I've been hearing about this action for a while now.. Mostly from [b]ecker, but also others here and there..

So I broke down and dropped the cash on the action set that contains it..


Well.. I am impressed, and I mean stupid impressed. This action looks so simple on the outside, but what it does is flipping Magic!

The ring shot below is a 100% crop, my black and white conversion and Magic Sharp. Magic Sharp made this image pop!

Anyhow.. if you are considering this action set.. Do it.. You won't be sorry.

You sold me Greg.

I find it is just a bit to powerful when I resize things for the web. Anyone have a good work around for that?

Scott, are you resizing before or after you sharpen?

Magic Sharp rules!! Right on Greg!

Sure. Just duplicate the image into a new layer, run the action, and adjust opacity of that layer to lessen the effect.

I use the original Magic sharp for print work, and I made an action that has the same process of 2 sharpens then a fade luminosity like magic sharp, but i toned down the first 2 sharps a bit and kept the same fade luminosity, and it works great! This enables me to run batch sharpenings without having to adjust the opacity so I can do groups and not individually.

I use the history brush and set it to the original image layer, set to 20% opacity and paint over it until I get the sharpness I want. I did find it to get a lil.. uhm.. Crunchy I guess on web sized images, and thats what I do to mitigate it. Greg

ps: Here's another sample.. this is my entry page header graphic at the moment.. Same ring...

I love magic sharp!

Hrmmm I'm gonna give this a try.. Sounds a bit easier then my method!

Magic sharp is my favorite action

well i am sold! which set is the one to purchase???

Darn it! I have been on the edge for so long about buying this having heard so many good things, but I just couldn't convince myself to buy the whole set for one action. Thanks for posting the images. Care to post the pre-magic sharp image for comparision???

I also use and love magic sharp. But it does not seem to do anything on full size images. What do you guys recommend for that?

can we see a before? what action set do I need to get??

It's in the Production Tools Pak

Production Tools V1. Magic Sharp is awesome! Here's my post with some before and afters.

That's the post that finally pushed me over the edge [b]. After I saw that.. I had to make the investment.

I am totally stoked for the [b] School! Can't wait.. Just wish I could be in Vegas with all of you guys.

has anyone compared magic sharp to boutwell's magic glasses?
I use magic glasses regularly and love it, plus it gives you a separate layer automatically so you can adjust the opacity.

But if anyone has compared both(and I think they do a similar thing...local contrast sharpening) I would love to hear what you thought.

thanks

Becker! These are Terrific! You sold me! It is so great of you to post here. So...when am I buying you lunch! Heehee. I need some of your sage advice.

I am totally stoked for the [b] School! Can't wait.. Just wish I could be in Vegas with all of you guys.
[/quote]


Greg,
What school are you referring to??

[b]eckers school for Photographers..

Check it out http://www.thebschool.com/
and check out the bschool blog.. TON's of videos there from [b]ecker and others.


Greg

Hey all...in a few hours I will post about magic sharp and ways I sharpen for both BLOG images and full res images. I think this will help some and help save some money as well. I'll post soon, so stay tuned.

Hi all!

Disclaimer: I am not claiming to be an expert on sharpening, but I do believe I have a firm grasp on it.

KPD Magic Sharp is a wonderful/powerful sharpening action. It is so great, because it boosts local contrast, as well as edge contrast or standard sharpness with a luminosity fade. The reason it is so great, is the values used.

I've been using Magic Sharp, since before I even had it. What I mean, is I've been using a similar sharpening action since before I even knew about Magic Sharp. I was one that would look at the images on [b]ecker's, Jessica Claire's, and Jasmine Star's blogs and not only love the color and great imagery, but the pop the images had/have. This is due to Magic Sharp and I'm pretty sure it's applied to images constrained to 900 pixels (or close to it) on the longest dimension. That's how I use it for my BLOG images. The same action applied on a 12MP image does not have the same effect, although it still really helps the image pop a bit.

Ideally, there are two types of sharpening to be applied to your images. Capture or input sharpening (I will refer to as capture) and output sharpening. The first step is a very mild sharpening adjustment; the second, is based on the intended output such as; print, web, press, etc.

