Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I have been experimenting with DFS sharpening of late, and I am pleased with the outcome.

In the main, I have applied my tried and trusted usm settings, pushing them to the limit and then switching over to DFS and delighted to see my halos disappear.
I have some remaining questions:-
1.   Would anybody like to share their DFS settings with me with regard to Portraits, images with fine detail, landscape and B&W.
2.   To round off my tour of DFS, I would like to learn how to apply selective sharpening. Is there a video that I can learn from or maybe a document explaining as to how it is done?

All contributions are welcome.

Bill

Hi Bill,
I found just what you needed.  This is the DFS vs USM video which I know you have mastered, but others might be seeing it for the first time.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/AiVoXcB1uzk

The next one is the Tone Targeted video     https://www.youtube.com/embed/xn7Ipw8IAhQ
This is the one you need. 
One point I need to touch on and that is the slider.  When using any Tone Targeted tool that slider goes to 100% Meaning it has narrowed the threshold of of the tone to close to what you clicked on. Trying to explain better..... Let's say you selected "do not sharpen the blue sky" Many times a good idea as vast expanses of one color can contain noise. But you said Don't sharpen blue sky. The slider is 100% right side.
Perhaps that gal you took out for lunch has blue dress that could you a tad of sharpening. Just move that slider to the left to perhaps 85%. You have told QU OK to expand the tone to include more shades of blue.
Hard to explain without a face to face.  You have to try it and see how obvious it becomes.
OK post back to us if I wasn't clear enough
Fred

Hi Fred,
Trumps again...that video is exactly what I was searching for. I had a quick glance at it this morning and it looks fine.

In the video you intrigue me with the settings you choose i.e. a radius of 3 with a strength of 250%. I would have thought that they would be far too strong but your results were spot on. Can you shed a little more light on point for me?

Stay safe.

Regards
Bill

Sure Bill,
You are right about the 3/250 because if you were doing regular EQ sharpening, those numbers would likely be too strong,
Reason.............the slider is all the way left, to zero %.
When you use Tone targeted tools, the slider jumps to the right, 100% (contained/controlled/Selective.)When  you use the RGB selection, you probably wont see any sharpening until  that slider is 85%.
You can even sharpen nuances of color using RGB
Fred

I'd like to add that all this stuff is highly image dependent. My criteria is, "does it look natural?" That comment was made in the video about the grass and that's where the tone filter is great. It's easy for some things to take on a harsh or wax museum look if you go too far. If the images are very good to begin with, DFS (with no tone filter) numbers beyond about 2/100 give problems. I have images where 2/50 is about the limit before I start to see problems when pixel peeping. OTOH, on other images I go way beyond that, so there's really no general rule. Experiment!

Right on the button. Each image is unique and subjectively evaluated. I find, for example,  that on scenery type images a 6/45 is excellent.
When you  first try Tone targeted, you have a tendency to over do it.
Play, experiment, trial and retry. Perhaps the least used tool is the A/B button which allows you to see if you made it better or worse.
Fred