tlrprofessionalsharpeningtoolkit.pdf

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TLR Professional Sharpening Toolkit

Sharpening is an essential part o the editing workflow or any digi-tal image.

Te LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit is a set o JavaScripts orsharpening digital images. Tey work with both the Windows andMacintosh versions o Adobe Photoshop CS and CS2.

You can use the scripts to sharpen your images in three passes (thecurrent recommendation o most pros), two passes, or even a single

pass.

Do I Really Need to Sharpen?

All images captured by digital cameras or scanners can benefit romdigital sharpening.

A common question asked on digital photography orums goes

something like this: I just purchased a new digital camera andevery picture looks like it is slightly out o ocus. Should I take thecamera back to the dealer? Am I doing something wrong? Te uni-

versal reply is always the same. You need to sharpen your images.

When you convert the continuous tones and colors o a subjectinto digital inormation, you are certain to lose sharpness. A digitalimaging chip has a fixed number o pixels. Te field o view isdivided up into thousands o photosites, horizontally and vertically.Any detail smaller than a single pixel will be lost.

Most digital cameras and scanning backs use colored microlensesover each photosite. Te photosites themselves see the world onlyas grayscale. Te typical pattern, called a Bayer Pattern, uses Red-Green-Blue-Green. wice as many photosites are covered withgreen filters because human vision tends to see green luminance asthe strongest influence on image quality.

o obtain a color image with separate RGB values or each pixel,the inormation rom the photosites is processed with a mathemati-

A Bayer pattern is typical o manyCCD and CMOS digital imagingchips.

Digital images need to be sharp-ened. For JPEGs, some digital

cameras sharpen in-camera.RAW images rom digital SLRswill look sof until they aresharpened.

2005, Te Lights Right Studio. All Rights Reser ved.


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cal algorithm. Values rom neighboring photosites are compared.Consider just a single pixel or a moment. Perhaps the photosite hasa red lens. It uses its own value or assigning red or its RGB valuebut or green and blue, it has to rely on its neighbors. Tis interpo-lation to come up with a triplet o RGB values or each pixel is animportant source o sofness in digital images.

Some recent digital imaging chips, such as the Foveon chip, do not

use colored filters. Tey work more like film. Each sensor has threelayers, separately sensing red, green, or blue light in each layer. Eachsensor measures the ull RGB triplet, avoiding the interpolationtypical o CCD and CMOS imaging devices.

Te conversion o light into digital signals is an imperect process.Tere will be minor fluctuations in the sensitivity o individual

photosites in an imaging chip. Tis is the source o noise in digitalimages. Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) can reduce noise, but thisinvolves more interpolation and, hence, more sofness.

Sofness is also introduced by the anti-alias filter used on digitalcameras. Without it, images rom digital cameras tend to producemoir patterns and other color artiacts. Te anti-alias filter blurs theimage slightly so that fine details are partially spread over multiple

photosites. It avoids the artiacts, but tiny details become lessdistinct.

More sofness is added when you output your digital file. Outputdevices, like printers and film recorders, also have limited resolution.For example, your desktop inket photo printer needs to convert

image pixels into tiny drops o ink.

Even film-based technologies or capturing images tend to re-duce sharpness. You should have no reluctance over using digitalsharpening techniques. It is not a cheat to make up or poortechnique on the part o the photographer.

Sharpening Basics

Te basic idea behind sharpening is to emphasize the transitions

in color and tone. By careully boosting the contrast along thosetransitions, we can increase the apparent sharpness o the image. Getcarried away and boost the contrast too much and the image willdegrade and develop visible artiacts, like visible halos or graininess.

Adobe Photoshop includes a number o tools and commands orsharpening images. You will find a sharpen tool on the tool palette.Tere are also the Sharpen and Sharpen More filters. Te problem

with Sharpen and Sharpen More is that they do not discriminate

Unsharpened

Slightly Over-Sharpened.Notice the vertical halo?

Grossly Over-Sharpened.Very obvious halos.

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between edges in an image and other tonal changes. We do not wantto sharpen every tiny change in tone or color in an image. I we try,the image will likely look grainy or mottled. Skin tones, or example,could take on the appearance o a serious dermatological problem,

with every blemish and pore emphasized.

Effective sharpening needs to take into account the differencebetween pixels beore it treats them as an edge. In other words, there

needs to be a significant difference between adjacent pixels beore asharpening tool determines there is an edge there and attempts tosharpen it.

Te tool most preerred by pros has the apparent misnomer oUnsharp Mask. You will likely see it abbreviated USM. Te namesounds more like a filter or blurring images than or sharpeningthem. ruth be told, the idea o USM goes back to the days o film,darkrooms, and noxious chemicals. A photographer would sandwichan original and a slightly out-o-ocus copy inside the enlarger. Tis

would build contrast along edges. Still not convinced? Riddle methis. How does one blur an image? By adding lighter pixels within anedge and darker pixels outside the same edge.

Heres how USM works:

A blurred copy o the original is made.

USM then does a pixel-by-pixel comparison.

Where it finds a lighter pixel in the blurred copy, it

darkens the original.

Where it finds a darker pixel in the blurred copy, it lightens the original.

Sounds simple! What USM does is create halos along the edges inan image. Use appropriate settings and those halos will increase theapparent sharpness o the image without attracting attention tothemselves. Over-apply the sharpening effect and our eye is drawn tothose halos. Tey become obvious and distract us.

