Digital BW, The Print

Mitch,

I agree. FocalBlade is a very nice product which I evaluated before going with PhotoKit Sharpener. I went with PhotoKit because

1. I happen to agree that sharpening should be done in more than 1 pass.
2. I absolutely love the sharpening brushes.
3. Being a prior owner of the original PhotoKit product, I received a discount.

Had it not been for the above, I probably would have gone with FocalBlade.

As for Fred's website I do not participate in his forums, but I do find a couple of his tools very useful.

Alan Huntley

> 
> From: "Glenn Mitchell" <gmitchel850@...>
> Date: 2004/01/05 Mon AM 12:05:55 EST
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] FocalBlade (was Re: Miranda Actions)
> 
> I avoid FredMiranda.com and Fred's actions.
> 
> I own several. He makes a fine product. The problem is his site 
> masquerades as an open site, and it's censored. Quite heavily, IMHO.
> 
> You'll have to look carefully to find it. Threads get closed. Then 
> disappear. Messages get edited for content by moderators. Etc.
> 
> As an artist, I loathe censorship, so I don't want to subsidize it. 
> I wish the site was open and tolerant. I'd return in a second, and 
> I'd use some of Fred's actions.
> 
> Enough about buying Fred's actions . . .
> 
> I agree about Photokit Sharpener being an automated tool for what 
> you can do with layers in PS. Being able to sharpen lighter and 
> darker pixels is no trick. Just create two copy layers. Set the 
> blending mode of one to lighten, the other to darken. Then use USM 
> for both. Adjust the effect with layer opacity, blend if, etc.
> 
> I use FocalBlade for sharpening. It's about half the price of 
> Photokit Sharpener and is more powerful. It's a PS add-in, not an 
> automation tool for setting layer and USM settings.
> 
> Support is great! I just got notified the other by Harold that a new 
> interim release was available. He's always improving the product. I 
> get notices of interim releases every month or so.
> 
> You can control sharpening separately for edges and surfaces. If 
> white or black halos are a problem, you can adjust them separately, 
> too.