Finding Edges

I'm trying to approximate the edges of a arbitrarily shaped
movie clip using Flash 7. These shapes are not compound, but they
could be a little complex.
My idea was to "place" some points around the bounding box of
the clip and then "move" each point on a line through the center
until it hitTested on the shape. This works well enough for shapes
like a circle or square, but not so well if there are recessed
areas in the shape -- imagine the inside of a "G".
You can use the code below to see what I mean. Paste it on
the first frame and make sure to have your shape (of a decent size,
maybe around 100 to 200 pixels in either direction) on the stage
with an instance name of "clip" and have a small round dot in the
library set to export with the linkage id of "dot".
I'm just wondering if anybody has any interesting ideas on
other approaches or how I could do this. Remember that I don't have
the BitmapData class. Thanks.

Okay, I'm taking this a bit further. I've come across the
marching squares algorithm and trying to use it. So far it is
working great.
So here is what I'm doing. I've got an arbitrary black shape
in a movieclip.
I start checking a four pixels square (x,y) and (x+1,y+1)
define the corners, for hits. The pattern of the hits define one of
16 patterns for that square. As long as there are no hits we move
along to the right until we find at least one pixel that is a hit.
The one pixel means we have found the edge of the shape.
Pushing the x,y coordinates of the marching square into an array
that will define the edges of the shape. From there we move
clockwise around the edge of the shape testing and moving
appropriately until we come back to the start.
It actually works quite well.
So here is my next question. What if my shape is compound? So
inside the same clip there are two shapes. I'm trying to figure out
how to keep checking for more shapes. So for example if my shape is
a lower case letter "i." I will nicely trace out the dot over the
i, but then it is done.
Any suggestions on how to get it to find the lower part?
I'm thinking of picking up the first bit of testing again
while somehow keeping track of which bits of grid I've visited and
not testing those again. But I'm not sure how one would go about
doing that -- especially quickly. Any ideas?

Similar Messages

Find Edges Filter in Flash AS 3?

I've been scrubbing though google trying to get up to speed
with AS3, and with a particular job/problem to solve. I need to
take a dynamic image, desaturate it, and create the Photoshop
effect of the Find Edges filter. Does this seem even vaguely
possible? I've got the desaturate part working... no thanks to my
own brains.

Since it's possible in AS2 it's certainly possible in 3.
Here's a little
sample that will do vertical edge enhancement... All you need
is to import
a bitmap into the library then give it a linkage id to feed
to the
loadBitmap method. Hopefully, this is enough to get you
started.
If you want to do it the hard way it's easy to write a
convolution kernel,
it just won't be as fast. Google 'Sobel' which is the edge
detection
algorithm used by Photoshop.
import flash.filters.ConvolutionFilter;
import flash.display.BitmapData;
var filter:ConvolutionFilter = new ConvolutionFilter(3, 3,
[-1,0,1,-2,0,2,-1,0,1]);
var bit:BitmapData =
BitmapData.loadBitmap("bitmapLinkageID");
var mc:MovieClip = this.createEmptyMovieClip("mc",
this.getNextHighestDepth());
bit.applyFilter(bit, bit.rectangle, new Point(0,0), filter);
mc.attachBitmap(bit, this.getNextHighestDepth());
Dave -
Head Developer
www.blurredistinction.com
Adobe Community Expert
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/

Automate Shape Builder ... or ... Find Edges (?)

Hi, I'm using Illustrator CS5 to create simple black and white line drawings that I want to export as SVG, but I have a certain requirement about how the paths are defined... not sure how to describe it. So, for example, say that I create a star with the star tool. Then I make another star from the same center point, same size, but this time rotated. If you select them both and take the shape builder tool, as you hover over you'll see individual, enclosed "pieces" of the two stars... each piece delineated by the path edges surrounding the current location of the mouse pointer. If you click on one of those "pieces", it creates a new path that matches that delineated area. That is exactly what I want (so happy the capability is there)! Now, my question... is there a way to instruct Illustrator to find all such "pieces" in the drawing and convert them to these new paths as though I had clicked each one with the shape builder tool? I tried to search for "find edges", but I think I may be remembering a function in PS... its been too long.
I've searched around the forums and the internet, but it has been many years since I used Illustrator and I'm not sure of all the terminology... and maybe there is a simple way to do this and I just never knew! :-) I have started to look through the capabilities available to scripting, but decided a forum post might save me some time. Thanks!

Thank you very much!

How do i find the diameter of a ring in an image?

I'm new to Labview, so i dont know how to use Vision Assistant 7.1 to find the diameter of a ring in the following image. Can someone guide me through the steps?
Attachments:
whole seal.jpg ‏302 KB

Hey Mark07,
You will want to use the Circular Edge (Spoke) Step in order to detect the edge of the circle, and give you a center point to your circle. You will probably have to adjust the parameters of the Circular Edge Setup, such as the Gap and the Edge Strength in order to get a best fit circle. Then you can use some other edge detection Step in order to find a point on the edge of the circle. Then you can use the Caliper Step in order to calculate the distance from the center of the circle to the edge of the circle, and then multiply that value by 2 to get the diameter. Again, remember that the Vision Assistant software is not meant to be run as an executable program, so you can do even more once you get into LabVIEW or whatever software you are using and use the other Vision functions. There are multiple ways you can probably do this, but this is just one suggestion that I can think of. Also, Chilly Charlie did have a good point of getting better lighting to clean up your image, so that when you do process a lot of these images, it will be easier to find edges and such. Last, a great way to learn the different aspects of the Vision Assistant Steps is to play around with them and see what they do, or you can read the help documentation, but I think hands on is better. Anyways, let me know if you have any questions or concerns about my suggestion. Thanks, and have a great day.
Regards,
DJ L.

IMAQ Find Edge shows straight edge beyond part

Hello
I am working on finding the sides of my simple part with the IMAQ Find Edge tool. To make it simple, I gave my image an extreme threshold with IMAQ Threshold manually set 0 - 230 so My part basically shows up Black against a white background. I set the ROI of the Part from IMAQ Count Objects 2, expanded that ROI by a couple pixels on each corner of the bounding box and input that into my IMAQ Find Edge tool. I have two IMAQ Find Edges, one looking left to right finding all edges and the other top to bottom finding all edges. It took a while, but I have all Straight edges appearing using the results from Find Edge.
What I don't understand is why these lines are longer than the edges of the part sides? I have attached the image to show what I mean. The edges (yellow) are clearly found on the part, but the resulting lines (red) are beyond these points.
Kelsi
Attachments:
Find edges.png ‏7 KB

Also am I setting up my edge detect functions wrong? I am filtering my image so I only see the object, no shadows. I am thresholding the image to basically outline it. Now I am using the edge detect function to find the edges and it can't seem to find them all. I have an object that I set my ROI about it, and I have the settings for the edge detect on very low to detect basically any edges possible. It still does not consistently see the edges of my object.
Is there a more reliable way to consistently see these edges?
Kelsi
Attachments:
edge detect1.png ‏874 KB
edge detect2.png ‏888 KB
edge detect3.png ‏203 KB

Advantages of Find Circular Edge 3 over previous versions?

This particular IMAQ vision tool seems to have gone through a number of iterations. Can anyone comment on whether it actually does a better job of finding edges?

Hi another_novice,
I am not aware of the actually performance difference but you can compare their functionality with the documents below. The most noticeable difference is Find Circular Edge 3 has many more image input types than the other two, so now you can incorporate color.
IMAQ Find Circular Edge 3 VI
http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370281P-01/imaqvision/imaq_find_circular_edge_3/
IMAQ Find Circular Edge 2 VI
http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370281M-01/imaqvision/imaq_find_circular_edge_2/
IMAQ Find Circular Edge VI
http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370281L-01/imaqvision/imaq_find_circular_edge/
Tim O
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

Is there a way to remove colour in PSE 7

I would like to remove colour from images to enable them to be printed out and then coloured in by children - turning them black and white does not work obviously and I have not had much look changing the colour with the eyedropper tool as it is not precise enough.