Applying USM is a challenge or many photographers. Tere arethree settings. Amount controls the strength o the sharpeningeffect. It determines how much to lighten/darken pixels in theoriginal. Radius controls the strength o the blur applied to the copy.Tis controls the width o the sharpening halo. Treshold introducesedge detection. During the pixel-by-pixel comparison, pixels need todiffer by the threshold amount or more beore sharpening is applied.

What makes applying USM so difficult is that the settings interact,especially the Amount and Radius settings. It is also requires

Halos are your riend and your en-emy when you sharpen. You needhalos that do not draw attentionto themselves. Tey increase per-

ceived sharpness. Tere are finelines between under-sharpened,sharpened just enough, and over-sharpened. You have definitelyteetered over the edge when youreye is drawn to sharpening halos.Te LR Proessional Sharpeningoolkit will help you sharpen justenough each and every time.

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considerable experience to eyeball an image and determine appropri-ate starting points or the USM settings. For example, i an image iscomposed mostly o very fine details, you will want a small Radius

value.

Highpass filter sharpening is another orm o sharpening that ispopular among pros. What makes it popular is that you are less likelyto get obvious sharpening halos. Tere is only one setting: Radius. A

low setting sharpens fine details without obliterating them. Largersettings tend to damage fine details as the sharpening becomes moreand more coarse.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 offers a new orm o sharpening that mnaypros find exciting. Smart Sharpen may just replace USM as the prosfirst choice among sharpening tools.

Te LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit was designed to simpliythe sharpening process. You do not need to know the intricacies o

setting the various parameters or USM or Smart Sharpen to getexcellent results.

Spare Me Te Details!

Effective image sharpening involves more than applying USM,Highpass Filter, or Smart Sharpen with the appropriate settings.

Mitchs First Maxim o Digital Photography is very clear on thispoint: work non-destructively. Photoshop allows you to do almost

everything on layers. Use them!

Sharpening involves a bit o housekeeping. You need to make a layer,perhaps two or three (depending on the nature o sharpening youchoose to do). It helps to tuck them away in a Layer Set (PhotoshopCS) or Layer Group (Photoshop CS2). You might even want tocolor code your layers and layer set, especially i you are the ype-A

personality type who is obsessively tidy and organized.

Te scripts in the LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit do just that!Tey create the necessary layers, tuck them away inside a layer set,

and color code them so you can tell at a glance which layers were orcapture sharpening, which or creative sharpening, and which oroutput sharpening.

Te Treshold setting in USM is a help, but there are more sophis-ticated ways to detect edges. A avorite o the pros is to use an edgemask. With an edge mask, you can keep sharpening limited to theedges in your image and away rom suraces. You can apply moreaggressive sharpening to the edges without developing those nasty

Teres no need to fight with the USMdialog. Te scripts in the LR Proes-sional Sharpening oolkit take care o

sharpening details like applying edgemasks and protecting shadows andhighlights with Blend I settings.



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visible halos. Your image will also avoid a grainy appearance romsharpening noise in shadows, sky gradients, water, etc. when you usean edge mask.

You will also want to apply a bit o sharpening to suraces with mostimages. While suraces do not have hard, well-defined edges, they arenot entirely ree o detail that can benefit rom sharpening. Te trickis to apply a much less aggressive sharpening to the suraces. Invert-

ing a layer mask results in a surace mask.

Te LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit scripts take care omaking any necessary edge or surace masks.

We already noted that sharpening increases contrast along tone andcolor boundaries. Tis can cause highlights to burn out and shadowsto stop up (Photoshop speak or losing details in the highlightsand shadows because they go to pure white or pure black). Teres asecret that real sharpening pros know. Use the Blend I sliders on

the Layer Style palette to keep sharpening away rom the highlightsand shadows.

I USM settings are conusing or many, the Blend I sliders are atotal mystery to most. No problem. Te scripts in the LR Proes-sional Sharpening oolkit take care o those pesky details. (I know,pesky details is trite, but it seems to fit here somehow.)

When you sharpen, there are really two halos. Contours seems abetter expression or them and that is what they are called on thedialogs or the sharpening scripts. Tere are dark contours where

pixels are made darker and light contours where pixels are madelighter. Some images benefit rom applying extra sharpening (orless sharpening) to just one o the contours. In act, most people

perceive increases among the light pixels as contributing more toincreased sharpness. But, be careul! Te light contour is also morelikely to leave you with an ugly halo.

Te LR Capture Sharpening script and LR Creative Sharpeningscript allow you to optionally sharpen light and dark contours withdifferent settings. Te LR Output Sharpening Script automaticallycreates separate sharpening layers or light and dark contours. Moredetails you are spared.

Sharpen Early, Ofen, and Late?

A ew years ago, the advice rom most pros was to sharpen late inyour workflow. Most waited until they were done editing and hadalready cropped and re-sized the image. You sharpened and thensent the file to the printer, Web, whatever.

An important use or a surace maskis noise removal. I you use a toollike Neat Image or Noise Ninja toremove noise, you are likely amiliar

with their tendency to sofen imagedetails. I you run your noise remov-al sofware on a layer, you can use asurace mask to keep it away romthe edges where it would otherwisesofen your image.



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Scott Kelby, the president o the National Association o PhotoshopProessionals (NAPP) and well-known author, still recommends asingle-pass o sharpening toward the end o the image editing work-flow. Bruce Fraser, one o the authors o the Real World AdobePhotoshop series o books and another highly respected Photo-shop pro, advocates sharpening as an ongoing process during imageediting rather than a single activity in the workflow. Sharpening inhis opinion is best implemented both early and late in your digital

image workflow, and i done with care, you can also do additionalrounds o creative sharpening on particular eatures o your photo-graphs.

