Some days ago , a good friend sent me a mail to tell me his enthusiasm for a new sharpening tool he just discovered .I was a little skeptical as I try every soft and sharpening action I can put my hands on and , I thought by myself it should be really good to make me modify my painfully established workflow . As he kept insisting and because I know how picky he is about his photographs and being a maniac about sharpness , I got more curious about his new ' revelation ' and decided to give it a try . Well , I need to thank him for the tip ! Will Focal Blade sharpen your pics much better than USM in PS or some other elaborated software or actions ?

I don't print large enough to know for sure ( that's where it all counts ) but I'm blown away by the results I get and this program is a revelation in the way it does the job . As it lets you keep full control over the sharpening process and the ease with which it works , it's invaluable . To do as well with any other method , it would take much more time , efforts and skills . For as little as $50 ( the student licence costs $29.95 ) this tool will make your life easier , your pics look more as they should look and you will give full credit to your cameras and expensive lenses .

FocalBlade lets you sharpen your photos for screen display and print as well as produce great looking blur, soft focus and glow effects. It is a Photoshop-compatible plugin which can be used in dozens of graphics applications including Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoImpact, Photo-Paint, Fireworks and Photoshop Elements. It works with 8bit and 16bit RGB images.
Overview

FocalBlade features a range of automatic, semiautomatic and manual tools for sharpening photos. It is very easy to use as it offers interactive explanations for each feature, incorporates modes for various tasks (including a Novice Mode) and detailed step-by-step instructions in the manual. FocalBlade lets you sharpen photos quickly and also batch process images in Cloak mode. Moreover, FocalBlade offers numerous options for creating blur, soft focus and glow effects and for deblurring photos that are highly blurred.

You don't need to be an expert to start using Focal Blade . Beginners can use the Novice Mode and experienced users jump to the Expert Mode . One can start his processing from the Novice Mode and move on to more elaborated levels of processing . There is a workflow for every level of skills . As one can keep control over every processing step , the learning curve is fast and easy Also , a window on the lower right gives you full info about what you're doing .


Converted Raw file	Edited in PS	Novice Mode	Expert Mode

Expert Mode is really the way to go . Control levels are multiple and efficient .

At 100% magnification you can view exactly what is going on . The Split Screen function allows you to view the difference between your unprocessed file and how your settings will make it look . Just move the sliders and your image changes . It's so easy to preview how the final processed image will be .

Sophisticated Algorithms

FocalBlade's sophisticated algorithms let you sharpen images without ugly side-effects and give you a lot of control of the sharpening process. FocalBlade sharpens edges and surfaces in an image independently thereby allowing you to keep objects (e.g. sky, walls, skin and other even surfaces) soft while the overall photo is still sharpened. Unlike other tools FocalBlade doesn't produce halos at high radius settings and even provides sliders for suppressing the white and black part of halos independently. Additionally with FocalBlade you can set the pixel size of details that are sharpened. FocalBlade also lets you keep noise constant or even reduce it when sharpening a photo.
Plenty of Tools

FocalBlade provides three automatic sharpening options for achieving perfect sharpening results with different classes of photos. With Screen and Print buttons you can make FocalBlade automatically sharpen for screen display or for printing. There is also a semiautomatic sample area feature, which lets the user focus on an important image area and thereby apply the optimal sharpness to this area. Additionally there are several Split View modes that let you compare the original and sharpened version as well as visually perform sharpening with the help of preview stripes that present you with variations of the current settings. The manual controls include independent Sharpen and Radius sliders, a Soften slider, Halo Fix sliders, several masking options and a glow feature. FocalBlade also offers five different sharpening methods. Opening and saving presets for reusing certain effects is also possible.

Resize of splitscreen.jpg (86347 octets)

Converted Raw File	Edited in PS	Sharpened in Expert Mode as above

Knowing the sharpening should be done as the last part of your workflow , set the final size of your file before to sharpen .

Also , there are choices about screen and print output as the sharpening will be different .

Need I to say I adopted Focal Blade for my everyday workflow ? It's that easy to use and working so well I'm glad I listened my friend's advice . Highly recommended if you' re serious about your images .

Why FocalBlade is Different

FocalBlade combines many methods for sharpening photos without ugly side-effects and offers a tremendous amount of control of the sharpening process. Many other tools don't offer an automatic sharpening mode, add clearly visible halos, increase noise, remove the photographic quality of photos, damage edges or need a lot of experimenting to achieve a good result. FocalBlade lets you sharpen photos without the risk of damaging them. It is flexible as well as very easy to use. Best of all, FocalBlade saves you precious time when sharpening photos and is available at an affordable price.
Don't miss testing the FocalBlade Demo Version on your photos and convince yourself what FocalBlade is capable of...

Sharpening Examples by Roger Cavanogh ( compares several sharpening tools , including Focal Blade ) .