Unable to Use Creative Sharpener

[Martin Greene]

All of a sudden, Creative Sharpener has stopped functioning. It appears as a layer, but does not work at all. In addition, the Photoshop Sharpening Tool does not work while its associated tools, blur and smudge do. Read a posting with a similar problem and I checked out "Flipping the Channel Options." Also, if you suggest sending a "small snippet of a file that includes the nonfunctioning layers," does that refer to a snippit of the image? Need help quickly as unable to complete an important job until I can use Creative Sharpener.

Martin

[Bruce Fraser]

We were unable to reproduce Cliff's problem, which mysteriously went away.

Note that PhotoKit Sharpener makes no use at all of Photoshop's Sharpen tool, so there may be a problem that's affecting either the functionality or THE VIEWING of the sharpening.

Check all the usual suspects—you're zoomed in far enough to see the effect, the layer opacities are high enough to produce an effect, brush settings, etc. By all means send me a small crop of the affected image, including the creative sharpening layer, at

bruce@pixelgenius.com

[bmeeks]

We were unable to reproduce Cliff's problem, which mysteriously went away.

Note that PhotoKit Sharpener makes no use at all of Photoshop's Sharpen tool, so there may be a problem that's affecting either the functionality or THE VIEWING of the sharpening.

Check all the usual suspects—you're zoomed in far enough to see the effect, the layer opacities are high enough to produce an effect, brush settings, etc. By all means send me a small crop of the affected image, including the creative sharpening layer, at

bruce@pixelgenius.com

Same thing has happened to me (I left another message in the tech topic). Capture sharpen works fine; as does output sharpen. But all of a sudden, the Creative Sharpen is not working... and I've used it too many times in the past to count, so I know it works!

I blew up the picture to 200 percent to see if it was just too subtle; tried it on several different files, raw Canon and Nikon files; a high res JPEG file... all didn't work.

I know you like to see samples, I'll try and get those to you later on as I'm jamming to get out to the house this morning.

What e-mail should I use to send the files?

[Martin Greene]

Same thing has happened to me (I left another message in the tech topic). Capture sharpen works fine; as does output sharpen. But all of a sudden, the Creative Sharpen is not working... and I've used it too many times in the past to count, so I know it works!

I blew up the picture to 200 percent to see if it was just too subtle; tried it on several different files, raw Canon and Nikon files; a high res JPEG file... all didn't work.

I know you like to see samples, I'll try and get those to you later on as I'm jamming to get out to the house this morning.

What e-mail should I use to send the files?
I discovered that my inablility to use the Creative Sharpener was confined to a specific image. For some reason I could not get it to work on that image, but discovered that it did work on other images.

Martin

[bmeeks]

My dilemma isn't just on one picture. But here's something I just discovered.

I went to sharpen a new picture, did a 100 percent crop (of the eye) of a NEF image and did capture sharpen, which worked fine.

Then I did a creative sharpen and.. it worked fine!

I closed out the document, didn't save (not even the crop) and started all over again.

This time, the creative sharpen (on the same type of crop of the same image) would not work!

I noticed that on the layer mask I could NOT any white space appear, as it does when working normally.

I then deleted the layer mask and, bingo, the picture (crop) looked sharpened, though I suspect this isn't how it's supposed work.

Any help guys?

[Bruce Fraser]

Can you paint on ANY layer mask?

Meanwhile, send the crop to me at bruce@pixelgenius.com.

Something is clearly going on here -- we've now had three reports of creative sharpener not working, two of which worked on the file that was sent to me, and which started working again mysteriously. The file that Martin can't get to work on his machine works just fine on mine. I don't yet have an explanation for this, but I'm tolerably sure it's not a Sharpener issue per se --we're just driving Photoshop.

[bmeeks]

Okay, perhaps I have an answer, which was prompted by Bruce's question of "can you paint on ANY layer mask?"

Turns out, I couldn't... at least not when the brushes set they way they were. The mode was "soft light" and the opacity was around 20 percent!

Now, why these settings were like this; how they got like that, I just don't know. I switched them to "normal" and "100" and the brushes worked just fine (probably too good, too much sharpening).

I was surprised that PG sharpener didn't automatically adjust these settings for the brushes...or does it and I've just inadvertently discovered something really wrong with my photoshop?

[Jeff Schewe]

Unless PhotoKit Sharpener we to install a Tool Preset that created a very specific saved brush setting, we simply can not control anything other than the starting brush tool selection and size. The opacity, the blend mode and to a certain extent the current set color are all beyond the scope of Sharpener's ability to con tool.

So, yes, on the part of the user there needs to be some recognition that basic layer mask usage is understood. You don't need to be an expert, but painting white on a black layer mask with a normal blend and some level of opacity is required. Which if I'm not mistaken is covered in the user manual? If not, we'll be sure to add it.

[bmeeks]

No disagreement from me, Jeff. When I say I was surprised in that it was something I had just obviously taken for granted. In the thousands of times I've already used this tool I never had a problem, so I just thought it was always 'set' for me.

I know better now than to take things like this for granted.

[Ace]

I'm the one who started this "problem" and all I can say is that Bruce spent an inordinate amount of time helping me - all to no avail. (Although very much appreciated.) Everything he suggested I was doing properly. Why everything is now operating as it should is truly a mystery.

One thing I have noted is that SOMETIMES when I have flattened and image with multiple layers, many of the brush-using tools seem unresponsive. Not only the Creative sharpener, but clone & healing brush, for example.

This is not common - not on every image - but it has happened. Restarting PS and even re-booting don't help. I wonder if there is some connection to the Creative Sharpener issue. since my problem a week or so ago, everything is fine.

cliff