Te LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit reflects the three-passsharpening philosophy o Bruce Fraser. It is my own experience thatgradual sharpening throughout the process o editing an image pro-

vides a sharper image with ewer visible artiacts.

An early round o sharpening right afer digital

capture can increase image detail withoutmaking noise more evident. Te goal ocapture sharpening is to restore the sharpnessthat was lost during digital capture. Tesofness is particularly noticeable in the detailso the sign on the wall and the olding sign inront o the building or the image to the lef.Even the red bricks need to be sharpened.

Te key to capture sharpening is a gentle hand.When you sharpen early, you are not trying to

achieve an Oh, wow! suck in your breath e-ect. Save that or output sharpening at the endo your workflow.

Aggressive sharpening early in the workflowinvites visible artiacts when you later adjusttone and color.

When you sharpen manually, you need to besure to keep the sharpening away rom thehighlights and shadows. Sharpening themdoes little to increase perceived sharpness, butit sure does a lot or making visible halos andother artiacts. So easy goes it is the appropri-ate mantra or capture sharpening. Te LRCapture Sharpening script will keep yoursharpening away rom the shadows and high-lights.

A crop o a night shot near St. Pauls Cathedral in centralLondon, UK. Even images rom Canons top-end DSLR,the 1Ds MkII, and their 17-40mm /4 L lens will benefitrom sharpening.



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A round o capture sharpening improved the cropped night imagerom London. Te red bricks stand out more, and the sign showsmuch more definition, especially the letting on the sign. Put the twoimages side-by-side, and most observers will preer the second. Yet,the difference is ar rom pronounced.

(For those who want details and cannot resistlooking ahead, the capture sharpening settings

were High Resolution Digital Sharpening,Level 2 Smart Sharpening. Te originaluncropped image was a 16.7 MP Canon 1DsMkII RAW file.)

Creative sharpening is optional. Some imagescan benefit rom some selective sharpening(or blurring) to accentuate certain eatures.Flower stamens can ofen benefit rom extrasharpening. Eyes in a portrait can gain extra

emphasis when the lashes and brows get alittle extra attention. Etc.

You brush in the sharpening using the Brushtool. Te LR Creative Sharpening scriptgives you lots o options. You can brush insharpening. A trick the pros use or empha-sizing sharpness in one part o an image isto lightly blur another part. With the LRCreative Sharpening script you can selectivelysharpen some areas while selectively blurring

others. You can also give your image morepop by applying a trick rom Tomas Knoll(the inventor o Photoshop) and MichaelReichmann (the creative artist behind theLuminous Landscape website). Michael calls itLocalized Contrast Enhancement. You willsee it on the creative sharpening dialog as HazeReduction. I use the effect on almost every image I edit. It not onlyreduces haze, it gives your images a helpul contrast boost.

You need to use good judgment with your creative sharpening. Aswith capture sharpening, you want to avoid over-sharpening. Teimage will still need to be sharpened or the intended output device.

When you use capture sharpening (and, optionally, creativesharpening), output sharpening can use gentler settings. Te goal ooutput sharpening or desktop inkjet printers is halos that are 1/100to 1/50 o an inch in width -- wide enough to provide the maximumin contrast without being so wide that they attract attention. Outputor other devices require slightly different settings.

Te result afer a round o capture sharpening with the LRCapture Sharpening script.



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Te LR Output Sharpening script makes it easy to sharpen or aparticular output medium. You select the desired media and resolu-tion; the output sharpening script does the rest.

Are you the sort o digital photographer who preers to take ullcontrol over the sharpening process? Do you believe real digital

photographers do not use presets? Each o the scripts in the LRProessional Sharpening oolkit can be run in Expert Mode. In

Expert Mode, you still get the benefit o auto-matically stepping through the commands orcreating edge masks, sharpening, etc. but youcan override the settings.

Common Features of theLR Professional Sharpeningoolkit Scripts

All three sharpening scripts in the LRProessional Sharpening oolkit ollow thesame important principles.

First, the scripts do their work non-destruc-tively. All work is done on layers. I you areunhappy with the result, just delete the layerset and start over with different settings.

Be warned!File sizes can become quite large

with these sharpening scripts. For example,with Canon 1Ds MkII 16.7 MP images,beore any layers are added the files will beapproximately 100MB. Tree rounds osharpening plus layers or adjusting tone andcolor and or retouching will typically con-sume 600-750MB, sometimes more. Large filesizes can cause RAM-starved systems to slow,

as the operating system tries to swap memoryinto and out o a paging file.

Second, the scripts use all o the visible layersin the image. urning off the visibility orone or more layers will remove them rom thesharpening effect. Tis is helpul or comparing

the results o different settings. You can, or example, run the cre-ative sharpening script with one group o settings, make the result-ing layer set invisible, run the sharpening script a second time withdifferent settings, and then compare the two results.

Te result afer three-pass sharpening with the LR Pro-essional Sharpening oolkit: capture sharpening, a bit ocreative sharpening to bring out some detail in the woodenrame or the olding sign, and output sharpening or the

Web. Compared this image crop with the unsharpened ver-sion.



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Tird, the sharpening effect can be adjusted later, even in anotherediting session. Te scripts set the opacity or their layers at less than100%. You can increase the effect by increasing layer opacity andreduce the effect by decreasing layer opacity. For capture sharpeningand creative sharpening, the deault is 65% opacity. Outputsharpening has a 50% opacity deault.

Tere are two important requirements when running any o the

scripts in the LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit.

