Digital BW, The Print

Hi Carolyn

Sorry for the delayed response, the holiday was busy for me.

> Todd,
> 
> Now that I have finally been playing with the *right* action set I'd like to
> reply...
> 
> I like your ideas. I like the second one where you dupe the layer, but I
> load the mask first, apply to the dupe, then run USM so that I can watch the
> effects while in the USM dialogue box.

My only qualm with that approach is that your effect is fixed by your mask,
such that if you change your mind later and want to alter your mask, you
also need to sharpen over again too. Whereas if you just sharpen the
entirety of the layer, then use a mask to limit it's effect locally, you can
manipulate the effect on the fly, so to speak
 
> I did this when using masks for dup's while using USM before ever thinking
> of finding edges to start off the mask... stupid me. I would spend a long
> time painting the mask to the edges, feathering the transition of course
> with a soft brush... thanks again John for a better way! Takes a smart
> person to make things easier.  Have you ever used "command option tilde" for
> a mask, then invert/paint/blurr that?

I hadn't. So this creates a luminosity mask based on your background layer,
and the invert makes it mask your lighter tones proportionally greater than
your shadows? Sounds good for doing an overall gamma move without
muddying/blowing-out your highlights? What do you usually use it for? I
guess it would be good for limiting the effect of some layer blend modes
too?
 
> I find in the first levels command (in John's SuperSharpener) I can get rid
> of most of the areas I don't want sharpened, then use your technique to
> paint out what I could not effect... without effecting the edges I wanted to
> keep... oh boy, hope that made some sense.

Makes sense! I'm sure it's stuff you were doing already, but I like that
it's in an action.

Todd

 
> Yes, it's all good stuff eh!?
> Carolyn
> 
> 
>> Getting back to our conversation a couple of weeks ago...
>> 
>> Remember I was speaking well of some of Deadman's "smart" sharpeners, and
>> you were speaking wisely of using layer masks. I've come to implement the
>> two in conjunction with each other in a way I'm quite happy with.
>> 
>> What I do is start with John's SuperSharpener action, and use it to make an
>> edge mask, but just after the 2nd levels adjustment on the mask I inserted a
>> stop in the action. At this point I've the beginnings of a nice mask loaded
>> as an alpha channel, and the action has stopped running. I can then paint on
>> the mask, or manipulate it anyway I see fit, and resume the action at that
>> point to apply the sharpening through a perfected mask, OR, what I prefer is
>> to not resume the action. I make my dupe layer, run USM on the entirety of
>> the layer, and load that mask as my layer mask.
>> 
>> It's the best of both worlds in that the mask making is somewhat automated
>> (or at least actioned), and the mask itself is infinitely more manipulable
>> and controllable.
>> 
>> JB, if you are reading this, I highly recommend this is how you implement
>> the action in the future. Too many times I ran it and then found out that an
>> area was not affected that I wished was, or vice versa, and had to start
>> from scratch. With this approach you just paint/blur/change opacity/etc.,
>> your layer mask until you are happy. And all the while you can see it's
>> effect on sharpening as you work. Add in that you can just alter the layer's
>> opacity to tailor the effect for different sizes/outputs, and.....
>> fuggedabouddit - it's the best.
> 
> 
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