Sharpening Filter

[easternherp]

Just found this iste with a special sharpening plug in. Looks pretty good to me.
http://www.focusmagic.com/

[Igor]

Didn't work for me, though ad pics look really tempting.
#1 - original
#2 - focus magic
#3 - plain heavy USM

[Wichita Wayne]

In the legal and business world this is called "mouse milk". That means that it is something you buy that gives you not value or utility beyond what you already have. They convince you that you need it and then they sell it to you. The only problem is that you didn't really need it at all. In this case the USM that is already built into PS will give you the same results without the additional cost. When you use it and it seems to work you then have "faith" in them as a company and will recommend them and purchase their other products. In the US we have lots of products that you pour into your cars engine all claiming to make things better. However, most of these products do not backup their claims with real scientific tests. In the 19th Century it was the medicine show that sold you a bottle of medicine that claimed to cure everything from baldness to and upset stomach. In reality all the did was get you pleasantly drunk because they were about 30% alcohol. I really did not like the noise in there examples either.

[xrdbear]

I have used focus magic occassionally for some time and I have to say that there are circumstances when it can do a beter job than USM, particularly is the area is quite badly OOF and you just want to improve its appearance. In the example above it was bound to fail as the algorithms assume the OOF condition but this example is purely subject/camera movement and it will not improve matters and often makes them worse.

Merry Christmas to all our readers

Brian

[Wichita Wayne]

One of the things that I have noticed is that I only buy things like this when I have a need, and the price is right. Also, when you get desperate you are much more willing to accept a product on faith if it promises to solve your problem. I purchased Gary Fong's BullZeye when I took some bad pictures for a friends retirement party. BullZeye is made for fast work flow and really did the trick. I have worked with it long enough to be able adjust as many as 4 images per minute, and now it is one of my favorite tools. Pictures come out of my S2 with such good quality that they may only need a little tweak or two. BullZeye is really fast at doing this. It is a real "get-'er-done" program that was well worth the expense. I would not recommend it to the RAW shooting art-print guys because you can do just as good with PS, but if you have a 500 shot jpg wedding to process then PS cannot hold a candle to BullZeye. If I have a focus or motion problem that I cannot get PS to improve then $45 is not too much of an investment if it offers hope for improving my bad shots.

[Igor]

I have used focus magic occassionally for some time and I have to say that there are circumstances when it can do a beter job than USM, particularly is the area is quite badly OOF and you just want to improve its appearance. In the example above it was bound to fail as the algorithms assume the OOF condition but this example is purely subject/camera movement and it will not improve matters and often makes them worse.

Merry Christmas to all our readers

Brian

I don't agree Brian.
Focum Magic 3 has two correction modes: motion blur and out of focus.
This example shows the use of motion blur mode for a motion blurred picture.
Everything was done exactly as the mfr. suggested.

[xrdbear]

I don't agree Brian.
Focum Magic 3 has two correction modes: motion blur and out of focus.
This example shows the use of motion blur mode for a motion blurred picture.
Everything was done exactly as the mfr. suggested.

Ah. That would explain it. I have version 2 which does not correct motion blur. Nevertheless I still find occasions when it does a job that USM does less well. I find it works very well, as I said, on areas that are well out of focus where a large radius USM would just raise the contrast too much. I would agree though that it is no replacement for USM and only marginally worth paying for.

Brian

[Igor]

Brian, you can upgrade to 3.0 for free.