Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

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The Digital Photographer's Software Guide
PhotoKit Sharpener
Vendor: PixelGenius
Purpose: A workflow tool that looks after sharpening from image capture to output
Description
PhotoKit Sharpener is more than just a set of sharpening tools. It is a workflow product
that lets you take care of sharpening at each stage, from image capture to output.
The developers have grouped its capabilities into three phases: “capture,” “creative,” and
“output” sharpening. To avoid confusion, they also recommend that you let this plug-in
handle all sharpening throughout the workflow. Processes are completely non-destructive,
working on currently visible layers as the source for the effect.
Capture sharpening concentrates on the midtones, applying relatively little sharpening
to highlights and shadows. Various sets of effects may be applied at this early stage, each
set having SuperFine, Narrow, Medium, and Wide Edge Sharpen effects, suitable for a
wide range of subjects.
Creative sharpening tools allow you to sharpen parts of the image selectively. You must
vary the opacity and flow of the layer masks brush. Fog, diffusion, and smoothing
brushes let you tone down the effect. Among the “heavy duty” sharpening effects are
edge, luminance, and high-pass sharpen, plus super sharpener and super grain at five
ISO levels.
PhotoKit’s output sharpener caters for halftone, inkjet, and continuous tone (contone)
printing, as well as for Web and multimedia output.
Comments
PhotoKit Sharpener is highly regarded by many professional photographers, if not quite
as widely acclaimed as Nik Sharpener Pro. It has been created by a far-flung team of
individuals (Jeff Schewe, Bruce Fraser, Andrew Rodney, Martin Evening, Seth Resnick,
and Mike Skurski) who live and work in various parts of the United States or Britain.
The product is well supported with detailed information about sharpening in general
as well as how to use this particular tool; users should see the Website for sample workflows.
Images treated with PhotoKit Sharpener do not look overdone, even when you
add one of the “Super Grain” effects. It is a good value and gives pleasing results.
Version: PhotoKit Sharpener 1.2.6 (2008)
Plugs into: Photoshop 7.0 and up; does not run on Photoshop Elements; needs CS, CS2, and
CS3 for 16-bit/channel RGB images
OS: Windows XP Home/Pro, and Vista; Mac OS X; earlier versions—Windows 98 and above
and Mac 9.1 and above—will run Photoshop 7.0 plug-in
RAM: 256MB
Supported file formats: JPEG, TIFF, and Adobe PDS