On 8/22/2013 8:13 AM, Brian Swale wrote:
> Nathan wrote:
>> I was anyway doubtful as to whether this software complies with my
>> self-imposed Digital Code of Conduct, and I don't think it does.
I would suggest that it might not be a violation. ALL digitization of analog
images softens fine detail, be it a digital
sensor capturing the image directly from a lens or scanning an analog piece of
film or print.
I explained this, with a simple example, and no math, on Zone-10 long ago.
<http://zone-10.com/cmsm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=149&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=1>
A couple of quotes:
"So the unfortunate truth is that ALLdigitally captured images, including
scanned film, require some sort of enhancement
to reveal to the human eye all the details they contain."
"If I haven’t lost you on the journey, perhaps you will now agree that
sharpening is a natural part of the process of
creating a digital image. And further, that knowledgeable, appropriate
sharpening is needed for the best final image.
Once you learn all that, you will be free and have the proper skills for the
final step, deciding how sharp you want
your image to be for its end use."
As Chuck has pointed out, more than once, there are two places in work flow
where sharpening is usually appropriate. The
first is 'capture sharpening', to recover visible detail lost in the original
digital capture. If using a camera with
lots of MPs, and intending only to display the image uncropped or only slightly
cropped at web sizes, this is superfluous.
The second point is after downsampling for display. This sampling has the same
effect of losing detail as digital
capture, and the detail that's there, but not visible because of lost edge
contrast. Modest, careful USM sharpening or
de-convolution, as in Focus Magic, can restore the missing detail.
Technically, deconvolution is quite different from USM. It mathematically
corrects for lens aberrations. In practice,
with a general purpose application like FM, it mostly acts like a better means
of recovering fine detail than USM.
As something only used to recover what was coming from the lens, but lost in
digitization, it might pass muster.
> I think you might find that it runs as a stand-alone program Nathan, AND you
> get only 10 images out of the trial version before it stops co-operating.
> I have the windows version from a similar notification some months ago and
> now I have 8 uses left before it dies and i will remove it from my computer,
> in all probability.
>
> I remember now; Moose was grumbling at me about something, and
> mentioned Focus Magic as a tool he uses.
I believe it must have been post downsizing resharpening.
> So I tracked it down and tried it.
>
> Not impressed from the first two uses on my machine.. It runs on Windows
> versions from W'95 onwards. I'm using XP on this machine.
Two tries is not a trail at all. It is a powerful and useful tool, with several
options, that requires some time and
practice to use well.
De Con Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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