Te sharpening scripts work with RGB, CMYK, L*a*b, Grayscale,and Indexed Color images. Tey will not work with Bitmap,Duotone, or Multichannel images.

Te image must contain a true background layer. For example, thePhotoshop CS2 Photomerge tool does not create one.

Loading and Running the LR ProfessionalSharpening oolkit

Te toolkit includes three JavaScript files. Te files end with a .js fileextension. You can copy them to any older. However, you will haveto browse or them each time unless you store them in the deaultolder or scripts.

Te deault older or scripts is the Presets\Scripts older. You willfind it in the deault installation older or Photoshop CS/CS2.Any scripts in this older will appear in the list when you click on the

File | Scriptsmenu item. Te same is true or any scripts in subold-ers o the Presets\Scripts folder. I you preer tidy olders, create asubolder called LRSharpeningoolkit and load the JavaScripts inthat location.

o run one o the scripts, make sure an image is loaded and thatit meets the requirements described in the previous section. Tenselect the desired script rom the list that appears under the File |Scriptsmenu item.

Te LR Capture Sharpening ScriptTe LR Capture Sharpening script is designed to apply a gentleround o sharpening early in your editing workflow. You want toselect settings that result in just enough sharpening to restore detaillost as a result o the digital capture processand no more. Avoid thetemptation to over-sharpen at this stage. Your image will be lesslikely to all apart during editing when you use a sof hand on thecapture sharpening sliders. Blend I settings will keep the sharpening

I your image is missing a true

background layer, you can cre-

ate one by selecting the Layer |New | Background From Layermenuitem.

You can also adjust the sharpen-

ing effect by tweaking the Blend

I settings or the sharpeninglayers.



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ocused on the middle tones, protecting the extreme highlights andshadows.

When you work with RAW files, no sharpening will be appliedby the camera. I you shoot JPEGs and your camera automatically

applies in-camera sharpening, the in-camera sharpening serves as around o capture sharpening.

Some RAW converters apply sharpening as an option. AdobeCamera Raw, or example, can sharpen RAW images beore load-ing them into Photoshop. I it is your preerence to sharpen duringRAW conversion, consider that to be a round o capture sharpeningand then move on to creative sharpening and output sharpeninglater in your editing workflow.



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Capture sharpening begins by selecting the image source:

Use High Res.or digital camera images with 8MP or more.

UseMedium Res.or digital camera images with 3-8MP.

Use Low Res.or digital camera images with less than 3MP.

Use Negativeor scans o negative film.

Use Positiveor scans o slide film.

Sharpening width applies only when Unsharp Mask is selected asthe sharpening method. USM sharpening uses edge/surace masks.Smart Sharpen sharpening does not.

Te LR Capture Sharpening script offers our choices or edge

widths. For most images, select Medium width. Medium width isdesigned to work well with a wide range o images. Narrow andExtra Narrow should be used when images are dominated by veryfine details. Wide was designed or portraits and sof details.

Which sharpening width is right or a particular image. For mostimages, the differences will be slight, regardless o the sharpening

width. Extra Narrow and Narrow give added protection againstobscuring very fine details and Wide will help better define smoothedges, helping to separate sofer subjects rom their backgrounds.

Sharpening Width is also an option when you select Masks Onlyrom the Preerences panel. Masks Only is used to generate an edgemask and a surace mask using the selected Sharpening Width. Nosharpening occurs. Te Masks Only option is a convenience orexperienced users who like to roll their own sharpening. It is alsouseul noise reduction with third-party add-ins like Neat Image orNoise Ninja. You can take the surace mask that results rom select-ing Masks Only and use it as a layer mask or noise reduction. Its anexcellent technique to keep noise reduction sofware rom addingmore sofness to the image.

When generating masks, you can select the Enhanced Masksoption. raditional techniques or generating edge masks in Photo-shop are sensitive to differences in tone. Tey are much less sensitiveto differences in color when the color boundaries have similar lumi-nosity. Enhanced edge masks is a eature that is unique to the LRCapture Sharpening script. Enhanced masks start with a traditionalluminosity edge mask and merge that with a color edge mask.

Smart Sharpen is available only

with Photoshop CS2. ypi-

cal results are nearly identical

to USM sharpening. Capture

sharpening with Smart Sharpen

runs aster and consumes less

memory. When perormance

is a conceen (i.e., large files on

memory-starved machine) lean

towards Smart Sharpen as the

sharpening method.



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You might be inclined to select Enhanced Masks asyour deault preerence. Consider this point! Enhancedmasks are very resource-intensive. Generating color maskscan consume a significant amount o RAM and slowmany machines. Capture sharpening with enhanced maskswill take much longer to complete.

Te LR Capture Sharpening script offers one additional

means o altering the mask(s). Te Flatten Layer Masksoption applies the layer mask to the layer by deault.Tere will be no extra thumbnail or the layer showing thelayer mask. Unchecking Flatten Layer Masks will retainthe layer mask or subsequent editing. Tis allows you tochange the mask at any time.

I you do uncheck the Flatten Layer Masks checkbox,clicking on the layer mask will permit you to apply aLevels or Curves adjustment to the mask. Increasing the

number o dark pixels will reduce the sharpening effect.Increasing the number o light pixels will increase thesharpening effect. Increasing contrast will give addedemphasis to edges and sharpen suraces less. Tis canbe helpul i you decide to save resources by leavingthe Surace slider at zero. You save a layer this way, andby finessing the mask, you can still allow a controlledamount o surace sharpening.