What you want is transforming your image into a sort of drawing with only edges so that what has to be colored remains white. The nearest tool to do that is the filter : ...Stylize/find edges. You'll need to erase within the edges to get something clean. Another way would be to use various selection tools and to use the menu edit/stroke to create a clean new layer. It would need to work on small parts of the image and combine the resulting drawings.

How to export my vector lines at different sizes

Hi. First post here. I have been using photoshop and illustrator at my university. I need some help exporting my graphics at known pixel dimensions. Illustrator seems to give the cleanest results, and the stroke antialiasing is much better than in photoshop, so I'm keen to do my final export from illustrator.
I have attached four images to show what I'm doing.
1 - depth map, this is rendered from a 3D terrain package. White = far, black = near
2. Find edges in depth map - the values in this image correspond to the depth discontinuities in number 1. High values = large depth edges
3. Import into illustrator - do a live trace, stroke, set threshold. Get some nice vectors
4. Convert to live paint, set stroke width. Antialiasing is great
OK. My questions are:
a) How do I export a jpg at a fixed size, in this case 640 by 360? I want my original depth maps to be much higher resolution so I get quality vectors, but I want to export the final image at 640 x 360. I haven't figured out how to resize the original to those dimensions
b) Are there different antialiasing styles to mess around with? When I zoomed in on a microsoft word screenshot I noticed the antialiasing was in colour around black text. I wonder if that could be useful to me
c) If you have any better techniques for vectorising and then rasterising for display these mountain lines, please let me know.
Thank you!!!

Jacob Bugge wrote:
jt,
To get a 640 x 320 px JPEG, set the reolution (as Export option) to 640/W, where W is the Width in inches; or similarly for height.
I definitely do not know of this option though it would be good to have such a setting.
But what you have do if you are not using Save for Device and Web is to actually make a copy of the art turn off the visibility of the original art
then resize the copy to your desired dimension either width or height, in this case probably width.
Then make a new art board, holding the shift key down allows you to make one within the bounds of another artboard.
Then double click the artboard tool to enter the dimension of you desired jpeg
then reposition the art in the artboard you just made and then export to jpeg using the Use Artboard option and selecting that artboard.
So if you set the artboard to 640x360 pixels that is what you will get.
Save for Device and Web is easier there you can enter dimensions

Favorite Sharpening Methods?

