b and w sharpenning workflow

[mexipike]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good Black and white sharpening workflow. I scan with an epson v-700, use a mac edit in photoshop, try to eyeball, using unsharp mask but I feel like I could get more precise. I print on an epson 3800.

[nsouto]

I've yet to see a better tool to sharpen scans than
Focus Magic. Look it up.

Yes, it's not free.
Yes, with enough patience and trial and error, one can make USM approach its results.
Yes, there is a bit of hype on the advertising: if that's a crime, the whole world is criminal...
No, I don't have time for all the alternatives: too many photos to do it on.

So, I coughed up a licence for Focus Magic. Never regretted it:
works a treat for both b&w and colour.

[mexipike]

Thanks I'll check that out. I saw another thread where someone mentioned an action they used similar to what you would get in photo kit, using a high pass filter. Does anyone have that action?

[David A. Goldfarb]

Ctein has an interesting piece on high pass sharpening on Mike Johnston's blog--

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad...ass-sharp.html

Lately, I use Smart Sharpen in CS2 more than USM.

[Joe Lipka]

Ctein has an interesting piece on high pass sharpening on Mike Johnston's blog--

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad...ass-sharp.html

Lately, I use Smart Sharpen in CS2 more than USM.

The high pass sharpening is a pretty good thing because it is non destructive. You can delete the layer and try again any time. With smart sharpening you either get it pretty quick or not at all. "Buyer's remorse" is not an option with smart sharpen. Thank goodness smart sharpen is so good.

[lenny]

I spent a lot of time working with all sorts of techniques, paid for commercial sharpening filters and all. In the end, I came back to USM with a mask to sharpen what I want....

Lenny

[amphoto]

Here's a tip if you use smart sharpen (or any of the sharpen filters in PS): Convert the layer to be sharpened to accept smart filters (filter -> convert for smart filters). Any sharpening you apply is then applied as a smart filter - i.e. it isn't baked into the image, so you can tweak it's settings later on if need be (as well as editing its associated mask in the usual fashion, changing its blending mode if you want, and also adjusting its opacity).

[Ray Heath]

g'day all

can someone explain and show examples of how/why these add on bits of software sharpen any better than the sharpening tools in PS?

[jd callow]

USM applied in LAB to the L channel works well for me.

[nsouto]

G;day, Ray. Have a gander at my gallery for plenty of examples of Focus Magic at work, both on film scans and dslr.
More examples:

this is XP2 on my Arax, with a Flekkie 50/4.

this is Astia 100 with a Sigma 24-70/2.8: the smallest letters on the bottom right corner can all be clearly read on full size scan.

this is Fuji Superia 400 with a Nikkor 50/1.4, you can see a detail of the rego plate of the red car on the bottom right here, that's a full size crop of the 20mpixel scan, followed by downress to 12 and then 8mp (it's part of my "show the dslr-breaths what even 400 ISO speed film can do" act).

I have no doubt lots of folks with plenty of time can do the same with multiple passes of USM in PS, or GIMP or any of the layered editors out there. I just prefer to slap FM on the scan output, make a cuppa and it's ready before I finish shaking the sugar in.