Each o the sliders or Sharpening Amount and NoiseReduction can be set rom 0 to 5. Te sliders enable when

appropriate. For example, when Smart Sharpen is selectedas the Sharpen Method option, Te Smart Sharpen slider

will become enabled.

When you sharpen an image, you do need to consider theeffects o noise. Te conversion o light into digital sig-nals is an imperect process. Tere will be minor fluctua-tions in the sensitivity o individual pixels in an imagingchip. Te Bayer Pattern used by most digital camera, withits alternating red, green, and blue pixels and complexalgorithms to look at neighboring pixels to interpolateRGB values, also adds noise.

Noise comes in two important variations: luminositynoise and chromatic noise. Luminosity noise occurs whenthe pixels are not uniorm in their sensitivity to light. Tis

is the sort o noise you are likely to see in the shadows oan image, making them look muddy or splotchy or grainy.Blue skies are also among the usual suspects or evidence

Small crop rom the classic luminosity-based

edge mask.

Enhanced edge mask is sensitive to transitions

in both color and luminosity. For many images,

the final result will be very similar. Here the



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o luminosity noise. Chromatic noise affects the color o pixels andtypically looks like little colored speckles.

Te Noise Reduction sliders do not become enabled untilsharpening is set. Te LR Capture Sharpening script provideslimited support or reducing digital noise rom images. It is anoption or users who do not have access to more sophisticated noisereduction tools like Neat Image and Noise Ninja. o prevent the

capture sharpening script being used solely or noise reduction, thesliders become enabled only when at least one sharpening slider isset to something other than zero.

Te Smart Sharpen slider and the USM Light Contour and USMDark Contour sliders typically work best with a moderate setting, 2or 3. Surace sharpening should be low in all but extraordinary cases,typically 1.

You can save resources when using USM sharpening by using a single

edge mask instead o separate layers or light and dark contours.o perorm a single layer USM, just leave either the USM LightContour or the USM Dark Contour slider set to zero.

Te Expert Mode option allows you to take ull control over thesettings used or generating masks and or sharpening. Te LRCapture Sharpening script will take care o all o housekeeping.

Expect a stream o dialogs when you select Expert Mode on thePreerences panel. Tere is a lot o work going on under the hoodin the LR Capture Sharpening script!

Te process can include the ollowing sequential steps:

Edge Mask Generation

Surace Mask Generation

Chromatic Noise Reduction

Luminosity Noise Reduction

Edge Sharpening

Surace Sharpening

Te standard edge mask displays the ollowing dialogs:

Curves dialog or adjusting edge/surace contrast.

Maximum filter to thicken the edges.

Capture sharpening is done on layers,

which are grouped in a layer set.

Make sure to close the layer set beore

running another script or adding more

layers to the image or the script will

halt and display an error message re-

minding you to close the layer set.



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Median filter to make tenuous edges more substantial.

Gaussian Blur to sofen the edge selections.

Auto Levels or final mask contrast adjustment.

Te enhanced edge mask will go through these same steps twice,

one or a luminosity edge mask and again or a color edge mask. Inaddition, the enhanced edge mask will also include a Calculationsdialog at the end o the mask generation process. Calculation is usedto blend the luminosity edge mask and color edge mask into a singleenhanced edge mask.

I theChromaticslider is setto a non-

zero value,the Gauss-ian Blurdialog willappear. Justadjust untilthe coloredspeckles dis-appear. Donot worryo the image

sofens a lot!When youfinish withthe GaussianBlur filter,the script

will changethe layerblend modeto Color andthe imagedetail willreappearwithoutthose colored

speckles.

I the Luminosity slider is set to a non-zero value, you can adjust theDust & Scratches filter dialog or slider levels 2-5. Level 1 uses theDespeckle filter and has no setting. Although a surace mask will



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help to protect image details, do not get overly-aggressive with theluminosity noise reduction or the image can sofen or even smear.

I the USM Surace slider is set to something other than zero, asurace mask is generated. A surace mask exposes the same dialogsas an edge mask.

Sharpening layers display either the Unsharp Mask filter or Smart

Sharpen dialog or sharpening.

Te LR Creative Sharpening Script

Creative sharpening is an optional step. Some images will benefitrom the application o additional sharpening in specific places.

Capture sharpening is also a orm o localized sharpening when anedge mask and/or surace mask are used.

What makes creative sharpening distinct is the application o theeffect using the Photoshop Brush tool. You actually brush in thesharpening effect.

Edge and surace masks are available when USM is selected as thesharpening method. By deault, creative sharpening is applied to theentire image. Using masks will slow the capture sharpening scriptbut can speed up the painting in o the sharpening effect.

You can also use the LR Creative Sharpening script to selectively

apply blurring to the image. Te selective application o blur isanother way pros emphasize sharpness. Blurring background distrac-tions, or example, can ocus attention on subject details. You paintin blurring the same way you paint in sharpening.

Haze Reduction is a eature that is not applied with a brush. It isapplied to the entire image. I find that most images benefit romit. With the LR Creative Sharpening script it is easy enough toexperiment. Just run the script, starting with a setting o 3. I you areunhappy with the result, you can just delete the layer rom the layerset. I you preer a different setting, just delete the entire layer set and

start again. Working with layers consumes resources, but it also givesyou lots of flexibility!

When you run the LR Creative Sharpening script or the firsttime, do not be alarmed when the sharpening effect is not imme-diately evident. Until you grab the Brush tool, click on the layermask filled with black, and paint in the sharpening where you wantit, there will be no visible change to the image (except or HazeReduction, which is immediately visible).

Until you paint in the effects with

the Brush tool, you will not see any

evidence o additional sharpening (or

blurring).