Copied from the archive, with BUMP replies weeded out. ======================================================= Lindas Graphics - 04:29am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific Discussion on favorite sharpening methods in Photoshop. I normally use Unsharp Mask, Amount: 100 / Radius: .5 / Threshold: 0 -- followed by Fade with Luminosity Mode. Recently I've started experimenting with the Hi Pass Filter. There seems to be many different tutorials on sharpening, each one's method slightly different. I'd be interested in other user's favorite methods and why. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 05:52am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#1 of 68) At the pro level ... well then the answer must be "it depends". Regards, Victor Lee. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 07:32am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#2 of 68) This is a good starting point: http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/11242.html Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 07:41am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#3 of 68) Mathias, Thanks for that link. Another good article from Bruce. But I'm a little puzzled by "Figure 1a: Unsharpened" which to me is clearly sharpened already. Regards, Victor Lee. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 10:32am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#4 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 11:34am PST Mathias: I remember reading that tutorial in the past but forgot where it was. Bruce Fraser is one of my favorites when it comes to Photoshop. I've printed the tutorial along with the follow-up one he did. I'm glad you posted the link. Thanks! I'm interested in the methods you people use for sharpening. Does anyone else use the High Pass Filter? <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 11:30am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#5 of 68) Linda, Yes, I do. I use the overlay sharpening technique. Sometimes. It really depends on the subject. For web photos, I often use PS´ USM with a setting of 50, 0.3, and then re-apply it often four times. If you don´t know what the right radius setting should be, first, pull up the amount setting to max, then adjust the radius setting untill the right details are sharpened, then lower the amount to a reasonable setting - and then use 25% of this amount and re-apply four times. Works for me! See http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ for various techniques I´ve recorded, including the overlay sharpening technique. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 12:47pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#6 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 01:48pm PST I use a technique that has delivered reliable results for me, for what it's worth... I convert the image to lab mode, and make my adjustments on the the Lightness layer (a copy really) to avoid color shifts. I basically select the glowing edges, apply a gaussian blur filter, then basically, apply the Unsharp filter. When it's finished, I convert back to RGB mode. Its not original, it's a modification of an action found in PhotoScan Factory actions found in Xchange. But it produces VERY good results for me on MOST of the stuff I do. I hope this thread keeps going as sharpening is of huge iterest to me since my work requires the removal of moire patterns. [edit] By the way, i use the high pass filter followed by fade on the textual portions of my images (black text on a white background) that have been overblurred by the gaussian blurr filter. It produces some pretty nice results for me. Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:55pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#7 of 68) Now this is getting interesting. I appreciate the elaboration. I look forward to trying your techniques and variation. Thanks Mathias and Tony. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> glen deman - 07:45pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#8 of 68) You can also sharpen individual channels. Try sharpening (or unsharpening, I guess it is!) the "weakest" channel of the image, or the channel with the least detail. I've found that this will often be the red channel; when you do this, you sharpen the image but avoid some of the pitfalls of sharpening, like halos and artifacts. I think I saw this in Photoshop Artistry. Glen <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Danny Raphael - 09:34pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#9 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 10:37pm PST Here's a no cost edge sharpening action that's pretty nifty. Scroll down to the BOTTOM of this page at FredMiranda.com: http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 10:57pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#10 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 11:58pm PST Danny, I would say LOW cost, not NO cost - he's charging $8.50 for the action. Personally, I'll pass. Thanks for the link though. Peace, Tony [Edit] DOH! I didn't scroll down far enough, there's a "lite" version offered for free below the one he charges for. My mistake, sorry. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mark Reynolds - 05:25am Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#11 of 68) Seems fairly pointless - I can almost tell you what the $8.50 will get; you: Make an edge mask first using the Find Edges filter on an alpha channel. This can then be blurred slightly and Levels adjusted. Duplicate the base layer and run unsharp mask to taste on the duplicate. Load the alpha channel into a layer mask on the Sharpened layer. This will sharpen the edges only - very useful for skin tones where you don't want any accentuation of noise and texture. The layer mask can also be adjusted (Blur and Levels again, and Maximum ) to enhance or spread the sharpening. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 06:09am Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#12 of 68) I´m one of those that believe that Freds actions, although valuable, are not worth the money. But I know that a lot of people are willing to pay. Actually, seeing Fred charging for his actions was a major motivator for me to develop the digital deluxe action set. - Which is free ofcourse. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Don Stefanik - 12:02pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#13 of 68) Edited: 24-Jul-2002 at 01:04pm PST And a great set of actions they are Mathias... I use them quite a bit. They are one of my favorites. Don <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 02:13pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#14 of 68) Thanks Don, Only the de-noise actions are my own invention, the rest are variations of known techniques, invented by others. I just recorded and published them. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Dean Holland - 04:43pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#15 of 68) An off-the-wall sharpening approach that I use very occasionally. Sometimes a subject (especially plain tones) can stand strong amounts of only the light or the dark part of the USM halo. You can separate them thus: Duplicate the layer and USM the copy (you can go slightly harder than normal). Duplicate the copy, and change the blend mode of one copy to lighten, and the other copy to darken. At 100% opacity for both copies, you have the normal effect of the USM, but by varying the opacity of these layers, you can separate the amount of lighter halo and darker halo the subject gets, allowing slightly more USM than normal without it looking too crunchy or noisy. I think I read this in Dan Margulis' Book Professional Guide to Color Correction, which has an excellent chapter on sharpening with heaps of other ideas. Warm regards, Dean [Posted from Australia] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 05:38pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#16 of 68) Very cool ideas people. I'm enjoying this and keeping notes for when I can stop long enough to experiment on different kinds of images. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 12:17pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#17 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 01:28pm PST I'm back and want to keep this thread alive. Re-reading your posts and think your ideas so far are interesting. The link Mathias provided also covers Noise. I think dealing with Noise goes right along with the topic of Sharpening. I welcome your comments on Noise as well. I personally try to deal with Noise channel by channel. As a rule the blue channel seems to have the most Noise. But what I find tricky is when the sharpest channel (usually green) ends up having the most Noise, which does happen sometimes. My method is to use the Median Filter on the Noisy Channel then Fade. If you do it channel by channel you cannot use Luminosity Mode though -- one advantange of correcting all the channels together. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 01:07pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#18 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 02:27pm PST Re Post #5: <<For web photos, I often use PS´ USM with a setting of 50, 0.3, and then re-apply it often four times. If you don´t know what the right radius setting should be, first, pull up the amount setting to max, then adjust the radius setting untill the right details are sharpened, then lower the amount to a reasonable setting - and then use 25% of this amount and re-apply four times. >> Mathias: On Web photos I'm curious why you do the sharpening in quarters instead of all at once. I assume that you do not use the Fade filter combined with Luminosity Mode. I am experimenting on a low res photo of an older person I recently took with my digital camera. I tried it both ways (all at once and in 4ths) but cannot seem to see any difference between the two methods. By the way, I'm not trying to find holes in your methods, on the contrary I think they are interesting and I'm enjoying the challenge. Oh yes, and another thing -- Your method of determining Radius is helpful. I tried that and came up with the same setting you did: .3 <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 01:44pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#19 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 02:46pm PST Okay Tony, it's your turn. ) I'm slowing making my way down the list. Re: Post #6 << I convert the image to lab mode, and make my adjustments on the the Lightness layer (a copy really) to avoid color shifts. I basically select the glowing edges, apply a gaussian blur filter, then basically, apply the Unsharp filter. When it's finished, I convert back to RGB mode. >> Question: When you select the glowing edges, does that mean you run the Glowing Edges Filter first and then select the highlights? If so, how do you determine what settings to use for the Glowing Edges Filter? And then how do you determine what settings you use for the Gaussian Blur Filter? Just curious. One more thing: I assume you use this Lightness Channel Copy just as a means of loading the edges for the final step of running unsharp mask on the original channel, followed by deletion of this channel copy. Is this correct? <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 02:47pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#20 of 68) Linda, I have also developed a noise action that basically medians the L+a+b channels manually, and applies a 'manual' edgemask. This action demands more selective mask editing, and more user input, but it is 'stepless' - usable on all ISO speeds. This action, which is just a classic median de-noiser with a twitch, is not published yet. The subject of noise is pretty big.. It is also interesting. Sharpen in four steps Try it on another image. You really need different sharping for each image. Examine at 200%. The edge halos in the stepped version is less pronounced. You can use this stepping method on all the classic filters and techniques for a better resampled pixel. I assume that you do not use the Fade filter combined with Luminosity Mode. I used to do that. Now I sharpen a merged layer and put this in Luminosity mode to avoid any color shifted pixels, and to keep everything neat and un-destructed. If I want, I apply an edgemask to this layer. There´s another method I use. This method is called <a href=http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/USM.HTM>Real Unsharp Mask</A> (I´ve got it actionized as well). It is very nice for certain subjects and contrast enhancements. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 02:55pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#21 of 68) Mathias, There was some mention of actions that you have for download. I'd like to try them. Where are they please? Regards, Victor Lee. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 03:30pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#22 of 68) Here: http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ (I think its listed in my profile.) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 03:40pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#23 of 68) Mathias: I tried your "Real Digital Unsharp Masking" technique on the same photo I was experimenting with previously. I found at the end that the photo was considerably darker so I duplicated the original untuched layer, selected Screen Mode and lowered the opacity to 70%. Above this layer is the layer with the mask applied in Luminosity Mode, opacity lowered to 50%. Below both layers is an original untouched layer. The results are good but different from the other (4 Times) method. I can't tell which is better. Both are good. I enjoyed seeing how Unsharp Masking works this way. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 03:43pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#24 of 68) The luminosity switching is the big problem with RUSM. You can control it by experimenting with setting the brightness / contrast levels, and/or with a final curves adjustment layer. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Dean Holland - 03:46pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#25 of 68) Mathias, I very much like the Real Unsharp Mark... like sharpening and a contrast mask in one. Linda... after hard unsharp masking, I sometimes attack the worst of the noise in shadows with the "Dust and Scratches" (D&S) filter on a duplicate of the image. Use a small radius (1-2) and very high threshold (30-60) to just zap those pixels that have gone way out of line. Use a luminosity mask to just let the D&S layer show through in the shadows, otherwise the image will be softened overall. It's similar to your median approach. Dean [posted from Australia] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 03:50pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#26 of 68) I'll give it a try Dean. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 04:09pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#27 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 05:13pm PST Dean: That did not work very well on the image I'm experimenting with. It seems those settings do not produce a very good blur. It actually seems to produce extra artifacts. I'm just wondering why you might have chosen those settings. When I use D&S with Radius 1, Amount 1, Luminosity Mode, Opacity 50% -- It seems to work better. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 05:59pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#28 of 68) Thank you, Mathias. --Victor <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Dean Holland - 08:37pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#29 of 68) Linda, Ah... it's probably due to differences in medium. I'm using 4000dpi scans of 35mm film, often fairly grainy film. Your digital image probably starts off with less noise, so hard USM doesn't give you the wacky pixels that I get. Play with whatever settings seem to work best for you. Good luck! Dean [posted from Australia] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 10:12pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#30 of 68) Hi Carol... RE: "Question: When you select the glowing edges, does that mean you run the Glowing Edges Filter first and then select the highlights?" Yes. "If so, how do you determine what settings to use for the Glowing Edges Filter? And then how do you determine what settings you use for the Gaussian Blur Filter? Just curious." I found an action in Adobe XChange called PhotoScan Factory that contains this technique - it's not my own. I have had to tweak the glowing edges and gaussian blur settings from time to time, but in general through trial an error have found a range of values that I like. So, I run the action with my tweaked settings, if I don't like it, I run it with the dialog boxes enabled and adjust more. In general my settings for glowing filters are: Edge Width 3 Edge Brightness 8 Smoothness 5 Then a gaussian blur of 0.9 to 1.1 is run on the lightness channel copy that had the Glowing Edges Filter run on it. Then the channel is loaded as a selection, then deleted. Finally, the glowing edges/blurred selection is Sharpened at about 180 with a radius of 2.1 and threshold of 0. After this is done, of course, it's just clean up with the lightness channel deleted and converted back to RGB mode. RE" One more thing: I assume you use this Lightness Channel Copy just as a means of loading the edges for the final step of running unsharp mask on the original channel, followed by deletion of this channel copy. Is this correct?" Exactly. I have found that by doing it this way, I experience little or no color shift as compared to most USM techniques. It is fair to point out the following. Most of my images have moire patterns - it's the nature of my work. So prior to running the sharpening procedure, the images are heavily blurred using gaussian blur (heavily =1.1 - 1.3). Since that is the case, the sharpening process I use *may* be too strong for some, but is just about perfect (or as perfect as you can get until I read another cool method in this thread <grin>) for me. I'll be reading with interest... Peace, Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:07am Jul 31, 2002 Pacific (#31 of 68) Dean: You are probably right on target there. I'm playing around with an image that I've downsized to 72dpi. It does make a difference. Thanks! Tony: Thanks for all the helpful information. I've got work to do this morning but will come back to this conversation again when I get a breather. This is quite interesting. Linda -- not Carol ) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 01:00pm Jul 31, 2002 Pacific (#32 of 68) Linda, Linda -- not Carol ) Geeze, I'm sorry - don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that. You may herein refer to me as Dolt. Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:36am Aug 1, 2002 Pacific (#33 of 68) LOL -- No problem Tony. I can't wait to come back to this topic as soon as I catch up on other things and can give it more attention. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lexorin - 03:12pm Aug 1, 2002 Pacific (#34 of 68) Edited: 01-Aug-2002 at 04:17pm PST Just noticed someone already mentioned this... Convert image to LAB mode. Select the lightness channel in the channels palette. Run unsharp mask as you normally would. Revert image back to original mode. Working on just the lightness channel in lab mode keeps unsharpmask from sharpening your color values. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 12:57pm Aug 4, 2002 Pacific (#35 of 68) It never hurts to restate something like that Lexorin. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 08:21am Aug 6, 2002 Pacific (#36 of 68) Keeping this thread alive. Will be doing some intensive repairs to my hard drive, followed by reinstallation of software. I hope to come back to this thread when things are back to normal. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 12:18am Aug 8, 2002 Pacific (#37 of 68) I found aPDF about different methods of sharpening: http://www.dimage.org/NewFiles/J.%20Winberg%20Sharpening%20Presenta tionText.pdf <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 08:20am Aug 9, 2002 Pacific (#38 of 68) Pierre, That was a very nice contribution. I happen to be saving this thread as sharpening methods are extremely important. Thanks. Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Enrique Ivern - 11:07am Aug 9, 2002 Pacific (#39 of 68) Pierre, thanks...always useful to have a brief cookbook to consult! Not clear if you're the author...if so, thanks again, if not, thanks to the unknown author... Cheers. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> vEnrique Ivern - 03:11pm Aug 12, 2002 Pacific (#40 of 68) Pierre, I just printed the whole document....thanks also then to Jack Winberg, the author. Cheers, <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 12:34am Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#41 of 68) I said I've found it using Google... I'm still in the learning curve of PS (as EVERY user is ) Maybe one day... <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 01:06am Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#42 of 68) I have to say that I am having some VERY nice results from the Digital Deluxe action set, specifically the contrast masking, edge masking, and high pass sharpening. The high pass sharpening adds that "ever so little" tweak I need after my normal sharpening methods. Great Actions, Thanks! <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 08:37am Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#43 of 68) You´re welcome, Tony. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 02:59pm Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#44 of 68) I'm so glad to see that you all are still participating. This is a nice group. Thank you Pierre for the PDF link. I'm keeping busy and so unable to continue experimenting for now, but like Tony I'm keeping this thread for future use and reference. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:11pm Aug 23, 2002 Pacific (#45 of 68) Things have been hectic at this end. I have no idea when I'll have time to get back to this topic. Still, I guess I'll try to keep it alive since it contains so much good stuff. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> dave milbut - 07:20pm Aug 23, 2002 Pacific (#46 of 68) I've got Kai's PT v6... has anyone had any luck with the equalizer there for sharpening? Everything seems so drastic when I use it, alot of contrast sharpening. I'd like to hear from some people who've had more luck than me 'cuz I think I'm missing something there. Thans for a great thread, also saving. dave <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 12:48pm Aug 25, 2002 Pacific (#47 of 68) I've got KPT 6 too but never used the Equalizer. I too would be interested in comments on it. So far I just keep doing the UnSharp Mask method. It works well for most normal sharpening. Specialized sharpening seems good for special needs. Noise reduction is often just as important as sharpening. What's challenging is when you have to deal with both noise and sharpening on the same photo. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> dave milbut - 02:08pm Aug 25, 2002 Pacific (#48 of 68) For noise reduction (and addition), I'm really digging the beta of AlienSkin's Image Doctor. I can't wait for the full package to be released. You can get the beta from their site and play around with it. dave <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 03:59am Aug 26, 2002 Pacific (#49 of 68) Thanks Dave. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 11:05am Sep 9, 2002 Pacific (#50 of 68) I found this pretty nifty trick from Russell Browns Tips site. A very nice technique that plays as a QT movie. http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html Peace, Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 04:36am Sep 14, 2002 Pacific (#51 of 68) Hi Tony. I've been busy dealing with computer problems in the middle of trying to keep my work going. I've ordered a new Mac (ducking) so hopefully I will have more time when things start running smoothly again. Thanks for the link. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 04:39am Sep 14, 2002 Pacific (#52 of 68) Linda, I too am keeping a keen eye on this thread and in fact, have made a PDF out of it since I will have to review it from time to time. Since the work we do involves removing Moire patterns, sharpening is of paramount interest <wink>. Get your new system, have some fun, then... back to work for you! <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:17am Sep 14, 2002 Pacific (#53 of 68) Yes Sir! ) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 03:55am Sep 17, 2002 Pacific (#54 of 68) Again other Sharpening tutorials (not new) at: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/smart_sharp.shtml an High-Pass one: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/high-pass-sharpening.sh tml <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:35am Oct 1, 2002 Pacific (#55 of 68) Thanks Pierre. I'm swamped. I'll be back again. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:39am Nov 28, 2002 Pacific (#58 of 68) Edited: 28-Nov-2002 at 06:42am PST Maybe some of you might like to comment on an opposite problem. I've just done a photo correction. That part was easy. Dealing with noise is the hard part. The noise is out of control. I've tried targetting individual channels as well as going into Lab Mode but not getting the best results so far. Here is a <A HREF=http://www.graphicspalmbeach.com/porfolio/burttracyjohn.html><FO NT COLOR=ROYALBLUE>link to the page</A> I posted. You can see the noise in the enlarged eyes portion. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 04:16am Nov 29, 2002 Pacific (#59 of 68) Edited: 29-Nov-2002 at 04:17am PST Lindas, When I hear noise, I think about Mathia's Digital deluxe toolbox... http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ there are other non-freeware package for this task... try also the demo from http://www.neatimage.com/ (stand alone program) Hey, who's the guy next to Tracy and John? (on the sharpening side, I found this: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/PSTV_downloads.html while searching for de-noising actions) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 05:39am Nov 29, 2002 Pacific (#60 of 68) Thanks Pierre. In this case, I think NeatImage is the better choice. De-noise Deluxe is aimed at digital noise, and this seems more like film grain to me. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:41am Nov 29, 2002 Pacific (#61 of 68) Edited: 29-Nov-2002 at 06:42am PST Pierre: Thank you for the links. << Who's the guy next to Tracy and John? >> You got it! ) Mathias: You're right, it is film grain. I had only a photo to work with. It was scanned on the Epson Expression 1680 at a higher resolution and then sized. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:27pm Dec 15, 2002 Pacific (#62 of 68) Edited: 15-Dec-2002 at 07:27pm PST I've done more practice on noise by taking the channels apart, giving each one a major overhaul, then pasting them over the original document's channels. Trouble is, what looks good on screen looks not so wonderful when printed. I really want to improve my own PS techniques rather than use a plug-in. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 10:21am Jan 10, 2003 Pacific (#63 of 68) Edited: 10-Jan-2003 at 10:22am PST I think Mathias' actions are pretty impressive. It's worth posting his LINK again. One day I plan to study each action step in detail. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 09:44am Jan 11, 2003 Pacific (#64 of 68) I agree with Lindas - Mathias' actions are part of a process that I use daily; although I've tweaked them a bit, his concept in sharpening, edge enhancement, and contrast masking is quite sweet. When I first downloaded his actions, I posted in a thread my thanks to him as once of them was the finishting touch that I needed. It's worth repeating the "Thanks!" Peace, Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Tenna Sutfin - 09:40am Jan 28, 2003 Pacific (#65 of 68) Can you send me your action for ridding yourself of moire patterns? [email protected] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> End of Archived Thread

