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Lack of Sharpness with 20D

celbob

New Member
Matt:
The Picture looks great, can you tell me what the threshold was set at and how does the threshold work

Thanks
Bob
 

deshojo

Well-Known Member
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'.
 

celbob

New Member
Matt & Stephen,
Thanks for the information, all though Stephen I really don't understand what you are saying. Could you please explain a little more?

Thank You
Bob
 

bobbytan

Well-Known Member
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.
32992.jpg
32993.jpg
 

stevehale

Member
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
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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
 

deshojo

Well-Known Member
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.

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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.
 
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