Digital Photographer's Software Guide - Bertemes - Net

Price level: Approx. $100
Address: PixelGenius, 624 West Willow Street, Chicago, IL, 60614, United States
www.pixelgenius.com
SharpiePRO
Vendor: Sean Puckett
Purpose: Sharpen/blur the image using “contrast enhancement,” “luminance blur,” and “pixel
punch” filters
Description
Sharpie is a sharpen/blur plug-in for the RAW converter Bibble Pro, which, with Sean
Puckett’s numerous plug-ins, is rapidly becoming an image editor. Three Sharpie filters
contribute “contrast enhancement,” “luminance blur,” and “pixel punch” to the image,
improving pixel detail while reducing artifacts and noise.
The so-called pixel punch feature has been designed to enhance pixel-level “pop,” the
quality so admired by the gritty realist school of photography. It works only on fullsized
images, not those destined for the Web. The Pro edition of the software also contains
a Detail Filter, which combines the other filters into one slider. Using it has the
effect of recovering fine detail in the image.
Comments
Many photographers found SharpiePRO to be an effective tool even before the major
2.0 update in 2007. With its additional features, it sharpens images with greater subtlety,
especially those that are reasonably sharp already. Although there is a freeware edition,
the Pro edition is essential and a very good value.
Version: SharpiePRO 1.2; (Pro edition) 2.0 (as of 2008)
Plugs into: Bibble Pro (upgrade when Bibble upgrades)
OS: As host
RAM: 128MB
Supported file formats: As host
Price level: Standard version free; Pro version $20
Address: seanmpuckett@gmail.com
www.nexi.com/178
Summary
Chapter 16 ■ Sharpening Software 203
Because the human visual system is so good at detecting the edges of objects, we are
acutely aware of how sharp a photographic image appears to be when we scrutinize it.