Capture sharpening is performed to take away the softening done by the anti-aliasing or low pass filter in front of your sensor. This filter helps reduce moire and capture more wavelengths of light, but by doing so softens the image slightly.

ACR 4.x and Lightroom (same architecture) do the capture sharpening part for you by default with the values:

Amount: 25%
Radius: 1.0px
Detail: 25
Masking: 0

Those values usually do a great job sharpening the image enough to bring it to a 'neutral' point.

Output sharpening is like a whole other art form, that some master printers are well, masters at, but anyone can do a decent job by trial and error. Ouput sharpening is based on so many variables like; paper type, size, viewing distance, color, output device, and others. There are programs such as Nik Sharpener Pro 2.0 that can do a lot of the work for you with little direction that do a pretty great job. I used to sharpen that way, but since I'm not printing exhibition pieces and whatnot, I feel I don't need or want to spend the time taking the steps to get those results.

Local contrast enhancement or clarity (in Lightroom and Kubota Production Pack 1), is the first step in Magic Sharp as well as what I do. This is what really gives the image that in your face pop. This is done with USM with a low amount like 25% and a higher radius like 50px; threshold is adjusted based on image content (people versus landscape) I have this set to 6. Having a threshold of 0 will usually bring out too much texture in continuous tones such as sky's and skin.

Second step is a 'standard' sharpening adjustment with USM. A high amount like 250% and a low radius like 0.8px. Same thing with treshold...around 6. This will bring out lines such as eyes, teeth, and other edges.

The third step, is a 100% luminosity fade to help reduce halos from the second sharpening step. In photoshop, Edit>Fade or Shift, Command, F. Set the mode to luminosity and the opacity to 100%.

So, imagine you have an image of an open book with just text. Black text on white pages. The first sharpening pass, will make the words almost come forward and pop in your face. The second pass, will make the edges of the text separate more from the pages. The luminosity fade will help make the edges of the text sharp, but smooth.

Here's what the action I've been using for a couple years does:

Pass One:
Unsharp Mask
Amount: 25%
Radius: 50px
Threshold: 6 levels

Pass Two:
Unsharp Mask
Amount: 250%
Radius: 0.8px
Threshold: 6 levels

Pass Three:
Edit>Fade
Opacity: 100%
Mode: Luminosity

I feel these values work well on my full resolution images (12MP). I don't think it perfectly mimics what Magic Sharp does on 900 pixel images though, but the intended output for the two is different and it comes close. All of Magic Sharp's values are lower than mine, but I will not tell you them, as that wouldn't be too ethical.

I use Lightroom to process my files and use the default sharpening values to do my capture sharpening and when I export my files, I have a droplet created from my sharpening action apply sharpening to the exported files...but what if you don't want to do two steps of sharpening and you only want to use Lightroom? Many people agree (I'm one of them) you don't NEED to do two sharpening steps and that fine, so in Lightroom or ACR 4.x for that matter, here is an option.

In Lightroom 1.1, the Clarity slider was added and that made me go WOO-HOO! Clarity is a local contrast enhancement like the first pass of sharpening in Magic Sharp and my sharpening action. A value between 25-50 can really help cut down on haze (hence the name clarity for the slider) and help make the image pop in a similar way. There's pass one right there. I have this as 35 in all my presets because I use the sharpening droplet, but if you want to do all your sharpening in Lightroom, 50 will probably give you great results.

Next, is the actual sharpening under the Detail portion in the Develop module. Here you will see four sliders; Amount, Radius, Detail, and Masking. Think of Detail and Masking as together making up Threshold and Amount and Radius as being very similar as USM in Photoshop.

To sharpen, it is always a good idea to view the image at 100% or actual pixels. Magic Sharp does this for you. In Lightroom, just click on the image to get there (with default settings) or go to the upper left in the Develop module in the Navigator window and click on the 1:1 view option. This will allow you to get a better idea of what you are doing as well as engage some options in Lightroom you can't get in full view. Note, images will usually look a little over sharp when viewing at 100%, but this is usually a good thing, as you are viewing them closer than you normally would.

The closer you are, the less sharpening that needs to be applied for the image to appear 'sharp' and the the further you are the more sharpening that needs to be applied for the image to appear 'sharp'. This goes the same for size. Smaller things need to be sharpened less (BLOG images) and larger things need to be sharpened more (prints).

