Digital BW, The Print

I've just printed some pictures of a 5-year-old from ultra-grainy 35mm
B&W...4000ppi Nikon scan, QTRgui, A4 prints.

Just for the heck of it I added a small amount of gaussian blur in
postprocessing, finally moderate USM (the correct sequence).

The result was creamy baby skin, ultra-sharp eyes and hair. Grain,
which I might have dug in a "meaningful" photo, simply vanished. Next
time I photograph a woman I will certainly want to evaluate gaussian
blur again.

I tried the it on some very sharp, grainy 400ei color negs of branches
and twigs...same result: creamy sky, grain vanished, and somehow the
pimage actually looks sharper, it's easier to see twig and leaf
details after gaussian blur, then USM. Perhaps USM works its miracle
better when grain isn't in the way. 

Gaussian blur seems rarely mentioned outside of retouching circles,
but have found it a great tool. Maybe it's comparable to use of
cold-light enlarger or a portrait lens, or Softar, or maybe like a
ScanHancer.

> From: Djon [mailto:westsidemaurice@...]
>
> I've just printed some pictures of a 5-year-old from ultra-grainy 35mm
> B&W...4000ppi Nikon scan, QTRgui, A4 prints.
>
> Just for the heck of it I added a small amount of gaussian blur in
> postprocessing, finally moderate USM (the correct sequence).
>
> The result was creamy baby skin, ultra-sharp eyes and hair. Grain,
> which I might have dug in a "meaningful" photo, simply vanished. Next
> time I photograph a woman I will certainly want to evaluate gaussian
> blur again.

You might also try Smart Blur. It's, well, smart. At least it is once you
understand what the knobs do.

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...

It's used in many sharpening plug-ins and actions as part of the sequence.
Watch the bottom of the screen as they run.

Seth

==-----Original Message-----
==From: Djon [mailto:westsidemaurice@...] 
==

==Gaussian blur seems rarely mentioned outside of retouching 
==circles, but have found it a great tool. Maybe it's 
==comparable to use of cold-light enlarger or a portrait lens, 
==or Softar, or maybe like a ScanHancer.
==
==

Paul and Seth, thanks.

 I've completely ignored Smart Blur...here's a convincing demo and
some other photoshop tips:

http://www.lonestardigital.com/smart_blur.htm

I wonder if Smart Blur is just an action (a convenience) combining
gaussian blur and USM? In Elements 2 it's got no adjustments and in
PS7 its got sliders, instead of "knobs." I wonder if it tends to make
compromises that gaussian blur followed by USM would not make? Seems
worth some study.

John 


> 
> You might also try Smart Blur. It's, well, smart. At least it is
once you

> understand what the knobs do.
> 
> --
> 
> Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
> Paul                mailto:pderocco@i...

> From: Djon [mailto:westsidemaurice@...]
>
> I wonder if Smart Blur is just an action (a convenience) combining
> gaussian blur and USM? In Elements 2 it's got no adjustments and in
> PS7 its got sliders, instead of "knobs." I wonder if it tends to make
> compromises that gaussian blur followed by USM would not make? Seems
> worth some study.

Smart Blur looks for detail that exceeds a certain threshold, and doesn't
blur it if it does. Also, if you select an area to blur, Smart Blur won't
pull in color from outside the selection, while other blurs will. These two
features can be very useful in certain circumstances.

(BTW, I call anything you can twiddle a "knob". They're actually sliders in
PSCS.)

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@...