"Selective" sharpening and noise reduction

[Steve]

I was just wondering how many people regularly only sharpen or reduce noise in certain parts of their images?

I ask because I have recently got into the idea of expanding my photoshop skills by using layers a bit more and "masking" since Richard Sibley's latest article showed me how to do!

For instance, do any of you only sharpen the areas where you want detail in the in-focus bits...and do any of you only use noise reduction where you don't care about losing detail (such as large expanses of sky).

Obviously all this would add a fair amount of time to the processing of the photo...so maybe some of you don't see enough of a benefit in doing this to justify the time spent.

Thoughts?

p.s. Sorry for posting something photography related in the lounge...I realise that's not always the done thing. I promise my next post will be something infinitely more silly

p.p.s. Before any mods decide to move this to a help section..I'm not asking for tips/tricks...just peoples' opinions on the subject

[BigWill]

How dare you ask something sensible in here! Have that man taken out and shot! ....................anyway, dunno how to do "selective sharpening" so I just sharpen the whole bloo*y lot...............so there..................up yours...................that'll teach you to go being sensible in here!

Big(Unskilled! )Will

[Steve]

Better to be unskilled at photoshop than unskilled at chatting up the ladies

[BigWill]

Better to be unskilled at photoshop than unskilled at chatting up the ladies

...........that's what I always say. "What shall it benefit a man if he be able to create a photographic masterpiece but is unable to get his leg over!"

Big(crap at photoshop...............good with the girls! )Will

[Steve]

Better to be unskilled at photoshop than unskilled at chatting up the ladies

...........that's what I always say. "What shall it benefit a man if he be able to create a photographic masterpiece but is unable to get his leg over!"

Big(crap at photoshop...............good with the girls! )Will

Indeed...

*waits for Barney to get here and claim to be brilliant at both*

[BigWill]

Better to be unskilled at photoshop than unskilled at chatting up the ladies

...........that's what I always say. "What shall it benefit a man if he be able to create a photographic masterpiece but is unable to get his leg over!"

Big(crap at photoshop...............good with the girls! )Will

Indeed...

*waits for Barney to get here and claim to be brilliant at both*

Oh he is, he is. I've heard he sits at home and chats up photoshop for ages................I prefer girls myself.....................but each to their own!

BigWill

[Barney]

*waits for Barney to get here and claim to be brilliant at both*

Nah, I'm rubbish at Photoshop.

[alanS]

I've never used layers or selective sharpening, I don't really bother to be honest. I use RSE to process my RAW files and that has a default sharpening level that seems ok. I try to avoid pixel peeping and looking at prints under a mag glass but even when I do I can't really say that I'm that disappointed.

I sometimes use the colour noise reduction in RSE and I find that although high ISO shots can look grainy they're pretty much good enough for me.

[Learning]

Isn't there a special forum on the site for this sort of technical thingy topic?

[Steve]

My bad

[El_Sid]

To answer your original question.... yes, I have used selective sharpening - particularly on noisy images. Mostly this is just a matter of not sharpening large areas of low detail (such as sky) where sharpening would merely sharpen/enhance the noise without adding significantly to the detail.

In extreme cases I have gone so far as to create 'edge masks' which allow the sharpening to only affect relatively high contrast edges. Normally I do this by using either the Find Edges or Glowing Edges filter coupled with the Threshold adjuster to create a pure black and white image and then use the Magic Wand selection tool to create the selection from which I make the mask. As this is a deal off fuss and I'm not entirely sure I'm getting it quite right I tend to use it only in the most extreme of cases...

[Steve]

That does sound like a bit of a pain in the arse. Not sure I'd ever go that far!

[El_Sid]

I tend to reserve it only for shots where things are really, really noisy - which ususally means somthing taken in poor light at ISO1600 with the old D30... A situation that I now try to avoid like the plague......

[zx9]

Steve if you want to do a 'quick and dirty' selective sharpen or noise reduction, just use any of the selection tools and feather the edges of the selection before applying the filter. To make it less obvious what you have done you can then inverse the selection and apply the same filter with lower settings to the rest of the image.
That is all that I did with my first view this month and it took seconds to select the reflections, feather the edges, sharpen lots, inverse the selection and sharpen a little. That way I got nice sharp reflections without over-sharpening Mrs. ZX9's face.

[Overread]

I think for websized images selective editing is only any use in the most extreme of cases - many times resizing and sharpening will give you a good result and noise (like in printing) gets lost with resizing.
For prints and larger displays I suspect its far more used and usefull to do and the time is well spent. For the internet alone though I think its just way too much effort for very little return on the average good image

[Monobod]

There is a brill book available (isn't there always), but this is really good.

Real World Image Sharpening with Photoshop CS3 by Bruce Fraser.

In there he describes a workflow for sharpening using mid tones and edge masks and several other photoshop wonders. These can easliy be recorded as 'Actions' and if you use pauses in the right places, you can fine tune the extent of the sharpening process. It works a treat and never gives artifacts unless you crank it up beyond the intentional.

Only about £18 on Amazon, so worth the time and cost IMHO.

I sharpen the full size 16 bit tiff, before I print it or before I convert it to an 8 bit jpeg to reduce it for web or digital projection.

[PhilW]

sorry, i didn't read all the previous replies, so may be repeating stuff.

I do selective shaprpening a lot with portrait shoots. Hair is my big bugbear as it usually can take a lot less sharpening than the rest of the pic. So i'll tend to duplicate the layer (ctrl A, ctrl J) then sharpen to the level of the rest of the image, then select the eraser brush at 50% and quickly run it over any hair. Only takes a few seconds, but makes a huge difference.