In Lightroom, the Amount slider only goes up to 150%, not 500% like Photoshop. I find that between 100% and 150% works best if you like that Magic Sharp look (I like 150%). For Radius, I like the same value as my sharpening of 0.8 pixels. Now here's where it gets different. Basically, the Detail slider lets you choose what to sharpen and the Masking slider lets you choose what not to sharpen. It's hard to see this and this is why Adobe put in a easy viewing option.

First, put both Detail and Masking to 0. Then hold down the ALT key (on a Mac at least, you can do it on a PC as well, I just don't know what key it is) and click on the Detail slider. You will see the screen go a light grey and see dark areas where edge detail is in your image. (If you use the high pass sharpening method in Photoshop this will look similar) The goal here, is to bring your slider to the right and reveal (darker areas) what you want to be sharp. I think a value between 10-20 works best for people images...I like 20. Next, you will ALT click on the Masking slider and the view will turn all light grey. The goal here, is to bring the slider to the right and just like a layer mask in Photoshop, black conceals and white reveals. Anything in white will REMAIN sharp, and anything in black will no longer. A value of 75-90 works best for people images...I like 80. That's it. You can toggle the detail slider on and off to see the effect. For non-people images, a higher detail value and a lower masking value will be better. This would be for images like landscapes and whatnot, but now you know how to see what you are actually sharpening, you be the judge, afterall, they are your images/vision.

Boutwell Magic Glasses rocks and is a local contrast enhancement with edge masking, making it appear stronger and more sharp. Really, it's just a nice big pop to the image, not necessarily a true sharpening adjustment. This in conjunction with a USM adjustment like my second pass, would be similar to Magic Sharp. Note: Boutwell Magic Glasses is very strong, but more sophisticated and adjustable to your liking, as it is on it's own layer. Doug did a great job developing this action as well as the rest of the killer Totally Rad action sets.

To make this an even more powerful method for sharpening, open the action contents, click on the USM adjustment, then record, open USM, then input 250% for Amount, 0.8 pixels for the Radius, and 6 for Threshold (same values from my full res sharpening action) and you now have a full sharpening action that is adjustable on it's own layer. I've been using this method more and more as it leaves the skin smoother (due to some masking), but due to the sophistication of this action, it takes quite a bit longer than Magic Sharp or my sharpening action.

When should you sharpen?

First and last. Huh? If you do both capture sharpening and output sharpening, you will sharpen before you do any adjustments what-so-ever or with ACR 4.x the same time as RAW conversion. The last step is to sharpen based on output. But, you should always have sharpening (of the output kind, which is a much stronger adjustment then capture sharpening) be the last step in your workflow on an image before saving or printing.


Hopefully, this helps some of you, as that is my sole intention. Just trying to spread the love. Definitely play around with different values, as we all have different opinions on what 'good' sharpness is. Sorry if this was a little long as well, but like I said, I'm just trying to help. Feel free to ask any questions having to due with the above mentioned items.

Take Care~

Now that was a detailed explanation of sharpening!! Wow!

I hate to admit that I'm an actions girl, so if I can use an action and do all of that, then Magic Sharp is the one!!

Thanks also for the LR explanation, I've had a hard time getting any kind of explanation for that. Some photos just don't need to go into Photoshop, but I didn't know how to sharpen in LR. This is perfect!

I love the "popped" look of JC, so I'm going to give all of this a try!

Thank you!

Dustin...GREAT post, incredibly helpful.

a few questions for you

I normally start in lightroom and do a ballpark clarity adjustment of 30 or so.
If I then do a local contrast adjustment(I use magic glasses) am I doing too much local contrast sharpening? or oversharpening?

I agree magic glasses is a strong action, I often change the opacity of the layer to 70-80 to soften the effect a bit, thatst why I love that its in its own layer.

I have been using magic glasses as my final sharpening step lately and like the results...but should I still do a standard USM such as this one? I know its subjective.
Pass Two:
Unsharp Mask
Amount: 250%
Radius: 0.8px
Threshold: 6 levels

also, I want to clarify....kubota magic sharp is designed for web sized images? not print sized?

thanks again for a great post

Sean...excellent questions. As you mentioned, sharpening is definitely subjective, but I will answer as objective as possible.