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You should use a sof edge brush to paint in the creativesharpening and blurring effects. Set the opacity (and/or flow) to alow setting. I recommend something like 15-20%. When you buildup the effect o successive strokes, it takes a little more time to seethe effect but you also have a lot more control over its application.

Te LR Creative Sharpening script will set the opacity or its layersto 65% by deault and also apply Blend I settings to protect imagehighlights and shadows. Feel ree to adjust the layer opacity or theBlend I sliders (ound on the Layer Style palette) to urther refinethe effect o a particular layer.



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I you select Expert Mode and Use Edge Mask, the script willallow you modiy the same dialogs described in the previous sectionor the LR Capture Sharpening script.

Te LR Output Sharpening Script

Te LR Output Sharpening script does not use a layer mask.Output sharpening is applied globally. Te script uses Highpass filtersharpening.

Highpass filter sharpening uses a layer with one o three blendmodes: Overlay, Sof Light, or Hard Light. Te LR OutputSharpening script uses an Overlay blend. However, you can easilychange the blend to Sof Light to reduce the effect or Hard Light toexaggerate the effect urther.

Blend I settings are applied. Tese are not the same Blend I set-

tings used with the LR Capture Sharpening and LR CreativeSharpening scripts.

Output sharpening settings are specific to the output medium andresolution you select. Your image must be re-sized and resampledBEFOREyou run the TLR Output Sharpening script. Te script willnot change the size or resample the image.

Te LR Output Sharpening script is intended as the final sharpen-ing or your image. Four output media are supported.

Use Inkjet when you intend to print your images on a desktop orfloor model inkjet printer. Just select the resolution or your im-age and choose between Matte and Glossy. Matte applies a slightlystronger effect. I you use semigloss or luster gloss papers, try Glossyfirst.

Continuous one devices include dye sublimation printers, pro-essional photofinishing printer, and laser printers. Just select theresolution o the device.

Halfone is or images destined or printing on an offest press. Selectthe paper type and the desired LPI multiplier. Your image resolution

will need to be set to 1.5x or 2x the lpi you select. Generally, youshould use 1.5x or less critical work. You will save storage space and,i you transmit them over the Internet to a printer, you will also savetransmission time. Use 2x or fine art and other critical prints.

Rather than make you do the math, here are the image resolutions touse when resampling your image or offset printing:

Output sharpening results in a pair o

adjustment layers. Since they use an

Overlay blend mode, you may find it a

challenge to view their effect. Just click

the eyeball icon orBackgroundlayer to

it off temporarily, which will allow you

to view the effect o the various sharp-

ening layers on your image.



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Line Screen 1.5x 2.0x 85 127.5 170 120 180 240 133 199.5 266 150 225 300 175 262.5 350

85 lpi is typically used or newspapers on uncoated stock. News-paper advertisements ofen use a higher line screen, 120 lpi being

common. rade magazines ofen use 133 lpi oncoated stock. Covers on trade magazines andhigh quality offset printing typically use 150 lpi.Premium printing or art magazines and maga-zines likeNational Geographicofen use 150 lpi oncoated stock. Premium art prints and posters willsometimes use 150 lpi uncoated stock.

Web/Multimedia is or images that are intendedprimarily to be viewed on a computer monitorrather than printed. Sharpening with these set-tings and then printing will result in an under-sharpened print. Where an image is intended orboth, you are better advised to make two masterfiles and sharpen each separately or use somethinglike Smart Objects in Photoshop CS2 or LayerComps in Photoshop CS. Te resolutions areoptimized or the longest dimension. So use 1024or an image that is 1024 pixels high or one that

is 1024 pixels wide. Use the closest setting, i anexact match is not available. For example, you canuse 1024 pixels or an image with 1000 pixels onits longest edge.

What i you ollow the advice o Scott Kelby oranother pro who preers one sharpening pass? You

will likely find that the LR Output Sharpeningscript under-sharpens your images. Te script wasdesigned to be the final sharpening pass in a three-

pass or two-pass sharpening workflow. It assumes that a round ocapture sharpening was applied to the image previously.

Te LR Sharpening oolkit is a flexible set o scripts. While I havemy preerences that give me results I like, I recognize that there arealternative ways o achieving the same goal. So I crafed my scripts tobe adaptable to other sharpening workflows.

I you preer one-pass sharpening, you have three options. You canuse the LR Output Sharpener and increase the opacity or the



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layer. By deault, the layer opacity is set at 50% to provide oppor-tunity or adjustment. No particular setting or single-pass outputsharpening is optimal or every image. You can also apply the LROutput Sharpening script more than once. Instead o using the LROutput Sharpening script, you can use the LR Capture Sharpen-ing script. Tis will provide you with more options or adjusting thesharpening effect. Te third option is to select Expert Mode andtweak the sharpening settings.

I you select the Expert Mode checkbox, you will see our dialogs:two or each layer. Te first is the Highpass Filter dialog, where youcan adjust the Radius setting. Te second is a Layers adjustment.Discussions o Highpass sharpening usually make no mention oapplying a Levels adjustment to the overlay layer, but adjusting threeinput sliders, especially the black point and white point, can have a

proound impact on the resulting sharpening effect.

Sharpening on layers makes it easier to evaluate what is happening to

your image by turning off the Background layer. You can also selec-tively turn off the other sharpening layer sets to see, or example, justthe effect o the LR Output Sharpening script.

Now, heres the rub . . . You cannot adequately sharpen images in-tended or print just by viewing them on a computer monitor. Tisis true regardless o whether you use one pass or sharpening, two

passes, or three passes; Unsharp Mask, Smart Sharpen, or Highpasssharpening.

