On 9/17/2019 1:57 PM, Tina Manley wrote:
PESO:
I recently had to reinstall Windows 10 and all of my Photoshop plug-ins had
to be reinstalled, too. The only one I've had problems with is Focus Magic
which I use a lot. I get a runtime error:
Runtime Error (at 5:198):
Internal Error: Failed to expand shell folder constant "userdocs"
The software company is no help just saying that they've never seen that
error before and have no suggestions. I'm tired of messing with it and
started looking for a similar program. I downloaded SmartDeblur but it is
awful and nothing like Focus Magic.
It's important, well, useful, to understand the differences in these programs.
1. The vast majority of sharpening programs/apps use UnSharp Mask, a technique inherited from film, where it was a
physical technique. While powerful and useful in some ways, unsophisticated applications easily lead to troublesome
artifacts. I have not used an USM for sharpening for a long time.
2. Deconvolution is another approach to sharpening that works by recreating detail lost in the aberrations on the lens.
There are quite a few specialized versions that work from knowledge of the characteristics of specific lenses.
Canon does that in their Raw conversion program. DPP. Some speculate that DxO
uses deconvolution in their sharpening.
The only generalized versions that I know are Focus Magic and Topaz InFocus. I did this comparison for another purpose,
but it does provide some idea that Topaz IF will do pretty much what FM does, albeit with a different interface and
settings. <http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/tech/Focus_Magic/_B003950fpACRvsPlugin.htm>
3. The newest approach is AI, in the form of a trained neural network. Topaz Sharpen AI does this. It's both almost
magic, and frustrating.
Like other Topaz AI products, when it works, which is most of the time, it is head and shoulders above anything else
I've seen. Also like their other AI apps, where it doesn't "understand" the subject, or some part of it, it can fail.
I've also had an image where it didn't do anything obviously wrong, but it wasn't as nice a result as FM.
It is also a machine eater, taking what seems forever to do a whole frame. Because it's slow, even at showing previews,
getting to know the settings is also slow.
How Sharp Moose
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What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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