Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Real World)

List Price: $39.99 Discount Price: $25.00

Customer Reviews:

Wow, a real book for professionals... FINALLY [Posted on 2007-03-08]
As a photographer and owner of a photo-restoration business, this was a very important topic for me. I regularly get out of focus images to restore and often the basic sharpening methods in Photoshop simply aren't sufficient.

There is a lot of theory in the beginning of the book, which is good; helpful especially if you don't have a solid understanding of digital sharpening, but then comes the real meat. Fraser goes into many different ways to achieve the effects you need with detailed instruction. It's sometimes hard to see the changes in his photo illustrations, but trust him and try what he says. My copy is FULL of post-it tabs. Superb book for the professional.

Somewhat outdated by ACR 4.1 but a worthwhile read on an important subject [Posted on 2007-07-05]
Despite appearances, this book is fairly slim and a quick read. Fraser's central tenets are multipass sharpening (to retain your output options plus fit with an automated approach) and the use of masks to isolate sharpening to real edges (to reduce halo width and/or not exacerbate grain/noise).

In practical terms, a lot of what Fraser says just has to be taken on faith as he doesn't engender a methodology for the reader to evaluate overall image sharpness (up until the output pass) on screen. Given the recent changes to the Details tab in ACR 4.1 I suspect a lot of readers will be on their own though as the only guidance this book has is on radius. Still, the creative/output sharpening approaches are proven and just as valid.

Curiously I find most of the "optimally" sharpened half-toned images presented in the book to be somewhat over-sharpened. The digital revolution would seem to have brought about a change of emphasis in maximizing the potential of the file rather than presenting a real world similitude. But maybe all this is a personal thing. I don't think anyone has a mortgage on "optimal" sharpness.

The only other book that I'm aware of that treats sharpening with any depth is Dan Margulis' "Professional Photoshop" which is aimed more on getting images out the door. In my experience, both approaches can achieve similar results on the page.

This book shows the workings of Fraser (and co's) popular Photokit Sharpener commercial product which embodies the approach presented in this book. In fact, there's sufficient detail herein to write your own routines which will give identical results ... at least for the specific examples given. I was curious why he would do so but with foreknowledge of his impending death I think his wisdom was that knowledge lives on longer than products. For this I am grateful.

This book boosted my knowledge and confidence [Posted on 2007-08-09]
This book has taken the mystery out of image sharpening and has boosted my confidence regarding the end quality of my work. Bruce not only explains the "how" of sharpening but also the "why" of sharpening. You no longer have to settle for acceptable results. Go for optimal!

Get it. Read it. You won't regret it.

John Tucker
John Tucker Photography
Portraits ~ Events ~ Assignments

Great sharpening resource [Posted on 2007-11-26]
A excellent sharpening resource for professionals. Not as heavy as John Russ' books, but novice users may find this book a bit over their heads. Still and all, a great book to have on the shelf.

This one is on my must have list.

Jim Hoerricks
http://forensicphotoshop.blogspot.com
Author of Forensic Photoshop - a comrehensive imaging workflow for forensic professionals

Most Effective Sharpening Technique I've ever used! [Posted on 2008-06-02]
I bought this book about 6 months ago and it has become a "bible" of sharpening for me. I shot with 6mp and 8mp (now 10mp) dSLRS and had previously used a single pass of UnSharp Mask or Smart Sharpen for sharpening. (all digital photos need sharpening -- *all* of them -- and in-camera sharpening is not desirable for many reasons)

My photos never came out as sharp as others I had seen published and I kept asking myself, "what am I doing wrong?! Is it my equipment, my photo technique, ...?". Now I know that at least part of it was my *sharpening* technique. Also, I needed to learn that photos properly sharpened for output (printing) will likely *not* look good on the screen (esp at 100%), and how to better judge output sharpness when viewing on the screen. Hints: (1) don't get freaked by apparent sharpening ugliness when viewing at 100% or greater; (2) only view at even zoom factors like 25% and 50%; and (3) 50% is often a fair zoom to use when judging sharpening for output.

The results I've seen from the sharpening techniques in this book range from "great" to "oh-my-god-this-is-*fabulous*". I'm finally producing photos that are as sharp as I had always hoped for, comparable to anything I've seen published.

Bruce Fraser starts at the beginning, explaining the need for sharpening, and proceeds to build a case for why a three-level sharpening process is so effective (Source Sharpening, Content/Creative Sharpening, and Output Sharpening). After you're convinced by his sound reasoning that this is a good idea, he details *how* to implement this 3-pass sharpening process. I codified the three passes into Photoshop Actions, which now take no more time for me to run than the single-pass sharpening I had previously done.

I keep this book in my car or on my shelf, with dozens of post-it tags sticking out where I added my own indexing to all the good parts. I'm sure that this book will become ragged with use, over the years. It is without a doubt the most useful photography book I've bought in the last 10 years.

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