Super Sharpener

[WSLam]

What are the Super Sharpeners under Creative Sharpeners for?
There's relatively little description in the manual. Is it suitable to be used in the 'capture sharpening' stage? i know i know, for capture sharpening, i should stick with the capture sharpening sets...but i still get 'crunchy edges' with capture sharpening. on the other hand, Super Sharpener (level 1, and dial down the opacity somewhat) gives pretty good results. Unless the Super Sharpeners in theory should not be used as capture sharpening...bruce, or jeff?

thanks in advance.
ws

[WSLam]

Here is an example.
The image was taken with a EOS 1Ds with 550EX bounced, ISO800 (very very dark). I picked this image because of the relatively high noise...this could test which action is not intelligent to avoid sharpening noise.
Anyway, the intention is to create an action for 1024px web view.
There are four images, each image received the same sharpening EXCEPT for the Capture Sharpening step...I used various methods for Capture Sharpening, then resize, and then they all get sharpened by PKS Output Sharpener (same one, same opacity).
I know each Capture Sharpening method may deserve a diff output sharpening, but my goal is to keep things the same except to have ONE variable. Which one out of the 4 do you think did the best job technically in sharpening this image? I have the ans...but would love to have your inputs. One of them used the PKS Capture Sharpening...

Download the zip here (1MB) (http://www.lam.ws/temp/1024comparison.zip)

Thanks.

ws

[John MacLean Photography]

All this for web proofs?! Do you think the client could tell the difference, or even care? Just my 2 cents, but I think I'd sink more time into the final prints, and not worry about this!

[WSLam]

I care. My friends care. I guess you do not. This particular photo was not even for 'money', why spend any time?!
Sorry I just want to have my own standards.

ws

[John MacLean Photography]

I'm not saying don't bother sharpening it, but the difference between the four versions was so subtle that most of the general public wouldn't even notice. Sorry if I came across too strong, but it just seems like a futile attempt at making something that shows such a miniscule difference, akin to the days of people pushing E-6 film 1/8 stop!

[Jeff Schewe]

The SuperSharpeners are a series of stepped sharpening where the initial pass has a very high amount with a tiny radius stepping through to a low amount large radius. The effect is to create textural information where none existed. Useful to effects where out of focus or soft areas of images need more sharpness or where textural areas need additional surface details.

They are not designed as a replacement for Capture Sharpening. . .and very little can be determined regarding your images because 1, they've been resampled and 2 they are jpged. So, I don't know what I can tell you. . .

[WSLam]

Hi John,
I think I get your point. There's certainly no need to apologize. I guess I just wanted to see what others think, and your view is just as valid as the ones I was hoping to get. The difference, side by side, is really not significant. When I had them in PSD layers and switching between layers, the difference was much more obvious.

And Hi Jeff,
Thanks for explaining about Super Sharpeners. My continuous search for a way to do capture sharpening really stems from the poor results (at 100%) of the included capture sharpening actions. I see someone else has also commented that they get crunchy results on another thread. And if i put aside the 'theories' of the diff approaches, Super Sharpeners, after trying out almost EVERYTHING else in the PKS plugin, the Super Sharpener seems to work well for Capture Sharpening to my surprise. I sent the JPG to a few friends, and so far 80% of them voted for the one with Super Sharpener!

[John MacLean Photography]

Some Q's.

What is your original source, film or digital, and what scanner resolution or digital camera? Are you outputting optical res or native res from either, or smaller files?

Have you tried reducing the opacity of the individual layers in the Cap Sharp until the crunchies go away?

Are you using a LCD monitor?

When you resample down, are you using Bicubic Sharper? If so, maybe try regular Bicubic instead.