Why this test ?

Last week , I was editing a bunch of files for which I had to set ISO 800 in order to maintain a suffiscient high shutter speed . While I was satisfied with the pictures , some noise was too apparent for my tastes . I ran the files through Neat Image and went on for the sharpening process . While busy using the softwares I own , I thought I could also give some available demos a try to compare . There must be much more programs worth testing but I used those I could get my hands on .

As I ended with the files to compare to eachother , I had the material available to make this page and share it with you , my visitors . I hope you find it useful .

NOTE : All pics had de-noising through Neat Image before I applied the sharpening , except for ARC and C1LE for obvious reasons : the sharpening was applied during the conversion and the de-noise was made afterwards .

The files for both softwares are like they came out of the processing . Those from the other sharpening softwares are all from the same processed image from BreezeBrowser .

Of course , this test is subjective in the way I used my own settings for each software ( shown on the images on the left ) and viewed them on my own monitor . Your settings and requirements could be completely different but , maybe this will show you a general view on how they work .

Click on any image to enlarge

This is what the author says about his script :

I had a few hours extra time so I decided to look into Photoshop scripting support. After a couple of hours of experimenting, recording and manual coding I ended up with a generic sharpening script that takes into account the image dimensions and then applies the appropriate amount of masked sharpening. The parameters are optimized for D60, I suppose 10D shoud be fine as well. For others, there are clearly (?) documented parameters at the top of the script, please feel free to play around. For web use the parameters should be fine for just about any cam (IMO).

You need PS 7.0.1, the scripting support package (download at http://www.adobe.com/....../product.jsp?product=39&platform=Windows ), and the script (written in JavaScript):

http://www.kolumbus.fi/jouko.ruuskanen/workflow/Sharpen_Generic.zip
Unpack the file and place it the /Presets/Scripts folder under Photoshop. File->Automate->Scripts should display the script. Naturally you can also run the script as a part of an action. Have fun!

I suspect the parameters might be a bit too much for any other than D60 or D10 CaptureOne conversions with mild sharpening... the images come out so clean and can take a lot of sharpening.

It's easy to modify the script, and you have a few options (do only one of them):

1) Around line 10 you can see
var white = 143;
var black = 57;
Change the white value to a smaller one, like 100 or 50, maybe even zero.
Change the black value to a bigger one, like 100, 150 (255 is max)
2) approximately lines 20-30 you can see lines specifying the USM amount
in three places:
amount = 500;
....
amount = 500;;
....
amount = 300;

Change these values to smaller ones, like 300, 300 and 200.

3) At the end of the script (almost) you can find these lines:

// =========Flatten Image ==============================
var id276 = charIDToTypeID( "FltI" );
executeAction( id276, undefined, DialogModes.NO );

Just remove the above lines from the script, and the image will be left with two layers after the script. Then you'll be able to modify the opacity to your liking.

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" Please be aware that I've replaced the script with a bit more sophisticated version. It now checks the EXIF info for camera model (only G2, otherwise the defaults are used ... I did this change because I use it for both D60 and G2 images )
and adjusts the sharpening parameters depending on the ISO value used.
I've also gathered all important variables at the top of the script for easy modification.
Sharpening strength, layer opacity, and blending ranges can be changed there, as well as whether haze removal step (true/false) should be included or not. "
--
Jouko
http://kotisivu.mtv3.fi/ruusnak/selected/index.htm

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Here are my tests with this ( unmodified ) script :

EOS 10D with 70-200mm L 2.8 and TC x 1.4

Files were shot in RAW mode - AWB

Conversion to Tiff was done with C1 , sharpening set to 0 .

The edited files were sharpened with Jouko's script .

The results speak for themselves .

EOS 10D - EF 70-200mm 2.8 L - AWB - ISO 100 - Av Mode : f 8

All the files are unedited in PS . Original files were RAW , converted with C1 with all settings set to 0 .

The TIFF files were converted to Jpeg which were cropped at 50% for size purposes .

The first image of each row is unsharpened .

The second ones were sharpened with a modified action I found on a forum and which can be downloaded here .

The third went through Focal Blade with settings 200 - 1 and corrected for white and black sharpening halo's .

The fourth ones got a treatment with John Bronlow's Smart Sharp action .

Resized Jpeg from original Tiff file	RAW recording settings	Crop Area
	Exposure time 1/250 s F-number 6.7 Exposure program Aperture priority ISO speed ratings 800 Metering mode Average Flash did not fire Focal length 280 mm White balance Auto white balance

Fred Miranda's CS Pro

KPT 6 Equalizer

Quantum Mechanic

Sharp Control