TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel
Submitted by mitch on Sun, 11/01/2009 - 21:02.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel is designed for the first stage of sharpening described by Bruce Fraser and in my own eBook and video on sharpening, "Sharpening Your Photographs."
Capture sharpening is a gentle application of sharpening designed to restore detail softened by the digital capture process. It should be done right after RAW conversion. It is not designed to be the sole round of sharpening. The goal is to restore the sharpness lost during digital capture. Be careful not to get too aggressive during this round of sharpening. To ensure that the effect is gentle, restrictive Blend If settings, reduced layer opacity, and edge masks combine to keep the sharpening effect restricted.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel also includes surface sharpening as an option. Typically, you will confine all/most of your sharpening efforts to the edges in your photo. However, there are times where you will want to sharpen surface detail.
Below is a before and after comparison. The sharpening effect is gentle. Notice the bistro sign, the bricks, the street sign, etc.
Here is another before and after example. A second crop from the same photo.
Subsequent rounds of creative sharpening (optional) and output sharpening with a tool like the TLR Pro Output Sharpening Panel will add even more sharpness to the photograph.
Capture sharpening should be tuned for the different class of digital camera or scanned film used. The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel gives you five options:
- low resolution digital cameras (LRDC) for photographs 3MP and less,
- medium resolution digital cameras (MRDC) for photographs between 3MP and 8MP,
- high resolution digital cameras (HRDC) for photographs over 8MP,
- small film scans (SFS) for film such as APC and 35mm, and
- large film scans (LFS).
For most photographs, you should select a medium width edge or surface mask. The wide width is designed for more diffuse subjects with larger and softer edges. The narrow width (and especially the extra narrow width) are for fine details and greatly restrict the sharpening effect.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel gives you another option: the use of an enhanced edge mask. This generates the most well-defined edge mask. Enhanced masks take longer to generate than the more traditional luminosity edge mask that you read about in many general books about Photoshop, but they also define edges that a luminosity edge mask would miss. You select the option from the Preferences view.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel integrates well with Photoshop CS4. You can dock it with other Photoshop CS4 panels, like the Adjustments panel.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel is only compatible with Photoshop CS4 and later. It relies on technology from Adobe Labs that was not available until CS4. In fact, the The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel relies on not just one but two emerging technologies from Adobe Labs: the Adobe Panels SDK and Adobe PatchPanels.
With Photoshop CS4, you can preview changes to your photograph as you make adjustments to the Unsharp Mask settings, Blend If settings, etc. Effective sharpening relies on more than USM settings in isolation. Layer blend mode, layer opacity, and especially the Blend If settings from the Layer Style palette can have a significant visual impact on the overall sharpening effect. Mask width also has a major effect. With the The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel, you can preview the total sharpening effect from all these settings. You can, for example, make USM setting changes and adjust the Blend If settings and then with a single click, see the total effect on your photograph.
Features
There are three views: Unsharp Mask, Blend Ifs, and Preferences. There is a small pop-up menu button in the bottom left corner to navigate among those views.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel works with RGB, CMYK, Grayscale, and L*a*b modes. Few Photoshop plug-ins support L*a*b or even CMYK. With L*a*b mode, Lighter Color and Darker Color will be substituted for Lighten and Darken blends. Lighten and Darken are not supported for images in L*a*b. The USM sharpening effect with L*a*b mode is applied just to the Lightness channel.
There is a small button at the bottom center of the Unsharp Mask view. It toggles the sharpening layer visibility.
There is also an About box. It is accessed from the flyout menu in the upper right corner of the panel.
Settings are not automatically applied as they are changed by the user. There are many possibilities, and applying sharpening effectively is typically done through simultaneous adjustment to several settings. Just press the Apply Settings button in the lower right corner to apply the settings.
The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening panel uses Smart Filter technology. This speeds the application of sharpening adjustments. You can adjust the zoom of the photograph and see the full sharpening effect with this panel as you make adjustments. You can also toggle off the sharpening layer's visibility from the panel to see before/after effects.
If the active layer is named TLR Pro Capture Sharpening, the settings will update the Smart Filter layer when they are applied. Otherwise a new layer is created.
Full preview of sharpening adjustments is more flexible with the TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel than it is with the sharpening filter dialogs in Photoshop. With Photoshop, you can change the USM settings but other adjustments, like Blend If settings, are inaccessible simultaneously. Not so with the TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel. You can easily view the total sharpening effect as you make adjustments with the TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel.
The panel supports both "sticky" settings and presets. There are twenty presets that ship with the panel. You can add others. Presets save all of the details -- USM settings, setting, layer blend, layer opacity, mask width, and Blend Ifs. To make a new preset, there are just a few steps:
- Adjust the settings.
- Give the preset a name in the text box.
