I love my resize, usm, sharpen action (NSOP) for web hosting.

But what about prints? For pics that need it, I normally run NN first. Then if I try to USM or Sharpen it normally brings the noise back into the shot.

I also understand how benificail USM, resize smaller, Sharpen can be, but how should I apply it to prints?

Should I tweak colors, usm, resize a few pix (~50) smaller, sharpen, crop to size? Where should I NN in this equation if I need to?

Thanks for the tips guys

doh!!! can a mod please change the title to USM, not UMS

you should start applying your usm to ONLY the luminosity/color edges. that avoids a lot of the noise issues in large homogeneous fields.

i have a nice action to generate the mask if you're interested.

(incidentally i almost never USM or sharpen, but that's me.)

When I print anything, I just run one pass of USM after NN (which also sharpens the file a bit) and it's the last step, and it's always tweaked by eye according to the details in the shot. But I usually start at 111, 1.1 and 0 for a ballpark starting point on my 5D files. And yes, each camera/lens combo takes different amounts IMHO.

Originally Posted by ride5000

i have a nice action to generate the mask if you're interested.

do tell!

Originally Posted by ride5000

i have a nice action to generate the mask if you're interested.

please please, an extra action never hurts

yaya! i love action!

freudian slip? yessssssss

In regards to Ken's comments, this is how I sharpen too. Luminosity channel, that is. Most stuff on here, I just send through the NSOP action, but for other stuff, I don't use that action.

I generally sharpen as a last step. Switch to Lab color, select the lightness channel only, and you can sharpen a lot more without getting halos and other artifacts. Then, switch back to rgb. I use USM, but it sounds like Ken might be using a high pass mask or something.

Originally Posted by LateApex

Most stuff on here, I just send through the NSOP action, but for other stuff, I don't use that action.

I'd hope not, it's ONLY for web images....

so, is it USM or UMS?

ultra super mega

or

ultra mega super

UnSharp Mask.

Prints - UMS? Sharpening?

yeah, I knew why you were asking, that's why that wasn't a smartass remark.

yeah yeah

http://ken-gilbert.com/images/export-lum-edge-mask.atn

basically you run it and it cranks out a luminosity based edge mask channel that you can modify/use for detail enhancement.

if you invert it it becomes a surface mask--good for smoothing and noise reduction.

nice, I'll have to try it with some of my shots at home, thanks.

Thanks for that Ken