Re: Scanning with USM or not?
Re: Scanning with USM or not?
- Subject: Re: Scanning with USM or not?
- From: neil snape <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 09:07:52 +0200
on 31/05/01 20:27, Collins, Tom at email@hidden wrote:
However, I've been told that RGB scanning
>
should be done with USM off, for better file repurposing down the road. If
>
that's the case, what software is best for applying sharpening, and can it
>
be done in a batch/server mode? Is this what most RGB shops are doing?
For archiving you could leave the USM off and apply it per image depending
on the repro size. No secrets here it's as always except it's software
rather than hardware sharpening. Photoshop gives you perfect visual feedback
when in the filter dialogue box and you can adjust it each image. Sometimes
the manual method better tunes the image depending on the subject than
indiscreet hardware sharpening.
You could write a Photoshop script(s) to apply different amounts and batch
process. There is an app called Nik sharpener Pro yet I have no idea how
well it works or if it's scriptable internally or by Applescript.
I do the sharpening in Linocolor on the finescan applying manually he amount
necessary to bring the image to the same visual appearance as the original
under a 8x loupe. I don't introduce any noise into the flat areas this way
because I can control where to adjust the sharpening. In Linocolor go under
>
correction>filter. There you have exactly the same software controls that are
on most all drum scanners i.e.; width and height across individual black and
white channels , intensity and amount , size, and the possibility to combine
removal of sharpening on flat congruent areas meanwhile sharpening in
non-congruent high contrast areas(aka portraits like the old retouching
days), and sharpness removal all in L*a*b*.
You can then safely archive this for tuning for output later. This method
will require less sharpening ( a lot less!) with natively sharp scanners
like a drum etc. In rare cases after mounting the image in Photoshop and in
rgb I bring the image back into Lino as for certain gravure printed
magazines the black height should be reduced to avoid annoying black cell
bleeding. Contrary to this sometimes you can best apply black channel only
sharpening in Photoshop on the cmyk image with great results! Chris Murphy
will know more on production sharpening workflow.
Neil Snape email@hidden
http://mapage.noos.fr/nsnape