I feel if you add clarity in LR and then use magic glasses, it is not over doing it...as long as you like the look and other people do as well. I personally use an amount of 35 in LR and then still run another sharpening action that has local contrast enhancement adjustment.

As far as using magic glasses as your final or output sharpening method, I think that if you add that second pass, you will like it even more. It really helps the fine detail stand out.

I do not believe Magic Sharp was intended as a web sharpening method, no. I think though, that it might have been developed working with lower resolution images 6MP or so and therefore would be better suited for lower resolution images. I think Magic Sharp was intended to give that polished finish to an image...you know that crispness. It truly is a simple, but genius action. All my sharpening actions are, are a beefed up version of Magic Sharp, but for web size images, I just use Magic Sharp, as I think it is perfect for that.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm really loving the Boutwell Magic Glasses with that added sharpening pass...I use it more and more. Just copy that action and change the name a little so you know which is which and add that step...like I said I think you'll really love it.

Maybe I'll try and post some low res images with the different methods.

Cheers!

I'll give this a try.....THANKS for the info...images would be great...I might try and play with some images tonight and post them as well

[b] I just posted this question in your comments on the sharpen post at the [b] school, and thought I'd post it here as well.

Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to head over there and ask this question (I subscibe to the podcasts through iTunes and only every so often hed to the blog).

My question is about sharpening for albums. I've been contemplating this for the last few weeks actually. I sharpen using magic sharp and always sharpen after the photo has been resized to print/blog size. But what do you do for albums? Do you design the layout then once the layout is finalized sharpen the entire layout, or do you sharpen the image PRIOR to putting it into the layout? And if you do that, how do you know what size you want the image for the layout. Because often times we "play" with an image within a layout resizing before the design is finalized.

Your advice is much appreciated

If anyone is thinking of buying the Kubota actions, they have a booth at WPPI and are usually on sale there.

A question probably along similar lines, for printing do you just run your sharpening on the full-size image and have them re-size, or do you re-size to what size print you want, and then sharpen? And if the latter do you need to change any of your values because your dealing with different size images?

I can tell you what I do.

If it's a flush mount album, I sharpen each layout after it is completed. I do this because I want the sharpness to match in each image on the layout as well as layout to layout. This could be argued the other way as well, as smaller images need less sharpening than larger images, so sharpening individually could have an advantage. When I make layouts, I always make then for the largest size also, just to be safe. If I'm doing a matted album (hardly ever anymore) I sharpen each image individually.

If I'm changing the aspect ratio or making the image much larger, I resize the images, then sharpen and yes, I then might use different values. I find that Magic Sharp is great on 5x7's and smaller, but for larger images I use a stronger action like the one I mentioned. I think that it's a good idea to make three different strength actions and use them on a range of image sizes.. I don't think you need to make one for each size, although it wouldn't hurt.

Sharpening can be really detailed and massaged a lot to get better results, but in general you're only squeezing out a little more, so I feel it's a little waste of time to do so.'

Hope that helps.

So MS is supposed to be applied to 990 px wide shots? After resizing them?

Not supposed to be, but can be and I feel it is more effective that way. Use Magic Sharp however you want, but to get that look you see on blog images of many great photographers, you apply it after you have resized the image to around 900 pixels on the longest dimension. If you want the same look on full res images, you have to use a stronger sharpening action or stronger sharpening steps.

I use Magic Sharp for BLOG images and another stronger sharpening action for my full res images.

Does that help? I am not trying to say what to do, but give options of what can be done.

Dustin, thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I woke up this morning and realized that I didnt even thank you for taking the time to write up your reply on sharpening....so thanks man! This subject has always confused me a bit, but the way you put it with the text on the page analogy, I completely understand now.

I ran MS on the 900 px wide images and honestly, I don't like it...its too.....not natural....need something just a bit..."less."

So, this is the part I am confused on. Say you have a picture, and this picture is; going to the printer, and going online. Would you make 2 different pictures with different amounts of sharpening for the different forms of media that they are being turned into? Or do you apply your large res sharpening on the big image, then apply more sharpening after it's been resized?


Dustin....you rock for helping out with this! Frikking cool!