Copied from the archive, with BUMP replies weeded out. ======================================================= Lindas Graphics - 04:29am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific Discussion on favorite sharpening methods in Photoshop. I normally use Unsharp Mask, Amount: 100 / Radius: .5 / Threshold: 0 -- followed by Fade with Luminosity Mode. Recently I've started experimenting with the Hi Pass Filter. There seems to be many different tutorials on sharpening, each one's method slightly different. I'd be interested in other user's favorite methods and why. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 05:52am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#1 of 68) At the pro level ... well then the answer must be "it depends". Regards, Victor Lee. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 07:32am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#2 of 68) This is a good starting point: http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/11242.html Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 07:41am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#3 of 68) Mathias, Thanks for that link. Another good article from Bruce. But I'm a little puzzled by "Figure 1a: Unsharpened" which to me is clearly sharpened already. Regards, Victor Lee. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 10:32am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#4 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 11:34am PST Mathias: I remember reading that tutorial in the past but forgot where it was. Bruce Fraser is one of my favorites when it comes to Photoshop. I've printed the tutorial along with the follow-up one he did. I'm glad you posted the link. Thanks! I'm interested in the methods you people use for sharpening. Does anyone else use the High Pass Filter? <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 11:30am Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#5 of 68) Linda, Yes, I do. I use the overlay sharpening technique. Sometimes. It really depends on the subject. For web photos, I often use PS´ USM with a setting of 50, 0.3, and then re-apply it often four times. If you don´t know what the right radius setting should be, first, pull up the amount setting to max, then adjust the radius setting untill the right details are sharpened, then lower the amount to a reasonable setting - and then use 25% of this amount and re-apply four times. Works for me! See http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ for various techniques I´ve recorded, including the overlay sharpening technique. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 12:47pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#6 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 01:48pm PST I use a technique that has delivered reliable results for me, for what it's worth... I convert the image to lab mode, and make my adjustments on the the Lightness layer (a copy really) to avoid color shifts. I basically select the glowing edges, apply a gaussian blur filter, then basically, apply the Unsharp filter. When it's finished, I convert back to RGB mode. Its not original, it's a modification of an action found in PhotoScan Factory actions found in Xchange. But it produces VERY good results for me on MOST of the stuff I do. I hope this thread keeps going as sharpening is of huge iterest to me since my work requires the removal of moire patterns. [edit] By the way, i use the high pass filter followed by fade on the textual portions of my images (black text on a white background) that have been overblurred by the gaussian blurr filter. It produces some pretty nice results for me. Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:55pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#7 of 68) Now this is getting interesting. I appreciate the elaboration. I look forward to trying your techniques and variation. Thanks Mathias and Tony. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> glen deman - 07:45pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#8 of 68) You can also sharpen individual channels. Try sharpening (or unsharpening, I guess it is!) the "weakest" channel of the image, or the channel with the least detail. I've found that this will often be the red channel; when you do this, you sharpen the image but avoid some of the pitfalls of sharpening, like halos and artifacts. I think I saw this in Photoshop Artistry. Glen <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Danny Raphael - 09:34pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#9 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 10:37pm PST Here's a no cost edge sharpening action that's pretty nifty. Scroll down to the BOTTOM of this page at FredMiranda.com: http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 10:57pm Jul 23, 2002 Pacific (#10 of 68) Edited: 23-Jul-2002 at 11:58pm PST Danny, I would say LOW cost, not NO cost - he's charging $8.50 for the action. Personally, I'll pass. Thanks for the link though. Peace, Tony [Edit] DOH! I didn't scroll down far enough, there's a "lite" version offered for free below the one he charges for. My mistake, sorry. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mark Reynolds - 05:25am Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#11 of 68) Seems fairly pointless - I can almost tell you what the $8.50 will get; you: Make an edge mask first using the Find Edges filter on an alpha channel. This can then be blurred slightly and Levels adjusted. Duplicate the base layer and run unsharp mask to taste on the duplicate. Load the alpha channel into a layer mask on the Sharpened layer. This will sharpen the edges only - very useful for skin tones where you don't want any accentuation of noise and texture. The layer mask can also be adjusted (Blur and Levels again, and Maximum ) to enhance or spread the sharpening. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 06:09am Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#12 of 68) I´m one of those that believe that Freds actions, although valuable, are not worth the money. But I know that a lot of people are willing to pay. Actually, seeing Fred charging for his actions was a major motivator for me to develop the digital deluxe action set. - Which is free ofcourse. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Don Stefanik - 12:02pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#13 of 68) Edited: 24-Jul-2002 at 01:04pm PST And a great set of actions they are Mathias... I use them quite a bit. They are one of my favorites. Don <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 02:13pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#14 of 68) Thanks Don, Only the de-noise actions are my own invention, the rest are variations of known techniques, invented by others. I just recorded and published them. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Dean Holland - 04:43pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#15 of 68) An off-the-wall sharpening approach that I use very occasionally. Sometimes a subject (especially plain tones) can stand strong amounts of only the light or the dark part of the USM halo. You can separate them thus: Duplicate the layer and USM the copy (you can go slightly harder than normal). Duplicate the copy, and change the blend mode of one copy to lighten, and the other copy to darken. At 100% opacity for both copies, you have the normal effect of the USM, but by varying the opacity of these layers, you can separate the amount of lighter halo and darker halo the subject gets, allowing slightly more USM than normal without it looking too crunchy or noisy. I think I read this in Dan Margulis' Book Professional Guide to Color Correction, which has an excellent chapter on sharpening with heaps of other ideas. Warm regards, Dean [Posted from Australia] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 05:38pm Jul 24, 2002 Pacific (#16 of 68) Very cool ideas people. I'm enjoying this and keeping notes for when I can stop long enough to experiment on different kinds of images. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 12:17pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#17 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 01:28pm PST I'm back and want to keep this thread alive. Re-reading your posts and think your ideas so far are interesting. The link Mathias provided also covers Noise. I think dealing with Noise goes right along with the topic of Sharpening. I welcome your comments on Noise as well. I personally try to deal with Noise channel by channel. As a rule the blue channel seems to have the most Noise. But what I find tricky is when the sharpest channel (usually green) ends up having the most Noise, which does happen sometimes. My method is to use the Median Filter on the Noisy Channel then Fade. If you do it channel by channel you cannot use Luminosity Mode though -- one advantange of correcting all the channels together. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 01:07pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#18 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 02:27pm PST Re Post #5: <<For web photos, I often use PS´ USM with a setting of 50, 0.3, and then re-apply it often four times. If you don´t know what the right radius setting should be, first, pull up the amount setting to max, then adjust the radius setting untill the right details are sharpened, then lower the amount to a reasonable setting - and then use 25% of this amount and re-apply four times. >> Mathias: On Web photos I'm curious why you do the sharpening in quarters instead of all at once. I assume that you do not use the Fade filter combined with Luminosity Mode. I am experimenting on a low res photo of an older person I recently took with my digital camera. I tried it both ways (all at once and in 4ths) but cannot seem to see any difference between the two methods. By the way, I'm not trying to find holes in your methods, on the contrary I think they are interesting and I'm enjoying the challenge. Oh yes, and another thing -- Your method of determining Radius is helpful. I tried that and came up with the same setting you did: .3 <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 01:44pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#19 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 02:46pm PST Okay Tony, it's your turn. ) I'm slowing making my way down the list. Re: Post #6 << I convert the image to lab mode, and make my adjustments on the the Lightness layer (a copy really) to avoid color shifts. I basically select the glowing edges, apply a gaussian blur filter, then basically, apply the Unsharp filter. When it's finished, I convert back to RGB mode. >> Question: When you select the glowing edges, does that mean you run the Glowing Edges Filter first and then select the highlights? If so, how do you determine what settings to use for the Glowing Edges Filter? And then how do you determine what settings you use for the Gaussian Blur Filter? Just curious. One more thing: I assume you use this Lightness Channel Copy just as a means of loading the edges for the final step of running unsharp mask on the original channel, followed by deletion of this channel copy. Is this correct? <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 02:47pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#20 of 68) Linda, I have also developed a noise action that basically medians the L+a+b channels manually, and applies a 'manual' edgemask. This action demands more selective mask editing, and more user input, but it is 'stepless' - usable on all ISO speeds. This action, which is just a classic median de-noiser with a twitch, is not published yet. The subject of noise is pretty big.. It is also interesting. Sharpen in four steps Try it on another image. You really need different sharping for each image. Examine at 200%. The edge halos in the stepped version is less pronounced. You can use this stepping method on all the classic filters and techniques for a better resampled pixel. I assume that you do not use the Fade filter combined with Luminosity Mode. I used to do that. Now I sharpen a merged layer and put this in Luminosity mode to avoid any color shifted pixels, and to keep everything neat and un-destructed. If I want, I apply an edgemask to this layer. There´s another method I use. This method is called <a href=http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/USM.HTM>Real Unsharp Mask</A> (I´ve got it actionized as well). It is very nice for certain subjects and contrast enhancements. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 02:55pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#21 of 68) Mathias, There was some mention of actions that you have for download. I'd like to try them. Where are they please? Regards, Victor Lee. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 03:30pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#22 of 68) Here: http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ (I think its listed in my profile.) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 03:40pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#23 of 68) Mathias: I tried your "Real Digital Unsharp Masking" technique on the same photo I was experimenting with previously. I found at the end that the photo was considerably darker so I duplicated the original untuched layer, selected Screen Mode and lowered the opacity to 70%. Above this layer is the layer with the mask applied in Luminosity Mode, opacity lowered to 50%. Below both layers is an original untouched layer. The results are good but different from the other (4 Times) method. I can't tell which is better. Both are good. I enjoyed seeing how Unsharp Masking works this way. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 03:43pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#24 of 68) The luminosity switching is the big problem with RUSM. You can control it by experimenting with setting the brightness / contrast levels, and/or with a final curves adjustment layer. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Dean Holland - 03:46pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#25 of 68) Mathias, I very much like the Real Unsharp Mark... like sharpening and a contrast mask in one. Linda... after hard unsharp masking, I sometimes attack the worst of the noise in shadows with the "Dust and Scratches" (D&S) filter on a duplicate of the image. Use a small radius (1-2) and very high threshold (30-60) to just zap those pixels that have gone way out of line. Use a luminosity mask to just let the D&S layer show through in the shadows, otherwise the image will be softened overall. It's similar to your median approach. Dean [posted from Australia] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 03:50pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#26 of 68) I'll give it a try Dean. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 04:09pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#27 of 68) Edited: 30-Jul-2002 at 05:13pm PST Dean: That did not work very well on the image I'm experimenting with. It seems those settings do not produce a very good blur. It actually seems to produce extra artifacts. I'm just wondering why you might have chosen those settings. When I use D&S with Radius 1, Amount 1, Luminosity Mode, Opacity 50% -- It seems to work better. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> pleader - 05:59pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#28 of 68) Thank you, Mathias. --Victor <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Dean Holland - 08:37pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#29 of 68) Linda, Ah... it's probably due to differences in medium. I'm using 4000dpi scans of 35mm film, often fairly grainy film. Your digital image probably starts off with less noise, so hard USM doesn't give you the wacky pixels that I get. Play with whatever settings seem to work best for you. Good luck! Dean [posted from Australia] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 10:12pm Jul 30, 2002 Pacific (#30 of 68) Hi Carol... RE: "Question: When you select the glowing edges, does that mean you run the Glowing Edges Filter first and then select the highlights?" Yes. "If so, how do you determine what settings to use for the Glowing Edges Filter? And then how do you determine what settings you use for the Gaussian Blur Filter? Just curious." I found an action in Adobe XChange called PhotoScan Factory that contains this technique - it's not my own. I have had to tweak the glowing edges and gaussian blur settings from time to time, but in general through trial an error have found a range of values that I like. So, I run the action with my tweaked settings, if I don't like it, I run it with the dialog boxes enabled and adjust more. In general my settings for glowing filters are: Edge Width 3 Edge Brightness 8 Smoothness 5 Then a gaussian blur of 0.9 to 1.1 is run on the lightness channel copy that had the Glowing Edges Filter run on it. Then the channel is loaded as a selection, then deleted. Finally, the glowing edges/blurred selection is Sharpened at about 180 with a radius of 2.1 and threshold of 0. After this is done, of course, it's just clean up with the lightness channel deleted and converted back to RGB mode. RE" One more thing: I assume you use this Lightness Channel Copy just as a means of loading the edges for the final step of running unsharp mask on the original channel, followed by deletion of this channel copy. Is this correct?" Exactly. I have found that by doing it this way, I experience little or no color shift as compared to most USM techniques. It is fair to point out the following. Most of my images have moire patterns - it's the nature of my work. So prior to running the sharpening procedure, the images are heavily blurred using gaussian blur (heavily =1.1 - 1.3). Since that is the case, the sharpening process I use *may* be too strong for some, but is just about perfect (or as perfect as you can get until I read another cool method in this thread <grin>) for me. I'll be reading with interest... Peace, Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:07am Jul 31, 2002 Pacific (#31 of 68) Dean: You are probably right on target there. I'm playing around with an image that I've downsized to 72dpi. It does make a difference. Thanks! Tony: Thanks for all the helpful information. I've got work to do this morning but will come back to this conversation again when I get a breather. This is quite interesting. Linda -- not Carol ) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 01:00pm Jul 31, 2002 Pacific (#32 of 68) Linda, Linda -- not Carol ) Geeze, I'm sorry - don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that. You may herein refer to me as Dolt. Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:36am Aug 1, 2002 Pacific (#33 of 68) LOL -- No problem Tony. I can't wait to come back to this topic as soon as I catch up on other things and can give it more attention. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lexorin - 03:12pm Aug 1, 2002 Pacific (#34 of 68) Edited: 01-Aug-2002 at 04:17pm PST Just noticed someone already mentioned this... Convert image to LAB mode. Select the lightness channel in the channels palette. Run unsharp mask as you normally would. Revert image back to original mode. Working on just the lightness channel in lab mode keeps unsharpmask from sharpening your color values. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 12:57pm Aug 4, 2002 Pacific (#35 of 68) It never hurts to restate something like that Lexorin. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 08:21am Aug 6, 2002 Pacific (#36 of 68) Keeping this thread alive. Will be doing some intensive repairs to my hard drive, followed by reinstallation of software. I hope to come back to this thread when things are back to normal. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 12:18am Aug 8, 2002 Pacific (#37 of 68) I found aPDF about different methods of sharpening: http://www.dimage.org/NewFiles/J.%20Winberg%20Sharpening%20Presenta tionText.pdf <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 08:20am Aug 9, 2002 Pacific (#38 of 68) Pierre, That was a very nice contribution. I happen to be saving this thread as sharpening methods are extremely important. Thanks. Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Enrique Ivern - 11:07am Aug 9, 2002 Pacific (#39 of 68) Pierre, thanks...always useful to have a brief cookbook to consult! Not clear if you're the author...if so, thanks again, if not, thanks to the unknown author... Cheers. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> vEnrique Ivern - 03:11pm Aug 12, 2002 Pacific (#40 of 68) Pierre, I just printed the whole document....thanks also then to Jack Winberg, the author. Cheers, <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 12:34am Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#41 of 68) I said I've found it using Google... I'm still in the learning curve of PS (as EVERY user is ) Maybe one day... <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 01:06am Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#42 of 68) I have to say that I am having some VERY nice results from the Digital Deluxe action set, specifically the contrast masking, edge masking, and high pass sharpening. The high pass sharpening adds that "ever so little" tweak I need after my normal sharpening methods. Great Actions, Thanks! <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 08:37am Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#43 of 68) You´re welcome, Tony. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 02:59pm Aug 13, 2002 Pacific (#44 of 68) I'm so glad to see that you all are still participating. This is a nice group. Thank you Pierre for the PDF link. I'm keeping busy and so unable to continue experimenting for now, but like Tony I'm keeping this thread for future use and reference. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:11pm Aug 23, 2002 Pacific (#45 of 68) Things have been hectic at this end. I have no idea when I'll have time to get back to this topic. Still, I guess I'll try to keep it alive since it contains so much good stuff. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> dave milbut - 07:20pm Aug 23, 2002 Pacific (#46 of 68) I've got Kai's PT v6... has anyone had any luck with the equalizer there for sharpening? Everything seems so drastic when I use it, alot of contrast sharpening. I'd like to hear from some people who've had more luck than me 'cuz I think I'm missing something there. Thans for a great thread, also saving. dave <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 12:48pm Aug 25, 2002 Pacific (#47 of 68) I've got KPT 6 too but never used the Equalizer. I too would be interested in comments on it. So far I just keep doing the UnSharp Mask method. It works well for most normal sharpening. Specialized sharpening seems good for special needs. Noise reduction is often just as important as sharpening. What's challenging is when you have to deal with both noise and sharpening on the same photo. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> dave milbut - 02:08pm Aug 25, 2002 Pacific (#48 of 68) For noise reduction (and addition), I'm really digging the beta of AlienSkin's Image Doctor. I can't wait for the full package to be released. You can get the beta from their site and play around with it. dave <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 03:59am Aug 26, 2002 Pacific (#49 of 68) Thanks Dave. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 11:05am Sep 9, 2002 Pacific (#50 of 68) I found this pretty nifty trick from Russell Browns Tips site. A very nice technique that plays as a QT movie. http://www.russellbrown.com/body.html Peace, Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 04:36am Sep 14, 2002 Pacific (#51 of 68) Hi Tony. I've been busy dealing with computer problems in the middle of trying to keep my work going. I've ordered a new Mac (ducking) so hopefully I will have more time when things start running smoothly again. Thanks for the link. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 04:39am Sep 14, 2002 Pacific (#52 of 68) Linda, I too am keeping a keen eye on this thread and in fact, have made a PDF out of it since I will have to review it from time to time. Since the work we do involves removing Moire patterns, sharpening is of paramount interest <wink>. Get your new system, have some fun, then... back to work for you! <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:17am Sep 14, 2002 Pacific (#53 of 68) Yes Sir! ) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 03:55am Sep 17, 2002 Pacific (#54 of 68) Again other Sharpening tutorials (not new) at: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/smart_sharp.shtml an High-Pass one: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/high-pass-sharpening.sh tml <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:35am Oct 1, 2002 Pacific (#55 of 68) Thanks Pierre. I'm swamped. I'll be back again. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:39am Nov 28, 2002 Pacific (#58 of 68) Edited: 28-Nov-2002 at 06:42am PST Maybe some of you might like to comment on an opposite problem. I've just done a photo correction. That part was easy. Dealing with noise is the hard part. The noise is out of control. I've tried targetting individual channels as well as going into Lab Mode but not getting the best results so far. Here is a <A HREF=http://www.graphicspalmbeach.com/porfolio/burttracyjohn.html><FO NT COLOR=ROYALBLUE>link to the page</A> I posted. You can see the noise in the enlarged eyes portion. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Pierre Courtejoie - 04:16am Nov 29, 2002 Pacific (#59 of 68) Edited: 29-Nov-2002 at 04:17am PST Lindas, When I hear noise, I think about Mathia's Digital deluxe toolbox... http://www.2morrow.dk/75ppi/coolpix/actions/ there are other non-freeware package for this task... try also the demo from http://www.neatimage.com/ (stand alone program) Hey, who's the guy next to Tracy and John? (on the sharpening side, I found this: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/PSTV_downloads.html while searching for de-noising actions) <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Mathias Vejerslev - 05:39am Nov 29, 2002 Pacific (#60 of 68) Thanks Pierre. In this case, I think NeatImage is the better choice. De-noise Deluxe is aimed at digital noise, and this seems more like film grain to me. Mathias <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 06:41am Nov 29, 2002 Pacific (#61 of 68) Edited: 29-Nov-2002 at 06:42am PST Pierre: Thank you for the links. << Who's the guy next to Tracy and John? >> You got it! ) Mathias: You're right, it is film grain. I had only a photo to work with. It was scanned on the Epson Expression 1680 at a higher resolution and then sized. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 07:27pm Dec 15, 2002 Pacific (#62 of 68) Edited: 15-Dec-2002 at 07:27pm PST I've done more practice on noise by taking the channels apart, giving each one a major overhaul, then pasting them over the original document's channels. Trouble is, what looks good on screen looks not so wonderful when printed. I really want to improve my own PS techniques rather than use a plug-in. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Lindas Graphics - 10:21am Jan 10, 2003 Pacific (#63 of 68) Edited: 10-Jan-2003 at 10:22am PST I think Mathias' actions are pretty impressive. It's worth posting his LINK again. One day I plan to study each action step in detail. <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> YrbkMgr - 09:44am Jan 11, 2003 Pacific (#64 of 68) I agree with Lindas - Mathias' actions are part of a process that I use daily; although I've tweaked them a bit, his concept in sharpening, edge enhancement, and contrast masking is quite sweet. When I first downloaded his actions, I posted in a thread my thanks to him as once of them was the finishting touch that I needed. It's worth repeating the "Thanks!" Peace, Tony <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> Tenna Sutfin - 09:40am Jan 28, 2003 Pacific (#65 of 68) Can you send me your action for ridding yourself of moire patterns? [email protected] <hr SIZE="1" NOSHADE> End of Archived Thread

