Wanna play a guessing game?

[Chris101]

Photoshop CS2 has a new sharpen tool, called 'Smart Sharpen', but can it beat a multi-layer 'Unsharp Mask'? These look pretty close to me, but can you tell which is which:
a:

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b:

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Here is another example in the same order:

a:

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b:

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Smart sharpen is very easy to use. You set the sharpening similar to the way you do for USM. Then fade the shadows and highlights until the halos disappear. I did an amount of 396 and radius of 0.2, then faded the highlights 64% and shadows 10%. Supposedly, Smart Sharpen is supposed to sharpen detail but not noise. These shots are very high ISO, does that seem to be the case?

 

[gho]

I'd say a is smart sharpen. Your second question depends if I'm right or not.

If I am right, then it seems to work. If I'm wrong it doesn't seem to work. I've switched over to smart sharpening myself and notice the backgrounds seem a bit cleaner.

 

[Chris101]

I pmed you the answer Gregory. Anybody else?

 

[mcampos]

I'll say the b shots are the ones with Smart Sharpen.

 

[Gale]

The pic looks like A. Smart sharpen.

Second pic can't tell. It does have a green cast though, bouncing right off the shiney spot on the guys forehead, you can see it the best.

To many ways to use USM, layers , lab, channels, masks etc.

I have been using smart sharpen and find it less harsh. I don't know how to do the above methods.

Pics are hard to tell unless one had them on thier own screen in a larger size.

 

[Chris101]

Thanks Gale and Mike, I've PMed you both the answer.

Gale, thanks for the color information. I can't see it cause I'm color blind (some pale shades of green look red to me.)

These pics are full size as they will be used on the web. I sharpen each image differently depending on it's size. To use multilayer sharpening I do this:

Create a copy layer with CMD (control)-J. Set the layer to 'darken' from the menu at the top of the layers windoid. Do 'Unsharp Mask' at 400:0.2:0 (for web sized images.) Adjust the opacity of the layer until no dark halo shows. Flatten the image. Do the same unsharp mask again to the flattened image. Fade USM. Set the fade style to 'lighten' and fade until the light halo disappears. That is all.

 

[Gale]

Chris,

Thank you for the sharpen method, much appreciated.

 

[Pa]

I think the B example is the best image in both cases, so I would guess it was created with the more complicated technique. Am I right?

 

[Chris101]

Thanks Pa (for the enigmatic guess ) You've got the answer in your PM inbox.