- Click on the button for Add Preset.
You can also delete presets that you add. The default presets cannot be deleted.
If you want to change the settings for one of your presets, simply delete it and then add a new preset with the same name.
If you select a preset and then customize it, the preset will change automatically to (None). When there is no active preset, the last settings become sticky. They become the default the next time Photoshop starts. If a preset was active, those will be the defaults.
Installation
Adding the TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel is easy. There are four files. Just add them to the Plug-Ins\Panels folder under your Photoshop CS4 installation.
If you want to keep your panels nicely organized, you can add them to a subfolder. Here's an example of the Plug-ins\Panels folder with subfolders for each CS4 panel.
If you did all of this with Photoshop running, exit Photoshop. Otherwise, fire up Photoshop and go to Window | Extensions. You should find Capture as an option there. Click on it and the panel should open. You can now dock it, if you prefer.
Download
Comments and suggestions for future releases are appreciated. Feel free to use the comment system. The TLR Pro Capture Sharpening panel is the foundation for future CS4 panels from The Light's Right.
Thanks to Bernd Paradies at Adobe Labs for his technical assistance with PatchPanel.
You can download TLR Pro Capture Sharpening panel by clicking here . . .
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RE: TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel
Thanks a million, Mitch! I finally had a minute to download and install the new panel, and now have to go into a meeting before I will have a chance to give it a go!! I know I will be thrilled!! Thanks for all you do for so many of us.
Lauren
RE: TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel
I'll be pleased to hear your experience.
The last two weeks were an absolutely miserable experience at work. So bad, I was prescribed anti-anxiety and anti-depression medications. That's why I did not accomplish much on the site the past couple of weeks until Friday with the actions for Photoshop Elements.
We're tapering off the anti-anxiety medication, which cleared my head enough and gave me enough motivation to finish this panel.
It felt good to successfully complete it. :)
RE: I'll be pleased to hear your experience.
I REALLY like it, Mitch. Nice gentle sharpening! You need to take care of yourself. Get away from the computer and go have a good time with your lovely bride. You are no good to us if you are run into the ground!
Lauren
Good to see this, Mitch --- but
hey Mitch, you've got to take care of yourself!
Meanwhile, two questions:
1. What happened to the Combined mode? and
2. Why the seeming redundancy between the top pull-down menu and the mask-type choice?
best wishes,
gollywop
Good to see this, Mitch --- but
Combined Mode? You mean both edge and surface sharpening?
You can still do that. You would need to do one or the other first: edge or surface. Then rename the layer. Run the panel agan for the other.
I can work on adding the combined mode. I left it out to make the code simpler.
With the Javascripts, the layers are made and that's it. No updates. The panels look to check the layer name and if that's appropriate, they update the settings.
I was trying to avoid messing with layer groups. They are a coding PIA. The relationship between layers and layer groups is tricky at the coding level. They kind of act like layers and then kind of don't.
Sounds like a good suggestion for the next update. I'm confident enough that I can get my head around updating Smart Filters layers within layer groups. It'll be a coding education for me. ;) Plus I'll also work on other suggestions I've received for the panels, like making the Apply Settings button more obvious. (So, keep the suggestions coming, folks.)
(First I need to finish all the sharpening panels. Then I can do an update for this stuff, if that's OK with the community.)
There is no redundancy between the presets and Mask Type. The presets save the USM settings, layer opacity, layer blend, mask type, and Blend Ifs. I just made some convenient presets that include the mask widths in the name. Sorry about the confusion.
BTW, it is not just the mask widths that differ with those presets. Different mask widths call for different USM settings. Typically, Radius narrows and Amount increases as you go from Wide to Extra Narrow. As the sharpening effect become more restricted with a narrower edge mask, you typically need a stronger Amount setting for an increase in perceived sharpness.
User interface suggestion
Really like the capture panel. Defaults are very useful and the extra control is great. I have a suggestion for the user interface.
Eliminate the preferences from the drop down menu and replace the functionality with two sets of radio buttons. One set would be:
Normal masks Enhanced Masks
and the second
No Alpha Channel Alpha Channel.
This way the user doesn't have to leave the page where the action button is located and always knows what options he's selected.
I suggest radio buttons because they provide a binary selector for the user. I find that I sometimes forget if I selected enhanced masks and need to go to the preferences page and then return to the unsharp mask page to execute the sharpening.
Finding the real estate for the radio buttons might be a problem so you could use the check box scheme you currently use.
The panels are a great addition to my PhotoShop tool kit.
Thanks for your hard work.
Les
Website http://www.ncsparks.com
Re. User interface suggestion
Thanks you. These are the kind of sggestions that help a lot.
Instead of a radio button (as you say, panel real estate is at a premium), maybe a second menu button in the center where the option is to toggle layer visibility on/off.