I want to create an effect on a photo similar to the mask show in lightroom (you will need to own li

This is quite a complicated request but I hope someone maybe able to make a suggestion.
In lightroom when you are in the develop module detail module you have the optoin to mask the amount of sharpening on a photo. When you hold down the alt key / apple key on the slider it shows how much of a mask you are applying to your image (it goes black and white and by moving the slider you can see the amount of effect).
I have an image I want to make this happen to but can't work out how to do it in photoshop. I have converted to Black and White in photoshop and tried the filter 'find edges' and 'trace contour' but it doesn't quite do the desired effect. I can't screen shot what I am talking about from lightroom as you can't 'Print Scr' while holding down alt!
I ho9pe that makes sense, any sugestions welcome.
Many thanks!

Hello, you can perform the same operation in Camera Raw, or, in Photoshop, approximate it using Smart blur in Edges only mode.

Convert photo to line art?

Dear Forum,
I am trialing Elements and Illustrator but cannot find a solution in help or the forums, or any book at Borders, so I hope someone can help. I am looking for a way to convert photos (JPEGS) of flowers to black line art......like a coloring book, not just black and white or grayscale or sylhouette. I will then print out the line art (1-2 pixel black line art) to clear acetate for use as a positive original for creating a silkscreen via photo emulsion exposure (and then silkscreen printing the line art to fabric for hand painting). I am doing this by hand now.....place a sheet of acetate over the photo and outlining "edges" by eye with a fine Sharpie, then using that as the positive original. See attached file for an example. The line art needs to be relatively detailed ( e.g. petals, stamen, leaves) but not absolutely perfect as I only need to print guide lines on fabric for subsequent hand painting. It seems easy to do by "eye", tracing edges of color or tone change, but I have not figured out how to make that happen in Elements or Illustrator. Of course I have only had the trial for a couple days, and have used live trace, posterization, etc, but have not been lucky. Please point me in the right direction. If I can make this happen with an Adobe product, then I will buy it.....I have hundreds of photos to convert. Thanks.....Bob

If you use Threshold, you can add some gaussian blur to the image to make the edges smoother. You can also add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer between the blurred image and the threshold layer to fine tune the edges.
If you have Windows, you might want to look at Medhi's Fine Threshold filter (freeware) found here:
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/english/finethreshold.htm
Edit: You could also use Find Edges on the image first; desaturate it; then use a threshold adjustment layer. Go back to the Find Edges layer and add gaussian blur to taste. To further fine tune, slip a brightness/contrast layer between the blurred image and the threshold to control line thickness/detail. (FWIW, I would make a copy of the Find Edges layer and blur the duplicate so if you change your mind you don't have to start the project from scratch.)

