

Because you want your pictures to look horrid? Because information extraction is more important to you than image quality?
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Oct 29, 2005
I agree 100% about Focus Magic. It’s a super application, especially in the PS plugin, which allows you to improve focus in selections. It’s not really a sharpener, though; it’s actually a focus improver, difficult as that may be to envision. I use Noise Ninja instead of Neat Image on noisy images and have been very pleased with the results. These two tools in combination can yield huge improvements.
BO
Burton_Ogden
Oct 29, 2005
Michael,

I use Noise Ninja instead of Neat Image on noisy images and have been very pleased with the results.

Yes. Noise Ninja <http://www.picturecode.com/index.htm> is the top-rated noise removal tool in Michael Almond’s <http://www.michaelalmond.com/Articles/noise_conc.htm> ongoing comparative reviews. I’m tempted to get it myself, although the latest version of Neat Image (version 5.2) has many improvements <http://www.neatimage.com/> over the version 4.4 of Neat Image that Michael Almond tested. However, Michael Almond tested Noise Ninja 2.0.2 and the current 2.1.2 undoubtedly also has improvements.

The newcomer Picture Cooler <http://denoiser.shorturl.com/> will bear watching because it can improve focus and remove noise. And Picture Cooler came in a close third in Michael Almond’s ratings. However, I am waiting for Picture Cooler to include a Photoshop plug-in before I give it a serious trial.

— Burton — (not associated with any vendor mentioned)
DB
David_Brewster
Oct 31, 2005
Wow.
Am I ever glad I posted that message.
I thought it was just me in terms of PS not sharpening very well. I’m glad to see that others also look at alternate software for sharpening. (well I would have been happier if I could have kept PS2 as the only thing to use but oh well).

Why did I convert from Corel? Well – hostly – I still use Corel for vector based (CorelDraw), I ust don’t use Corel Paint anymore. Too much of a time investment into Corel to leave Draw. In terms it Photoshop though – that’s the defacto program to use so I wanted to be on the same "page" as most of the people out there.

Picasa2 is great – there’s so much hidden in that program (like one click blogging which I LOVE) that many don’t appreciate the power.
While it it primarily JPG – the newest version can deal with RAW, including Canon’s new RAW (RebelXT / 350D) which I thought was impressive in its own right.

I am definately going to have to check out some of those other solutions you guys mentioned. There are some quirky things with the Picasa interface that I don’t like (funny things with export or saving a copy that bug me) but I know those things are more of a design intent rather than a quirk to be honest.

Thanks ye ‘all

Dave
D
deebs
Oct 31, 2005
Izzat hanks ti yi awe?
JJ
John Joslin
Oct 31, 2005
🙁

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