Most pros urge 100% zoom to sof proofing sharpening. Some use

50% or 25% zoom with larger images to get a more lie-size viewo the image. I you do use anything other than 100%, be sure touse something like 50% or 25% which are easily divisble into 100%

with no ractional remainder. Using something like 33% will causePhotoshop to apply anti-aliasing to the monitor view, and that willinterere with your ability to predict the sharpening result. Te mostimportant point is this: you must make your final judgment aboutsharpening with a hard proo. For images destined or some sort o

printed output, you need to make your final sharpening adjustmentsusing a printed sample. Computer monitors are emissive devices.Prints reflect light. ry as you might, the two will never produceidentical results, and this is especially true or evaluating the effectso digital sharpening.

Frequently Asked uestions

Here is a basic FAQ or the LR Sharpening oolkit:

High resolution images rom high-

end DSLRs like the Canon 1Ds MkII

and Nikon D2X give you a large filerom the start. Te scripts in the LR

Proessional Sharpening oolkit work

best with lots o RAM and a ast swap

file drive. Tere is a lot o heavy lifing

done by those scripts.



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Te scripts seem to take a long time to run. Why?

Tere is a lot o processing going on with these scripts. All workis done non-destructively. So, as the scripts run, in some cases aduplicate o the image is used temporarily. Each layer is a pixel-basedlayer. Many use a layer mask. So, the scripts can consume a lot oRAM ast: especially i you work with high resolution DSLR imagesor film scans. When you start with an 8MP, 12MP, or 16MP image

and start applying several layers or capture sharpening, creativesharpening, and then output sharpening, you can quickly sendPhotoshop to the swap file.

I you intend to crop your image, crop it earlier in your workflow, iat all possible. Smaller images will sharpen aster with these scripts.

Converting to 8-bits or output sharpening will speed that parto the workflow considerably. When you are ready or outputsharpening. your need or wholesale global adjustments to tone and

color should already be accomplished. You want to stay in 16-bits aslong as possible or your global editing to reduce posterization, butnearly every current output device is inherently 8-bits. So outputsharpening a 16-bit file is a waste o RAM.

Follow good memory practices. Use as much RAM as you can affordand your machine can hold. Nothing will improve perormance likeadditional RAM. Place Photoshop and your swap file on differentdrives, i possible.

Smart Sharpen results in a smaller file, since there are no edge masks

or surace masks.

I you do select Unsharp Mask as your sharpening method, you cangenerate a single layer instead o two by leaving either the Dark EdgeContour or Light Edge Contour slider at zero. Tis will save RAMand improve perormance.

Leaving the Surace slider at zero will also mean one less layerand less RAM consumption. You can still achieve some suracesharpening by reducing the contrast or the edge maks(s). o dothat, you will want to uncheck the Flatten Layer Masks option onthe LR Capture Sharpening dialog.

You can also save RAM and improve perormance by flattening thelayer sets as you work. You will likely want to save intermediate workfiles when you do this, so you can back up and start over at a laterdate. Resorting to intermediate files with enormous image files willspeed your work.

Do not rely on your monitor to make

final sharpening judgments when your

image is going to be printed. Tere is

no substitute or making final output

sharpening adjustments rom an actual

printed sample. Use your monitor as a

rough guide only or printed output.

When output is intended or the Web,

using your monitor is the right choice.



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Because all o the work is automated, it can seem like a long time orthe scripts to run. I you entered the steps manually, it would takeconsiderably longer!

I preer to use one pass or sharpening. Can I do that with thesescripts?

Yes, you can. However, keep in mind that the sharpening settings

or the LR Output Sharpening script assume a tow- or three-passsharpening workflow. A bit o modification will be necessary.

You might want to increase the opacity o the layers generated by theLR Output Sharpening script. You can even run the LR Out-

put Sharpening script a second time. Another alternative is to usethe LR Capture Sharpening script rather than the LR OutputSharpening script. I you eel comortable tweaking the settings, youcan run the LR Output Sharpening script with the Expert Modecheckbox selected.

I ofen orget to close the layer sets beore I run another script or getto ork making other adjustments to the image. Cant your scriptclose them automatically?

Sadly, no. Tere is no unctionality in the Photoshop object modelor closing or expanding layer set contents. Te Script Listener candetect additional unctionality, but it comes up empty when oneclicks on the little triangle to toggle layer set contents. Grrrr!

Te olks at Adobe have exposed a lot o unctionality. Tis is one

eature I hope they incorporate in the uture.

I ran the LR Creative Sharpening script. I cannot see where itsharpened the image at all. Am I doing something wrong?

No. Not exactly. You havent done enough, yet, thats all. Tesharpening and blur layers have a layer mask filled with black.Te old Photoshop pro rule or layer masks is that black concealsand white reveals. Until you grab the brush tool, set it to white,and paint on the layer mask, none o the sharpening effect will berevealed. You will get the best results with the capture sharpeninglayers i you use a sof-edged brush and low opacity (something like15-20%) to build up the capture sharpening effect gradually.

My scanner applies sharpening. Should I turn it off ?

My general advice is to say, yes. Even i you camera or scannerperorms sharpening (and some scanners even claim Unsharp Masksharpening), the algorithm is almost certainly less sophisticated

Need help with the LR Sharpening

oolkit? Feel ree to visit the Yahoo!

Group or Te Lights Right Studio.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/

TeLightsRight/



22/24

than the sharpening that results rom the LR Capture Sharpeningscript.