Hope you dont mind me answering

I was always taught that sharpening is the last thing you should do on an image, no matter what its output is. Therefore, in this situation, I would work on the print version, and then do a duplicate merged-layers version and resize it to fit for the web. Youve now got your two identical looking images, one web, one printable, and then apply individual setting for sharpening to each, to suit the output type.

I would never suggest sharpening, then resizing, and then sharpening again - Ive never gotten good results from it

Dustin man! You Rock
Where do you find the time man!!!
I've never had such a fantastic explanation of the propper way to sharpen and I've been using photoshop since PS3

thank you you you

I think erinna answered it pretty well....thanks!

If an image is going to a printer and online, then you have to know if it's going to do both or just stay online. For example: if you're using a cart system and upload images for proofing, but fullfill the order yourself, then you would sharpen the web images one way and the prints another way. But if you're using a system like Pictage, you could run a full res sharpening method on that, because you don't know if it will be printed or not.

Sharpening and then resizing (down specifically) isn't 100% ideal, however, if you resize down with bicubic sharper, you will get excellent results. If you have to resize up larger than 16x20 from a 12MP or so, you'll want to use a stronger sharpening procedure. Long story short, if you don't want to worry about sharpening multiple ways and clutter up your workflow, just create a full res sharpening action and use that, but when creating it, make it just a little too strong when viewing at 100%...usually this will end up being the most pleasing.

I don't know if I explained it all that well, but hopefully this helps.

Here's an example, but I really urge you to try the different methods yourself and see what you like best. I included all the ways I mentioned in my original post to try and give you a good idea of the results. I really love the Boutwell Magic Glasses with the extra USM pass. I think it gets it nice and sharp but not overly so like many people think Magic Sharp does on 900 pixel images. I personally love Magic Sharp used that way, but it's my preference.

Ironically, this Bride, is now Miss. Sharp. Perfect!

Click to view attachment

Hope this helps, but I do understand it's compressed quite a bit...

wow man

Thank you for all the time you've spent on this post, you have no idea how much it has helped me!!!

Thanks alot Dustin...very helpful, indeed

Ok, I just bought Kubota's Magic Sharp, I'm very excited to try it!! I will eventually try the steps to do it on my own, but for now, YEAH!!

Would anyone like me to make some sharpening actions available? If so, I will make a blog page about it and make them available there. Just let me know, I'd be glad to help anyone out I can.

Dustin, is it me or is there a color shift between the top three images and the bottom three...it almost looks like the bottom three have some blown highlights while the top have less...then again it could be my monitor.

I have noticed a very very slight color shift from magic glasses though

I have both Kubota's Magic Sharp and Boutwell's Magic Glasses. Both are great actions, but I use Magic Sharp most often. I LOVE it for my web stuff. But, yes, I've found that it's just not enough for a large print. Every time I print something large, it's kind of just guess work until I find something that works. I'd love to have something that I could rely on more consistently. So, all that to say, yes, I'd personally love some other reliable sharpening actions.

There isn't a color shift, but local contrast enhancement adjustments, DO change the look of color a bit. Basically with LCE, it compresses some of the tones, but only around edges. This is what gives it that 'pop'. If you don't particularly like that 'compression' then you could tone back that part of the process.

Say if you were using...

Amount: 35%
Radius: 50px
Threshold: 4

Taking it down to...

Amount: 20%
Radius: 50px
Threshold: 4

might yield a little more natural look.

An example of how LCE works on those edges, is say you have an image, a fine tiped ink pen, and a large tiped marker. If you were to trace around the edges of an image with the marker, the areas the marker covers would be local contrast areas, if you were to trace the image with the ink pen, those areas would be more of a standard sharpening. Both cases adjust the contrast of the pixels beneath them, but the more pixels that are adjusted, the less original tones remain. This is why you are only applying it to edges as applying it to all pixels of the image wouldn't make it more sharp, it would just give it a lot of texture.

Hope fully that answers your question.

Hi Greg,

Cool shot! May I ask how are you using Magic Sharpen? I use it by doing my sharpening in the "lightness" channel. Do you do that or simply run it on your image as a RGB?

I don't use LAB mode to sharpen, although I have in the past, but there isn't much of a difference from sharpening in RGB. The luminosity fade in Magic Sharp as well as the actions I use is similar to sharpening in the Lightness channel in LAB mode.