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Hi,

I'm using Focal Blade 1.04 with Photoshop Elements 3.0

After sharpening an image in Focal Blade and clicking OK, the resultant image that is shown by the Photoshop editor does not seem anywhere near as sharp as the image preview within Focal Blade.

I find that I have to set the options within Focal Blade much more aggressively, in fact the image looks a little over sharpened in the Focal Blade preview window, but once it processes the image and returns to Photoshop, the image looks OK. (I am comparing using the same image magnification in both applications)

Is this normal behaviour? I would have hoped that what I see in Focal Blade would be what I get in Photoshop, yet the image displayed by Photoshop after Focal Blade has processed the image is quite different (softer) than the preview shown in Focal Blade.

Can you offer any suggestions.

Best Regards,
Trevor.

Hello again,

I'm sure I'm not imagining this. Is there a known issue with the apparent level of sharpening when viewed with FocalBlade and when viewed with the Elements 3.0 editor ?

Anyone?

Oops, sorry, I forgot to logon. The post above is from me.

Best Regards,
Trevor.

Are you looking at the image at 100% in both FocalBlade and Elements?

If the zoom level in Elements is below 100%, it is quite logical that the image looks less sharp. Unlike FocalBlade, Elements slightly blur the image when displaying a zoomed version. But the image is still the same.

Hi Harald,

Thanks for your reply.

No, I am not looking at the image at 100%. My images are very large, and I have been using the 'best fit' view. Both Elements and FocalBlade display the images using the same amount of screen area (I resized FocalBlade to match the size of the image in the Elements 3.0 editor)

However, despite this, are you saying that the display in the Elements 3.0 editor will always be different than that shown by the FocalBlade preview? How can that be, surely after sharpening the preview and the final image should look the same at any given size?

Am I missing something here?


Thanks again,
Trevor.

PS: I also use ColorWasher 2.02 and get fabulous results with that. No issues there between the preview and the 'final' version in Elements 3.0

As I said Elements is just downsizing the image which always produces a blurred view of the image. FocalBlade on the other hand uses another method for downsizing the image in the preview. This method lets you better judge the sharpness of the image at at a zoom below 100%.

At 100% zoom the image looks the same in every software, but there are different methods to display downsized or upsized versions of images. Each of these methods is useful for different purposes. The method of FocalBlade allows you to better adjust sharpness even if you are not viewing the image at 100% zoom. If FocalBlade would use the method that Elements is using, most users probably would sharpen the image differently depending on the zoom level, because they would get a different visual feedback.

Anyway, I can only recommend that you always look at a 100% zoomed version of the image when sharpening. Any other zoom level (in FocalBlade and even more in Elements) only shows an approximation of the sharpness of the image.

If you compare the image at 100% zoom in Elements and FocalBlade, you will see that there is no difference. A future version of FocalBlade will let you switch between various display methods.

Thanks for that Harald.

Now I understand. I shall try what you suggest and use the 100% view instead.

Best Regards,
Trevor.