Hi Moose,
Thanks for all of the prompt answers. I am inclined to get it and work it
into my workflow, but it may change things a bit, particularly with E-1
images, with their particular filtering.
And I thought I was the only one who kept late hours. ;~)
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Moose" <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 4:24 AM
Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Adult Cicada
> On 5/18/2011 12:00 AM, Jim Nichols wrote:
>> Moose,
>>
>> I downloaded the trial version of Focus Magic and played with it as a
>> plugin
>> in PSE 6.0. I can see how it can make a difference, but I have a few
>> questions.
>>
>> 1. Do you decrease the amount of sharpening used in the RAW converter if
>> you
>> intend to apply FM?
>
> I don't sharpen in the RAW converter. At least I can't recall ever doing
> so. There are several things I often do that
> affect the appearance of sharpness, so it is almost always my last step.
>
> An exception would be in NeatImage, where resharpening is a part of noise
> reduction without losing detail. Sometimes it
> just does a beautiful job of enhancing detail. I've had a few examples
> where NI followed by FM have worked magic.
>
>> 2. Do you load the image into the editor and go directly to FM?
>
> In this case, yes. If I am going to apply noise reduction, I'll usually do
> that before focus. I seem to generally get
> better overall results that way.
>
>> 3. I am assuming that FM is applied to the full-size jpeg image.
>> Correct?
>
> Always at the largest size available.
>
>> 4. The instructions say one should go to 9 or 10, but this seems too
>> much,
>> in the cases I have used. Any suggestions?
>
> I didn't read the instructions. The setting depends a great deal on the
> size of the image and its 'in-focusness'. For a
> small image like the larger one off your gallery, I can't imagine a
> setting that high. Unless it is clear that OOF-ness
> is pretty even across the image, I will generally try a few spots, click
> its calculate button, try going up and down
> from that, to see what works.
>
> Sometimes, I'll apply it twice (or more) at different settings and use a
> mask to apply it differentially to the image.
> If I had the original of this image and wanted to do a really first rate
> job, I'd probably use a different setting for
> the back of the insect than the front, as the back is actually slightly
> OOF, while the front looks like focus is perfect
> (except for the closest eye), but the AA filter and/or downsampling have
> softened it.
>
> As it is, one pixel was not quite enough for the rear and two just a bit
> much for the front, but I just used two, as I
> would be downsampling, which takes the edge off. If it hadn't come out
> about right, I'd have gone back and split it.
>
>> I will probably buy it and try to master it, but it opens an entirely new
>> set of choices that I must make.
>
> Every image is different, and requires different treatment for optimal
> results. This one was nice tonally and quite
> vibrant already, so I didn't use Levels, Curves, Shadow/Highlight, LCE,
> etc. I usually some of those when playing with
> your images.
>
> With practice, it's usually fairly obvious what tools in what order will
> be used. Some images fool me and need something
> different than I expected. Occasionally, I run into one that requires some
> real original thinking - and I really learn
> something. Different cameras also present different image characteristics.
>
> Moose
> --
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