I have posted a free set of three JavaScripts written for Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS2. The scripts will run on both the Windows and Mac platforms.

The scripts are based on a three-pass sharpening philosophy, although they can also be used for single-pass or two-pass sharpening.

I engineered the scripts to include the best features of commercial sharpening tools, like Focal Blade and Photokit Sharpener. Features include:

• Sharpen with Smart Filter or USM sharpening.
• Sharpen edges and surfaces separately (or either alone).
• Sharpen light and dark pixels separately.
• Generate masks using luminosity or enhanced color boundaries.
• Brush in creative sharpening/blurring.
• Haze Reduction.
• Blend If settings protect highlights and shadows.
• Select from presets or take control over settings.
• All sharpening is done non-destructively using layers.
• User-configured default settings
• Optionally suppress the UI and run the scripts in batch mode
without any user intervention.

There is also a 24-page, full color .PDF manual.

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools/TLRProfessionalSharpeningToolkit.htm

The download is 3.7 MB. My site has limited bandwith, so please try again if you experience connection delays. This is likely to be a popular download.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mitch

--------------------
http://thelightsright.com
http://thelightsrightstudio.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheLightsRight/

Thank you for these. I have used them on a couple of shots and they work great!

They look like the Photokit Sharpener software, hope you do not get into trouble with them.

Thank you for these. I have used them on a couple of shots and they work great!

They look like the Photokit Sharpener software, hope you do not get into trouble with them.

You will see an inside joke at the end of the PDF documentation, where I thank Bruce Fraser, Jeff Schewe, and Andrew Rodney for motivating me to create the scripts. ;)

What trouble can I get in? My scripts offer features that Photokit Sharpener does not, such as enhanced masks, user-configurable defaults, adjustable sharpening levels, creation of masks only, the ability to run with no UI at all unattended in batch mode, etc.

The fact that I choose to give away something that Fraser, Schewe, Rodney, et al. prefer to sell (at a price I believe is excessive and with customer service I believe is poor) is *their* problem. ;)

They did make $99.95 out of all of this, however. I purchased a copy of Photokit Sharpener, not to use myself, but to study and incorporate features in my scripts. ;)

I'm pleased you found the scripts helpful! :)

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Mitch

Mitch

I was supposed to read the instructions? Like all good British (or is that Worldwide) males I just jump right in! Anyway I probably would not have recognised the joke, not knowing the people involved.

Extra features - just for me to be able to make a right mess of my photos!

Thanks again.

Bye, just of to your web site to do the right thing.

Well, I was just looking at Webtrends for the site.

Already, more than 2000 people have downloaded the scripts. :)

Cheers,

Mitch

Hi Glenn, I am one of the 2000 downloads and must admit that I've only used the scripts a couple of times and then not critically. I have Photo Shop Sharpeners by PG and have mostly been quite happy with them.

My first blush is that as usual when you craft a product you give it your all. I would request that you try to put out a bit more of instructions for those of us who really need the office hours. You make your programs do so much one could get lost just trying to find all the subtleties.

Your 24 page pdf helped but I yearn for something like the sharpening article you did a couple years back. Hmmm, come to think of it, I printed that and now may be a great time to find it in the file. For others that may not quite grasp what you have given us,The title was/is "Put a fine Edge on your Sharpening skills". That document illustrating the use of these tools would do what I'm requesting.

I hope my rambles come off as positive as I mean, Thanks for this tool set.

I just posted version 1.0f to my site.

It is not possible to close the layer sets generated by the scripts
automatically.

People sometimes forget and get an error and the new layer set stuck
in a previous layer set. Not what they want.

I could have designed the script to make the new layer set on top of
the Layer palette, but that would remove the ability to make an
intermediate layer active and create a new layer right above it.

So, I added code to check and see if the active layer set is inside
a layer set *OR* or it is a layer set. Either event will trigger a
warning to close the action set before proceeding and cause the
script to exit at that point.

This is a more user friendly solution. :)

http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/DigitalDarkroom/PhotoshopTools/TLRProfessionalSharpeningToolkit.htm

Cheers,

Mitch


--
http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com
http://www.thelightsright.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheLightsRight/

I would request that you try to put out a bit more of instructions for those of us who really need the office hours. You make your programs do so much one could get lost just trying to find all the subtleties.

Your 24 page pdf helped but I yearn for something like the sharpening article you did a couple years back. Hmmm, come to think of it, I printed that and now may be a great time to find it in the file. For others that may not quite grasp what you have given us,The title was/is "Put a fine Edge on your Sharpening skills". That document illustrating the use of these tools would do what I'm requesting.

I hope my rambles come off as positive as I mean, Thanks for this tool set.

You came across positive, Robert. :)

Your criticism was clearly intended to be constructive and interpreted that way! I thank you.

I began the A/V production this week of a training CD on sharpening. I've been cogitating on this project for a while. It will contain more than 20 lessons. I am waiting for permission for some images of DSLRs, CMOS imagers, DIGIC chip, etc. from Canon. In the meanwhile, I cut the video and edited the audio for the welcoming chapter, and I'll edit that video today.

I'll consider a PDF tutorial. ;) I'm still inclined in the direction of video, however.

Cheers,

Mitch

I made a minor change to the output sharpener script.

You could get some color shifts with the output sharpener.

The capture and creative sharpeners use a luminosity blend for RGB
images. Experienced users know that USM should use luminosity blend or
fade to luminosity to limit color shifting during sharpening. My
experience is that you should do the same with Smart Sharpen.

Highpass filter sharpening, which is used by the output sharpening
script, uses a layer blend mode. Instead, what you can do is use
Desaturate on the layer to prevent color shifting. Version 1.0g does
just that.

Enjoy your digital photography!

Cheers,

Mitch

Thanks for TLR sharpening scripts. They are great except i'm not able to run them in batch. I have created an action for output sharpening, but for each new opened picture in the batch cycle i keep getting pop-up window where i have to click on "continious Tone" radio, etc. What do I do wrong?

Sorry for English