That toggle was a requested feature, but it is just as easy to toggle the layer visibility itself and the space could be better used for choosing no/luminosity/enhanced.
Likewise, I was thinking of replacing the Apply Settings button to a menu button as well. So you could choose to update current layer or create a new layer.
Still find this very confusing
If I've selected HRDC: Medium Edges and then go to preferences to set Enhanced mask, when I return to the main panel page, the main drop-down menu says None. Now, when I return to the preferences page, the Enhanced Mask button is no longer selected -- so I'm not sure what state I'm in.
I agree with the suggestion to make the Enhanced option a toggle on the main page -- and it ought to be sticky. I almost always use the Enhanced option, and it's a bit of a pain to have to remember to select it every time -- and even more of a pain to have to remember to go to the Preferences page to do the selection.
Yes, by the way: in my previous post when I mentioned Combined Masks, I meant both Edge and Surface, which is the terminology you employ in your Actions and Scripts. It would be nice not to have to re-run the actions from the panels to get both when they are desired -- as I find I very often do.
Meanwhile, the panels are clearly coming along very well.
Thanks again for all your effort. I use your actions in virtually every PP session and with all images.
take care,
gollywop
Still find this very confusing
The Enhanced checkbox selection is sticky. At least it is for Windows Vista. I just checked.
If you select an Enhanced Mask, then None will be the selected for the Preset. None of the presets built into the panel use the enhanced mask setting.
This is supposed to happen, BTW, if you change any setting. You are no longer using a preset but instead customizing the settings.
(I found a bug while confirming this. Currently, the Amount slider will not reset Preset to None. It should and will be fixed in the next release.)
Keep in mind, the presets save all of the relevant settings, including whether you want a luminosity mask or an enhanced mask. So, if you select enhanced mask and then select one of the pre-built presets, that setting will change to luminosity mask.
You can save your own presets. If you want to start with one of the presets and change it to use an enhanced mask, follow these steps:
(1) Select the preset.
(2) Select the option for enahnced masks.
(3) Save the preset, using another name.
I'll add the menu button. It is easy to make it sticky.
I'm pleased to hear the panels are working well for you. :)
Pro Capture Sharpening Panel
I'm late to the party but love the new panel! A couple of comments if I may ... 1) the screen shots in the installation section above show "USM" files not "Capture" 2) I have Vista 64-bit but don't see any mention of plugging into CS4 (64-bit) 3) for those with 64-bit memory and GPU acceleration some of the panel defaults might be too pessimistic eg "enhanced masks" - can this be fixed under the hood? 4) can we have some dialog concerning workflow ... how do I judge whether to use ACR or the new TLR panels or both! Thanks for the great work Mitch!
Re. Pro Capture Sharpening Panel
Yes, I cheated on the installation. I've been caught. I need to fix that. ;)
I not sure what you mean about "plugging into CS4."
Settings are sticky. (As long as you don't select another preset.) So, if you select advanced masks, they will remain the default until you chance that or select a preset that changes that.
You can also create your own presets, which of course, can automatically use enhanced masks.
My preference is to use Enhanced masks. The only reason not is performance on RAM starved machines. They combine a standard luminosity mask and a color mask. So, it is not like you lose anything. You don't.
There will be more tutorials and videos. I hope to have some as soon as I finish the creative sharpeners. There is an online "Brown Bag" session on Monday, 5:00 Eastern time.
http://www.thelightsright.com/node/1051#comment-699
on "plugging into CS4" ...
on "plugging into CS4" ... the installation directory name for CS4 plug-ins / presets is different for 64-bit CS4 versus 32-bit CS4 [at least it is on Vista]. My only thought is that your installation instructions don't mention this and it is crucial for success. What about workflow and the blend of ACR with TLR? What do you recommend? If you shoot in RAW format [as I do] you need ACR to open a CS4 object [at a minimum] but I'm not comfortable jumping back & forth. Recovery and Clarity both seem like functions that are not easily found in CS4 or the TLR panels, scripts or actions. Am I wrong? KJ
Add version information
Really like the pro panels. Suggest you add information about version of the panel to the tile, e.g. Pro Capture Sharpening 1.1.
The add a note to the download page that current version is 1.1.
This way those of us who download early versions will know if we have the current version.
Thanks
Les
http://www.ncsparks.com
Re. Add version information
Thanks, Les. The version number is on the About Box.
Re. on "plugging into CS4" ...
I was not aware that 64-bit CS4 used a fifferent subfolder for panels. I thought it was Plug-Ins\Panels.
Now, it sure is true, where Photoshop CS4 installaiton goes is different for each OS: XP, Vista, Mac.
There is a TLR Clarity action set. It emulates the Clarity slider with the benefit that you can control the midtone "roll-off" for the High Pass filter effect.