I you are comortable with your current workflow and want to stickwith the camera , scanner , or RAW conversion sofware applying around o sharpening, then consider that sharpening to be capturesharpening and move on in your workflow to global edits or toneand color, etc. You can still use the LR Creative Sharpening and

LR Output Sharpening scripts to refine the sharpening that isapplied to your image.

Will these scripts ork with Batch Mode?

Yes. You will need to make an action or each o the scripts. Te onlystep required or each action is to call the appropriate script.

Te LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit does not include a seto actions in an action set because the required action step would

include the file name and older inormation or a particular scriptand that depends on where you place the scripts.

Creating an action or each script is a good idea, whether you usebatch mode or not. By creating an action set and associated actions,

you can easily assign a keyboard shortcut and, i you keep yourAction palette visible, the actions can be invoked with a mouse click.

What are your recommendations or initial settings?

Lie would be easier i we could just select something like Filter

| Perect Sharpeningand we got just that -- perect sharpeningevery time. No settings to finesse.

Unortunately, optimal sharpening depends on many actors. Evenpros disagree about all o the actors. For example, Nik! Sharpenerconsiders viewing distance. Most sharpening tools do not.

Te reason or different options or masks and all those sliders orsettings in the LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit scripts is tomake the tools optimal or a wider range o images.

Consider Photokit Sharpener. You select a mask and an imagesource. Tat is it! Simple. Not quite, according to other pros. FocalBlade, or example, gives you lots o options. Why? Because eachimage is different. Settings that optimal or one image, even whenthey come rom the same camera, can be less than optimal oranother image. With the scripts in the LR Proessional Sharpeningoolkit, you can get excellent results every time.

Feel ree to reach out and touch me. I

like hearing rom people who use my

resources.

I have a couple o e-mail addresses:

[email protected]

[email protected]

You can also reach my by Yahoo!

Instant Messenger via GMICHEL850

Cheers!



23/24

For Smart Sharpen or capture sharpening, I typically start with asetting o 2, maybe 3.

With USM capture sharpening, I preer three layers. A setting o3 or the light contour, 4 or the dark contour, and 1 or suracesharpening.

My initial creative sharpening settings are usually a bit weaker. 1-2

or Smart Sharpen, 2-3 or the USM edges, 2-3 or blurring.

I avor the Haze Reduction or nearly every image. My typicalsetting is 3.

I use Neat Image Pro+ or noise reduction, so I do not typically usethe noise reduction sliders. I you do not own any noise reductiontools, start out low with the noise sliders. Something like 1 or 2.

What versions o Photoshop are compatible with the scripts?

Te LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit is compatible withAdobe Photoshop CS and CS2. For earlier versions o Photoshop,try my sharpening action set.

Can the scripts be easily configured so I dont have to enter the samealues each time?

Yes. At the beginning o each script is a set o global variables and theconstants to enter or setting deault values. Just open a script in atext editor and careully change the global variable(s) controlling the

eature you want to customize.

For example, i you want to move the location o the dialog windowor a particular script, you can change the xoffset and yoffset

parameters to move the dialog.

Tere are user-configurable deaults or nearly every eature. Tecomments describe the range o acceptable values. Do not set any

parameter to values than those listed or unpredictable results canoccur.

Concluding Comments

I hope you find the LR Sharpening oolkit helpul in your digitalphotography. I put a lot o thought and energy into these scripts.I tried to take the best eatures o available commercial add-ins --

particularly Focal Blade and Photokit Sharpener -- and mix in someideas o my own.

Page 23

Would you like to suppress the

user interace, so the scripts can

run unattended in batch mode? Noproblem.

Te first global variable you can

configure at the top o each script is

namedsuppressUI. Just change the

deault romfalseto trueand the script

will run using the values you set or the

user-configurable global variables.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com


24/24

Several of the sidebar graphics used in this document are part

of the Presenters Toolkit and are copyright of Digital Juice,

Inc.

Feel ree to use these scripts or your own work: commercial orpersonal. All I ask, i you find these scripts helpul, is that you helpshare the news o their availability on the sites and orums you

visit. Please do not post copies o the actions or the documentationwithout permission, since I want to be sure everyone has access tothe most recent version. But do eel ree to post the URL to the siteso they can obtain a copy.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/DigitalDarkroom.htm

I like to hear rom people who find my scripts, actions, and tutorialshelpul. So eel ree to drop me a line. estimonials are also welcomeand will be added to uture versions o the documentation and alsoon Te Lights Right Studio website.

Tis toolkit and documentation are works in progress. Commentsand suggestions are welcome!

I want to thank several people or their assistance with this project.Some provided test images; some provided beta testing servicesabove and beyond; some provided output rom offset presses orcontinuous tone devices. A big thank you to:

Mark Epstein Randall Smith John J McAssey Wil Smith

Steve Peters Reid Taler Redwoods2iredHal R.J. Wolak

I also owe a big thanks to Bruce Fraser, Andrew Rodney, and JeffSchewe. Although it was not their intent, they motivated me tocreate the original sharpening action set.

Please, visit the site or Te Lights Right Studio ofen. Photoshopresources are added regularly.

I you find the LR Proessional Sharpening oolkit and thisdocumentation is helpul with your digital photography, pleasespread the word on other orums so others can benefit.

Enjoy!

Glenn E. Mitchell II, Ph.D. (aka Mitch)

Tanks to all o the olks who helped

with alpha testing and beta testing!Tanks or the excellent suggestions,

too!

tlrprofessionalsharpeningtoolkit.pdf

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