How to apply a 'calculated' radius in Unsharp Mask en mass?

In about a week's time, when I've finished applying Curves to about 1200 B&W images, I'll be ready to apply an Unsharp Mask to each of them. Exactly how I'll do that I'm not certain yet, but I've been reading my Photoshop CS Bible (Deke McClelland) in preparation. On page 503 it states:
If you're looking for a simple formula, I recommend 0.1 of Radius for every 15 ppi of final image resolution... If you have a calculator, just divide the intended resolution by 150 to get the ideal Radius value.
For example, at 300 ppi use Radius = 2. Such a recommendation is just that: a recommendation (and not 'ideal' as he also states), but I've taken it as a good starting point; and while I've been adding Curves I have also been experimenting with Unsharp Mask and various Radii (but not yet saving the sharpened images).
McClelland's statement is not clear regarding what Radius should be used if you are NOT working on the image at final resolution. I think I know what the answer is, but I want to confirm.
Some background: I'll be printing on a Xerox iGen running a colour line screen at 175 lpi. The printer wants the images to be 300 ppi. The images at the moment range from an effective ppi of about 100 to 2000, depending on how much they have been scaled in InDesign. So I've got resolutions all over the place which at some point I will have to tidy up. Those images below about 250 ppi, I will be upsampling to 300. Those above about 450 ppi (this may change), will be downsampled to 300 when I convert to PDF.
I have some questions:
QUES 1
Say I have an image at 1200 ppi, that will be downsampled to 300 ppi. Should I do the sharpening on the 1200 ppi image, or on the downsampled 300 ppi image? i.e Will it make any difference to the final printed result if sharpening is done before or after downsampling?
QUES 2
I think the statement:
I recommend 0.1 of Radius for every 15 ppi of final image resolution
should read
I recommend 0.1 of Radius for every 15 ppi of image resolution
Surely the Radius (assuming you accept the figures McClelland gives) depends only on the resolution of the image you are working on. i.e if you have a 1500 ppi image, use a Radius of 10 (1500/150), NOT a Radius of 2 (300/150) -- the final image resolution that is sent to the printer. Is that a correct reading of McClelland's recommendation?
QUES 3
My experiments indicate that for the type of images I am using, McClelland's recommendation oversharpens, at least for my liking. I will probably use half the figure he suggests: Radius = 1 for 300 ppi.
Given that I have about 1200 images, if I was going to apply an Unsharp Mask manually this is what I would do:
1. Put all the layers in each image into a Group.
2. Calculate the Radius to be applied to each image from the formula: Radius = (IMAGE PPI) /300.
3. Apply an Unsharp Mask to the Group using the calculated Radius (plus Amount = 50, Threshhold = 0)
Of course I'm not going to do this manually -- well, I hope I'm not -- but what is the best way? Could an Action handle all of this? A Script? A combination of both? Something else entirely? Not possible in PS?
In summary: I want to automatically apply a variable Radius that depends on the image's resolution. Possible?

The PDF says, for one of the steps:
Command-click the duplicate channel to make the edge mask a selection.
When I do that, a selection outline appears, but I can't work out, or find out, what conditions are applied to make the selection. Any ideas? I may have to start a separate thread for this question. I don't like to blindly follow recipes. I like to know what's going on.
Guy,
I'm not sure I understand your question. With command click, the channel is the selection. White = fully selected, black = not selected. It's all the steps made to create the channel that affect the selection. To me the selection edges are visually interfering with a soft mask, I usually hide the edges.
In post 9 steps 2-6 all contribute to the final section. Find edges identifies the edges. Median has a smoothing effect. Maximum expands the selection a little, then the gaussian blur softens it.
This process (post 9) works for me when I sharpen images, but you may not like it. Sometimes no mask at all is a viable option - some folks like a grainy/noisy appearance in non-edge areas. Some people may even purposefully add noise to create that kind of look.
With USM the radius thickens the light and dark areas of edges, and amount intensifies (lightening the light, darkening the dark). Threshold is just what it's name implies, it sets a parameter for Ps to apply the sharpening or not (but it can result in a pockmarked look in smooth areas, so I like 0)
I always look at images at actual pixels in Ps when sharpening. With sharpening there is room for opinion. Some people like thicker edges (higher radius). Some people go easy on the amount, some people are more aggressive.
It's the scaling in ID that makes things difficult, because actual pixels won't give you a true print appearance. To correct this the image either needs to be scaled to size in PS, and placed at 100% in ID - OR left as is in ID, and the resolution changed in PS (300 x % i.e. 300 x 25% = 75 PPI)
I like to start with radius 1 and 100 amount but these values are always subject to change. I wish it was an exact science but it's not. I like sharp images, but I don't want icicles in eyebrows either. I believe you said 175 LPI screening, so if it was me I would err on the sharp side...
Something else I just thought of - the print size is something to think about, too. Consider the two extremes (which may or may not apply to your project) - thumbnails, and posters. If it's a thumbnail, by the time you've got the scaling right in Ps, there really isn't much pixel information left! In his instance a lot of sharpening probably wouldn't hurt, it would create contrast (which is important in very small images). The other end of the spectrum - posters. Actual pixels may be a little misleading in this case, because when the average person looks at a poster, they don't get right up on it at a normal reading distance, they view it from several feet away. For this reason sometimes poster images are only half-resolution, to keep the file size manageable, and give a more realistic view perspective.
Hope this helps. I am not a forum expert. The others may have better advice, or may see errors in my information.

Converting pic to line art

I'm about to purchase some scale models I want to photograph, then turn the photos into line art so I can make alterations to them. Is it easier to turn a picture that is mostly white or very colorful into line art using Photoshop?
Thanks guys!

From a quick test:
Load in your file.
Save As to a new name to protect the original.
Increase the contrast.
In CS-4, go to Filters/Styilize/Trace Contour
OR
Filters/Styilize/Find Edges.
Both will need fine tuning to get as close as possible to what you want.
Desaturate to turn it grey scale.
Adjust Levels to get the cut off as close as possible to where you want it.
Erase out what you don't want.
I was using a low contrast file and did get something that was line artish both ways.
Bill

Can you change image to line art?

Can you take an image (photograph of a person for example) and convert it to line art? If so, can you convert the whole picture to a black and white (no shades of gray) line art?
Thanks!

"Line art " can actually mean many things. Do you mean outlining in Black and White? There are some Actions on the Adobe Exchange that will do that or use Find Edges or Graphic Pen or some of the other Filters. There are also plugins you can get like Outliner.
Or you might want to use Adobe Streamline to trace it in vector paths.

[svn:bz-trunk] 20765: change photo to line art

Revision: 20765
Revision: 20765
Author:   [email protected]
Date:     2011-03-10 10:20:42 -0800 (Thu, 10 Mar 2011)
Log Message:
change photo to line art
Modified Paths:
    blazeds/trunk/qa/apps/qa-regress/WEB-INF/src/photo/person0.jpg

If you use Threshold, you can add some gaussian blur to the image to make the edges smoother. You can also add a brightness/contrast adjustment layer between the blurred image and the threshold layer to fine tune the edges.
If you have Windows, you might want to look at Medhi's Fine Threshold filter (freeware) found here:
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/english/finethreshold.htm
Edit: You could also use Find Edges on the image first; desaturate it; then use a threshold adjustment layer. Go back to the Find Edges layer and add gaussian blur to taste. To further fine tune, slip a brightness/contrast layer between the blurred image and the threshold to control line thickness/detail. (FWIW, I would make a copy of the Find Edges layer and blur the duplicate so if you change your mind you don't have to start the project from scratch.)

Finding Edges

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for