With RAW, you need to use some sort of RAW processor: third-party, ACR, or Lightroom. If you use ACR or Lightroom, you can capture sharpen there, apply Clarity, etc. Then load the photo in Photoshop for additional processing.
Some photos, you might process entirely in Lightroom. It depends on how critical the work is, etc. Some people only go occasionally to Photoshop. Some, like me, do most of our work in Photoshop.
CS3 Compatible?.........
...I haven't upgraded to CS4 yet.
OOPS...
...I see in your Compatibility box the panel is for CS4 or later.
CS4 (64 bit) - can't seem to get panels up
Mitch
I notice one poster above noted a difference in where to place the panels for vista 64 bit and cs4. I'm wondering if that is the source of my problem. When I go to Window/Extensions, I see 2 instances of "Capture". When clicking on either one, I get a smaller panel whose only tab is 'CAPTURE'. It then shows me Device, Mask, Width, Type. I can select a value for each of these. The final button is labeled "Sharpen". I was going to send a picture of this, but I don't believe I can attach a file here.
Could I possibly be seeing the effects of two 'capture' TLR versions?
Thanks for any thought you might have.
Don
Trap The Light Photography
Hendersonville, TN
Re. CS4 (64 bit) - can't seem to get panels up
Well, we got that person's problem solved. Let's see if we can solve yours. ;)
I want to be sure, you're trying to run the panel from Photoshop CS4, not from te operating system. To open the panel in CS4, you go to Window/Extensions.
To install the files for the panel (there are four of them), go in the Plug-Ins\Profiles subfolder under your Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 installation folder.
(BTW, the Panels subfolder is found in the same folder where you install plug-in filters for Photoshop CS4.)
There are four files to install:
If you like, you can create a subfolder for these files. I call mine TLRCapturePro. Just create it inside the Panels subfolder.
I would recommend that you start with a fresh download and installation.
Let me know how it goes. If this doesn't help, we'll try again. ;)
Mitch
Re. CS4 (64 bit) - can't seem to get panels up
Thanks Mitch. I cleared out everything in the Panels directory, downloaded the capture panel, unzipped it, copied it into a subdirectory in Panels, and it now works. I'll slowly start adding things back into the Panels directory, to see if anything happens.
Really appreciate all of your really hard effort on all of this stuff. I'm still listening to the sharpening video files from you ebook. Lots to consume.
Don
Trap The Light Photography
Hendersonville, TN
CS5 versions?
Mitch, do the current panels run on CS5? If not, do you plan upgrades?
Also, what is the version number of the panel that comes with the download link above. It says 1.0, but everyone seems to be talking about 1.1.
thanks (and glad you're feeling better),
gollywop
CS5 Versions
I do plan CS5 versions. I believe 1.1 is the current version. I'll check.
New video going up today on saturation. :)
I'm editing it right now.
Is there a link for 1.1?
Thanks, Mitch, for the info. When I click the link given above, I get the same file I got months ago, which calls itself 1.0 (dated September 16, 2009). Is there another link for 1.1? And is there one for the Output Sharpening Panel as well?
many thanks,
gollywop
TLR Panel Versions
I just checked what's loaded on my development machine.
Most recent versions:
Capture 1.0
USM 1.1
Output 1.0a
I'll Check
I'll try to find some time today to pop the latest CS4 panels in CS5.
I do plan CS5 versions, since they can be even more interactive in CS5.
Link for Output 1.0a?
Hi again, Mitch. I'm sure CS5 is giving you a new set of headaches. :) Good luck with the panel upgrades.
Meanwhile, I just brought down the Output panel to check what version is linked, and it is 1.0 not 1.0a. Is there a link for 1.0a? And what would be the differences between 1.0 and 1.0a?
thanks,
gollywop
Here's the Link
Sorry. I uploaded it today.
http://www.thelightsright.com/files/tools/TLRProOutputSharpeningPanel/TL...
This panel is really a great
This panel is really a great for people who don't now a thing about photoshop have no time to read dozens of articles concerning this mater, and need something useful and sufficient running quickly
Essay
:)
Panels don't work in CS5
Mitch:
I just got CS5 going on my Mac, running 10.6.3. The panels load, and the actions work. But the panels don't seem to be activating the actions. I click the "apply" button and nothing happens. I can run the actions from the actions window.
Is there something special I need do to get the panels to work, or are CS5 versions going to be needed?
many thanks,
gollywop
Panels don't work in CS5
I am waiting for Adobe Creative Suite CS5 Master Collection. To run in CS5, I need to recompile the panels.
I keep hearing CS5 Master Collection will be here SOON!
thanks, Mitch
Thanks, Mitch. We'll be patient.
love ya,
gollywop
On Their Way
Here's the latest news:
http://www.thelightsright.com/node/1275