Sharpening, like noise, can be a wicked task for amateurs to master, and can waste a lot of profesional's time as well.
There are many excellent sharpening tools on the market, but the perfect place to implement sophisticated sharpening would be right inside Neat Image. It would eliminate another processing step and "should" provide better sharpening with less noise than even the most sophisticated sharpener.
You're already headed in the right direction with the sharpening built in to 4.0. In fact I find myself using it for most sharpening tasks just because of the convenience. Expanding this "simple" sharpening to a more sophisticated level would make a KILLER product!
Best new feature: Expanded sharpening
Yes, I agree. If the sharpening algorithm can be adjusted so that it takes into accound noise etc it can be indeed very powerful.
As it is now I feel that the sharpening is to strong so it maskes small details instead. It does not give per-pixel sharpening like the USM in Photoshop gives using 500%, 0.2, 0.
As it is now I feel that the sharpening is to strong so it maskes small details instead. It does not give per-pixel sharpening like the USM in Photoshop gives using 500%, 0.2, 0.
I feel the sharpening in Neatimage adds to many halos for my taste. The sharpening looks very artifical unless you use very low values.
Rather than develop Neatimage into a full fledged sharpening application I'd like to see is an option to export a mask to photoshop so I could use a specialized sharpening tool for sharpening only the details in the image.
Neatimage should be perfect for finding this data, as it's already very good at seeing the difference between noise and details. That way you wouldn't have to spend a lot of time adding lots sharpening features into Neatimage. All I need is the mask, then I'll do the rest from there.
Rather than develop Neatimage into a full fledged sharpening application I'd like to see is an option to export a mask to photoshop so I could use a specialized sharpening tool for sharpening only the details in the image.
Neatimage should be perfect for finding this data, as it's already very good at seeing the difference between noise and details. That way you wouldn't have to spend a lot of time adding lots sharpening features into Neatimage. All I need is the mask, then I'll do the rest from there.
I agree with the previous posters that NeatImage would be an ideal location for sharpening, thanks to its built in masks. An ideal sharpening tool would provide separate radius controls for high-, mid- and low frequency detail, as well as controls for light and dark halos. Given the amount of development required to do this, the added sharpening features may even be considered a new program working in conjunction with NI noise reduction features. Any updates from the developers about their sharpening plans?