Future Plans for TLR Sharpening Actions and Scripts
Submitted by mitch on Wed, 11/05/2008 - 19:39.
Each time Photoshop CS has upgraded from CS to CS2 then to CS3 and now to CS4, the scripting interface has changed. Javascript support in Photoshop includes some user interface widgets. Even how and where those are displayed has changed in subtle ways, requiring changes to the code.
Actions use Photoshop's user interface. So the only chages to the code -- usually -- is to revise the scripts to leverage new functionality, like the Smart Filters feature of Photoshop CS3.
Each time Adobe Photoshop goes through a version upgrade, I have to reconsider whether to redesign the tools to make them easier to use and easier for me to maintain. That's where I'm at right now. So this is a good time for users to engage me in discussion about the future direction of those tools. Please, use the Comments feature on this site or the forums to communicate with me and others.
I've added two new creative sharpener actions this past week: TLR Portrait Sharpener and TLR Landscape Sharpener. I am thinking of breaking up the actions in the TLR Sharpening Kit into smaller, better organized action sets. I can still .ZIP up things into a toolkit type package. Users can then load in the action sets that interest them.
The advantage of multiple actions sets is that I can post updates easier and add new sharpening tools wiwthout feeling constrained by one big action set.
If you have downloaded the new actions, you will notice that they take advantage of Smart Filter layers to save space and improve performance. Expect more sharpening tools that take advantage of Smart Filters.
I will not completely disregard people with earlier versions of Photoshop, but I am not going to let the older versions slow development of new and improved tools that benefit from new features. That means many new tools will be Photoshop CS3/CS4 compatible and incompatible with earlier Photoshop versions.
For the script users, there might be differences in the user interface for the new CS4 scripts.
The big thing that slows me down with scripts is building the user interface. I place each item and there is no graphic editor for that. So it is excruciating. I use Microsoft Visual Studio as a guide for layout. Then I have to transpose coordinates because Adobe's way of specifying them is different and cumbersome. So every coordinate requires a math calculation. Then I have to tweak it.
There is an automatic layout. I am going to try to use it. If I can, it will speed development greatly for CS4 and beyond.
Actually, I am tempted to pretty much do away with the user interface for the scripts. So, if you have a strong preference, you'll want to give me feedback.
Some tools, like Photokit Sharpener, offer no UI except to choose one of the sharpeners. No settings. I am weighing the idea of making the scripts work pretty much like the actions.
What advantage do actions have? There would be fewer of them and in CS4 I can add them to the Filter menu rather than the Automate menu. In fact, with the Configurator, you can make up your own workspace with them.
You would still be able to customize the scripts, even if I dropped the UI. You just need a text editor. You could easily adjust the effect through layer opacity, layer blend, and Smart Filter layer settings.
I've made no decision -- firm or otherwise -- about the script UI for new versions of the sharpening scripts. I'm tossing this out for discussion.
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More Thoughts About The User Interface
I very likely will keep the UI. The latest versions do use automatic layout.
I might change the dropdown box so that it defaults to digital camera and then allows users to choose among the scanned film options. I can determine the resolution for digital cameras from the image data. That would make the tool a little easier to use.
I might also drop the checkboxes for flattening the masks, enhanced mode, etc. My guess is that most people set them once and that's it. I'd leave them as parameters at the top of the code, so that the functionality is there but streamline the UI.
Future Plans for TLR Sharpening Actions and Scripts
Hi Mitch,
Wow! A comment. Thanks,
Wow! A comment. Thanks, Jess. Always a pleasure to hear from you.
I'll get to work on CS4 stuff soon. I am still waiting for my Adobe Master Collection CS4 to arrive. It always takes longer.
Hi Mitch, It's good to hear
Hi Mitch,
It's good to hear that you've decided to keep the script UI. It is highly usable for me at least. I really hope the new auto layout cut down your UI development time significantly.
The slider control in CS4 seems much better than its CS3 counterpart. Much better granularity. I wonder if that translates into the availability of better slider control for you to use on the script UI as well.
Mitch, I know you have mentioned this before in the Yahoo group post. Some people complained about the sharpening scripts for Photoshop CS oversharpened their image. For me, the amount of sharpening from CS version is just right(all 3 passes). What i don't know is the slider value those people set when running the scripts. If they had set it to 1 or 2, would the CS scripts still oversharpen? The reason i bring this up, is because i often find in the CS3 version of the toolkit i still need more sharpening despite setting the value to 5, the maximum, in capture and creative scripts. Yes, it could totally be because of my lens, my skill and technique, my eyes, or all of the above. However, whatever it is, the CS version i hardly went to level 5 but sometimes I did and it saved the day. Now in the CS3 version, level 5 looks just right but can't go higher when i need to.
Since you are recreating the UI, I was just thinking maybe the new slider control would offer wider granularity, from 1 to 10 maybe, if that makes sense.
Just my adjusted-for-inflation 2 cents. Thank you very much for your effort and time.
Fee
Re. Hi Mitch, It's good to hear
Hi Fee!
It's nice to hear from you. I see you participate actively on Photography-on-the.net forums. :)
The granularity of the slider is completely under my control. I can make it go from 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. I'll think carefully about your suggestion, since it would be quite a bit of coding. You see, those five values are all hard coded for different cameras, mask widths, etc. That's all those arrays at the top of the code.
What I am considering is presets from a dropdown list. The presets would initially set the values for things like USM Amount, Radius, and Threshold. The user could override them. This would redesign those sliders so that they mimicked the sliders in the USM dialog, etc.
The intensity of the effect is controlled by the sliders, by the layer opacity, by the Blend If settings, by the mask width, and by the layer blend for output sharpening (changing the High Pass sharpening layers from Overlay to Hard Light will intensify the output sharpening). Change any of those, and the sharpening effect will change.
I would start with layer opacity. it is very easy to adjust. As a general rule, my sharpening scripts set layer opacity to 65%. You could try increasng that.
If you are using Extra Narrow or Narrow mask width, you might try increasing that.
You can also adjust the Blend If settings. Depending on the source and the kind of sharpener, they can roll off the highlights (and the shadows) well into the quarter tone (or three-quarter tones for the shadows). You could extend the range of affected pixels.
Thank you very much for leaving me a comment. It's helpful to get feedback from users. It makes the product better.
I appreciate those sound suggestions
I appreciate those sound suggestions. Will definitely give them a try next time I sharpen.
Congratulations on a great tool!
Hi Mitch,
just stumbled upon your sharpening toolkit (the atn version) and tried it out on a few of my images. They produce stunning results very easily. Great job done! Waiting eagerly on your CS4 version of the scripts, so that i can try those out as well. Your thoughts on simplifying the UI a little with some sensible defaults sounds like a good idea and a nice balance between convenience of use, but still with all the options available if one needs or choses to use them. Will post more after I dug a little deeper into the sharpening toolkit.
Thanks again, Thorsten
Re. Congratulations on a great tool!
Thanks, Thorsten. I'm always pleased to hear that someone is having good results with the sharpening tools.
I look forward to your future comments. The tools have been improved as a result of helpful comments from users like yourself. :)
Mitch