A lesser known photo sharpening method can reveal subtle detail

How do you sharpen your digital photos? Using the camera's sharpening settings for a jpg shot is the simplest solution, but only suitable for small snapshots. If you're exploring sharpening techniques for your RAW format shots you will discover that sharpening usually takes place at multiple stages. In the RAW converter the aim of sharpening is to minimally restore critical focus of the camera's capture (not to be confused with making up for poor focus). Next, after the RAW conversion, the sharpening goal is often to enhance detail during any final color correction and photo manipulation. This may either be a global adjustment to the entire image or on selected areas like the eyes in a portrait. Sharpening at this stage is often overlooked. When it's time to print or after resizing for the web we apply any final output sharpening. It's that middle stage that we'll explore today.
Click on the luna moth photo to see it larger. Additional USM was applied after scaling.

The latest RAW converters can eliminate some of the mid-stage sharpening for many shots with their tools to enhance micro contrast. When you need to enhance the detail in subtler transitions and textures, like the blades of grass on a golf green or the furry back of a moth without over sharpening the entire photo, try the High Pass filter technique. I used it back in the 90's to bring out detail in drum scans. It's a perfect process for recovering fine detail in today's high resolution digital photos.

Photoshop's High Pass filter doesn't produce anything attractive on its own. It's designed to be used with certain layer blend modes like Overlay, Soft Light and similar modes that alter the image based on the luminosity of the layer. A 50% gray value has no effect on the layers below in Overlay mode. The further from 50%, lighter or darker, the greater the layer changes the image below. Let's see how High Pass is used.

The High Pass filter technique is simple. In Photoshop you make a copy of the RAW converted photo on a new layer. I'd suggest only using enough sharpening in the RAW converter to restore focus and staying in 16-bit. Go to the Filter pull-down menu, to Other, to High Pass. There's only one slider. Try a low setting of 2 as a test and click ok. Don't panic. The result will look very ugly. Next we want to remove any remaining color in that layer to protect the color of the photo. Simply use the Hue and Saturation tool on this gray layer, dragging the saturation slider to the left. Now the fun part. Change the blend mode of that filtered layer to Overlay and move the opacity slider. Watch the detail increase in subtle areas as the opacity increases. Too much and things look unnatural. You can use a layer mask to target certain areas of the photo with this sharpening.

Before and after - the high pass technique shows greater clarity in the hairs. 
 

High Pass sharpening is not for every shot and not a substitute for final output sharpening. Experiment and you will find the settings that work best with your workflow and camera. -pw

The story behind my design firm's name...

Drawn By The Light sounded just curious enough for the name of my new design firm in 1998. I've drawn all of my life and illustration would be one of the core services. Oddly enough, drawing wasn't what actually inspired the name.

During the day I was a commercial artist employed under assorted titles for over a decade, working with a variety of clients and winning some awards, but it left me unfulfilled in many ways. To achieve a balance I worked at night as a freelance designer from my home studio. This allowed me to work on other types of projects and deal directly with clients. As I prepared to go freelance full time I knew I needed a company name that was intriguing and symbolic.

The night hours have always been my favorite creative time. My studio was lit by the moon, my desk by a lamp, the monitor glows with illuminated pixels. Light was a part of the process and a key symbol I was looking for in my quest for a name. When I wasn't working on a client project I was often up late beta testing software for an early developer of Photoshop plug-ins and graphic software. One of these projects was a 3D modeling application called KPT Bryce. It was intended to render photorealistic landscapes but, as an imaginative beta tester, I modeled all sorts of things. Some of those images can be found in the sample galleries on the early install CDs. As Bryce rendered the final image, a yellow line would slowly move across the screen (computers were so slow in those days...), row by row, showing the rendering progress of the pixels receiving light and shadow. It could take many hours. I'd often start the rendering, set the monitor to sleep and hit the sack. Waking the monitor up in the morning was always exciting.

For a break from evening work and play (the beta testing and drawing being the latter), I'd find myself at the kitchen sink for a glass of water, looking through the window into the darkness outside. Looking back at me were moths attracted to the light, keeping me company as my family slept. The drawn by the light name just clicked one night.

