I have been doing some testing of various sharpening techniques available (and there are a lot out there!)

The following is a 300kb image showing a portion of an image repeated 9 times with various sharpening techniques. Each separate image is labelled "A" to "I". "A" is the original untouched image.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~bussty/test.jpg

(please note that the image is a scale down from the original but the differences - if viewed at 100% - are negligible)

The portion comes from this total image:-

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~bussty/total.jpg

I would be interested to see which sharpening method i.e "B" to "I" forum members prefer.

Once I have a few replies I will post which image belongs to which technique (I think some of you may be surprised)

Techniques used were (and in no particular order)

Sharpened in Photoshop using Unsharp mask then copies of that layer and made and DARKEN & LIGHTEN blending modes applied the opacity of layer adjusted to suit


Similar to ABOVE technique but image first sharpened using "Sharpen Control" then loaded into Photoshop then duplicate layers with LIGHTEN & DARKEN Blending modes applied


*Edge sharpened using "JB Pro Sharpener" action


*Fred Miranda's "CSPRO Action" on HIGH


*Sharpened using Sharp Control (Settings 0.67 Radius, 1000 Strength, 0 Control, 0 Edge, 1 Iterations)

*Same as ABOVE technique but loaded into Photoshop with the original "A" then a mask added to sharpened layer and using a "BLACK" brush on about 30% Opacity brush broad areas where no sharpening is required.


*Sharpened using Sharp Control (Settings 0.67 Radius, 1000 Strength, 40 Control, 20 Edge, 1 Iterations)


*Fred Miranda's "Intellisharpen" action on Medium



I look forward to seeing your comments.


--
Andrew Busst
Queenstown, New Zealand
www.imagescapes.co.nz