Hmmm… I see that I used “capture” instead of “creative” in my 2nd posting [3rd thread post] in this thread… sorry for the confusion.
…my suggestions/comments in this thread apply to HiPass “Creative Sharpening”.
Peter:
Item (1): …I believe you have an error in the work flow description. In both Steps 4 you write:
open the Composite - Soft Light or High Light transform
I think you mean "High Pass" rather than "High Light". The Hard Light option doesn't yield anything of interest (to me)…
Composite-High Light is correct. The High Light filter is the same as Soft Light except that it has a stronger effect. Read the
“Background” section and note its illustration near the top of the web page here:
http://www.ncplus.net/~birchbay/tutoria ... /index.htm to see how the Softlight filter responds for a given gray tone when used as the Overlay in the Composite-Softlight transform. The Composite-Hard Light transform works the same way except with a more aggressive effect. I too rarely use Composite-Hard Light and if used, usually with an [white mask] amount 1/3 or less of that would be used for Soft Light.
Item (2): Nuances
The linked HiPass LCE/Edge Sharpening web page contains nuances that may obscure the basic understanding of the HiPass - Soft Light/Hard Light workflow for LCE and/or Edge Sharpening…
…These are for a 3456x2304 pixel, 16-bit color image:
(a) a LCE effect is usually achieved with a radius of 50 or greater [usually 75] and an Edge Sharpen effect is usually achieved with a radius of 5 or less [usually 3];
(b) a mid-tone mask when used for the LCE effect prevents loss of detail in the deep Shadows and high Highlights that may be caused by clipping/posterization in these tone ranges by aggressive settings;
(c) a mid-tone mask when used for the Edge Sharpen effect prevents the increase in “noise’ detail in the deep Shadows and high Highlights; and
(d) if the Composite-Soft Light or Hard Light transform Overlay image is converted from color to a 8-bit or 16-bit black/white HiPass blur image, there will be less color shift.
Item (3): A HiPass LCE/Edge Sharpening Workflow without the Nuances
Step1: Open or click on a ‘starting image’.
Step2: Open the Blur transform; select High Pass; select a Radius [50 or more for LCE; 5 or less for Edge Sharpening for a 3456x2304 pixel image. SCALE for other pixel dimensions]; and click OK, creating the HiPass image. Note: all other transform settings at “program initial defaults“.
Step3: Click on the ‘starting image’ and open the Composite-Soft Light or Hard Light transform. Select the HiPass image as the Overlay. Adjust Overlay Amount to preference while monitoring Preview. Click OK, creating a LCE or an Edge Sharpened image version depending upon the High Pass blur radius selected in Step1.
Hope this helps to clarify… from your posting, it would seem you have the basics. For LCE, small radius and an aggressive amount for Composite-Soft Light or Hard Light Overlay can produce obvious halos, similar to aggressive USM LCE and/or sharpening. I generally prefer HiPass-SoftLight LCE because the radius selection will go up to 128... and a 75 setting seems to work well for the nature landscape 3456x2304 pixel images, I take.
Also… some images do respond well to LCE color shifts while others do not. Depends on the image content and one’s preferences.
There is no direct relationship between PS and PWP’s various radius ranges as the PWP tool/transform algorithms differ from PS‘s…. And yes, the smaller ranges tend to produce stronger gradients but if one uses smaller amounts that PS may call for, the effects seem to be about the same… depending upon a ‘starting image’s’ pixel dimensions.
As an example, for PWP LCE USM settings of Radius = 40 [the maximum] and Threshold = 0 for a 3456x2304 pixel image,,, the Amount should be perhaps 20 or less [usually 10 to 15]. Any amount greater then that suggested exceeds my preferences and tends produce too obvious light and dark halos.
For many of PWP’s radius selections, scaling may be needed to be taken into account.