Output Sharpening Droplets

[James_N]

I am creating a droplet to perform noise reduction, resizing, and output sharpening in Photoshop and I'm wondering if you kind folks would share your workflows for this particular post processing step.

I own both Noise Ninja and Noiseware and I've chosen to use Noise Ninja in the noise reduction portion of the process because its easy to create an action that determines the amount of noise reduction required based on the ISO level (using auto-load NN profiles).

However, I'm stuck at the Sharpening portion since there are so kinds of output sharpening and I'm not sure (a) the best method, and (2) how to do it without having to intervene in the process.

So how about some ideas? How do you experts do it?

Thanks much

James_N

Thanks.

 

[rcannonp]

I go through sharpening phases. Lately I've just been using a 1px high pass. I create a new layer, apply the image(if you only have one layer then just copy it), desaturate it and Fade-->Color, apply the 1px HP and then set it to the Overlay or Hard Light blend mode.

If I need more sharpening or control then I use Smart Sharpen. I would create a new layer and apply the image, apply the Smart Sharpen filter and set the layer to the Luminosity blend mode. Typically I would use a high amount(25'-3'') and a low radius(1px) with the Fade amount set to 1'' for the shadows and 5' for the highlights. This would probably be oversharpening for most images, but you can dial it back with the layer opacity. The exact settings you'll want to use depend on the image. If you have a noisy image and want to sharpen it but accentuate the noise as little as possible, then try using a lower amount and a higher radius. You might start with an amount in the range of 5'-1'' and a radius of 2.

All of this can be included in the action when you make the droplet. If you are using something like the Smart Sharpen method then you might create a few droplets that have different settings for different types of images or outputs.

 

[James_N]

Thanks for your response and my apologies for the delay in replying. I've been too busy the past few days to tackle this project but I suppose I'll just muddle through eventually.

I was hoping I'd get more responses and ideas.