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Bob:
To be perfectly honest with you, I don't actually know how the threshold setting on usm works. Increasing it seems to soften the sharpening effect, but only in the same way that decreasing the 'amount' slider does.
I'm sure someone with deeper technical knowledge of PS will be able to explain the subtle difference, but I can't see it on screen.
Consequently I tend to leave it set to '0' and just use the 'amount' and 'pixels' settings. Works for me.
Obviously the contrast, saturation and sharpening on the above photos are to personal taste, and can be increased if preferred. I find that subtle changes work better though, too much adjustment can look overprocessed and too 'digital'.
To be perfectly honest with you, I don't actually know how the threshold setting on usm works. Increasing it seems to soften the sharpening effect, but only in the same way that decreasing the 'amount' slider does.
I'm sure someone with deeper technical knowledge of PS will be able to explain the subtle difference, but I can't see it on screen.
Consequently I tend to leave it set to '0' and just use the 'amount' and 'pixels' settings. Works for me.
Obviously the contrast, saturation and sharpening on the above photos are to personal taste, and can be increased if preferred. I find that subtle changes work better though, too much adjustment can look overprocessed and too 'digital'.
The USM settings I normally use is 20% and 40 for Radius ... yes, 40 pixels! Here's how they look, with no other adjustments for color or contrast. As a matter of fact, if I reverse these parameters to 40% and 20 Radius, the results look quite similar, and I don't understand why this is so. Perhaps someone can comment on these vastly different USM settings.
Bob,
Let me try and explain a little better.
In basic terms it means that the software needs to see a greater transition (Brightness difference) between compared areas before it applies usm. As Matt mentioned the greater the threshold value the less usm he felt he could see. Have you ever visited http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ this fellow has written some good stuff. If you feel this explaination is still lacking please say, it's alte for me and I'm a little short of words.
SteveH
Let me try and explain a little better.
In basic terms it means that the software needs to see a greater transition (Brightness difference) between compared areas before it applies usm. As Matt mentioned the greater the threshold value the less usm he felt he could see. Have you ever visited http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ this fellow has written some good stuff. If you feel this explaination is still lacking please say, it's alte for me and I'm a little short of words.
SteveH
Hi Terry,
I found this link to a sharpening 'plug-in' for photoshop and thought you might find it useful. For $25 it seems a good buy.
http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/20DCSpro
Check out the s&les link, I particularly like the lack of noise compared to USM. Looks good, think I'll get it.
Cheers,
Matt.
I found this link to a sharpening 'plug-in' for photoshop and thought you might find it useful. For $25 it seems a good buy.
http://www.fredmiranda.com/shopping/20DCSpro
Check out the s&les link, I particularly like the lack of noise compared to USM. Looks good, think I'll get it.
Cheers,
Matt.