I always dreamed of seeing a luna moth at that window. A luna did show up in my logo. The moth element has become very stylized in my current logo. I do get to enjoy real luna moths up close each summer by raising a few from eggs.

Years later I still find new ways light is impacting my work. Most recently it has been through my study of studio lighting. Not long after the turn of the Century I began shooting digital photography. It was the first time since my youth working in the basement darkroom that I was serious about photography as a craft. It complemented my illustration, art and design perfectly. As with so many other parts of my creative process the camera was using light to bring a vision to life. There's simply no avoiding it. I am drawn by the light. pw

RAW Developer by Iridient Digital updated to 1.8.8

For all of you Macintosh users shooting RAW files I highly recommend you try the demo of RAW Developer by Iridient Digital. It's a powerful RAW converter with some nice touches. Version 1.8.8 was released this week adding a couple more cameras and squashing a couple bugs. The control this converter allows makes it well worth reading the comprehensive Help section. Iridient Digital is fast to add new cameras. Their list of supported RAW capable cameras is exhaustive.

One of the often mentioned benefits of RAW Developer is the high level of detail this converter can pull out of a shot. I must agree. DNG files are supported and the input profile can use the DNG metadata style camera color rendering. The camera profiles can be tweaked for those wanting advance control. Batch processing is in there too. The workspace layout options allow for plenty of customization. You are not limited to 3 output profiles, like Adobe restricts us to. There are numerous color space profiles included or you can add your own as I do. I use Joseph Holmes' DCam4 RGB color space as my working space and use the DCam Chroma Variants to adjust global saturation on my important shots. It sounds complicated but is extremely simple and addictive. Adobe's workflow would require I export to 16-bit ProPhoto RGB and then convert to the DCam space, one more step. There are a set of Chroma Variants sold for 16-bit ProPhoto use. I just stuck with DCam4 since it works so well for me. See the link below to Joseph's site for more details on the Chroma Variant approach.

RAW Developer includes multiple sharpening methods (R-L seems even better than USM for RAW sharpening), noise reduction controls, and highly flexible black and white conversion options. These tools are winners. The Chromatic Aberration control with RAW Developer is great without any sliders. About the only tool I find missing is the Vignetting slider which I only use as a creative effect for the cropped sensor shots I take. Give it a try! pw
RAW Developer features link
RAW Developer demo link 
DCam RGB info link

A perfect location for a Toxic Landscape

Toxic Landscape

When I cropped this image in the viewfinder I was imagining a fall landscape, blue sky, and silhouetted trees at the edge of a lake. The shapes are loosely formed by the rust and paint remnants. I love this shot on so many levels. For weeks during the construction of the small building that would eventually become my studio I walked past the portable trailer dumpster only to look inside for useful scraps. I was too focused on the construction project to see past the contents. At one point we moved it to help a subcontractor and the imaginary scene caught my eye. I only took a few shots and went back to work. Now I wish I had shot an extensive study of the surface. The next day we had to move it again and the light was never the same and the leaves had moved.

I've had the print hanging in my studio since a photography show. It looks fantastic with the acid stained concrete floor. A few months ago I decided to rehang a watercolor print by Robert H. Way featuring the downtown square of Keene, NH where I grew up. My brother's family was making a trip to that very spot and since I couldn't be there the watercolor was the next best thing. My Toxic Landscape needed a new home. I carried it around the corner and found the perfect location (hint: read the lettering on the Toxic Landscape photo. - thanks Ron!). pw

photography, art, and the occasional luna moth

Welcome to Drawn By The Light "the blog"
Hey, wait... "What about your design firm with a similar name?" you ask. The photography and fine art focus for this blog easily fits under that umbrella name which I incorporated under well over a decade ago. The design firm remains my main focus. I plan to explore and share many of my odd interests and obsessions right here. Amazingly they don't all involve pushing pixels and letter kerning but do have a tie to light in some way. I hope you will enjoy my ramblings. pw