Smarter Sharpen?

Stephen Marsh, author of the Binary FX: Photoshop Tech Vault, has penned a primer on an alternative to Photoshop's Smart Sharpen. He's called the piece Smarter Sharpen. In it, he presents some never-before published thoughts and techniques on fixing focus in our images.

There are some who might not be used to the Apply Image dialog. So, to get everyone off on the right footing, I've made a small video file (YouTube link) of the introductory steps of the technique. I've used the menus to navigate the steps - except for my last step, which can't be seen. In my last step, I've stamped the visible layers (see Stamp Visible for the technique). I've modified his technique slightly in starting from a copy of the background and copying the copy ... ending with stamping the visible layers in order to easily compare the results with the original image (and not to confuse things).

Try it out on your images and see what you think. I am rather impressed at both the thought that went into it and the detailed explanation as to what's happening and why. For me, his work has all the required elements - what-how-why - and included steps for repeatability.  Well done!

Merry Christmas to all.