Lightroom

Hey guys!

I'm now sitting in the dust of Helmand province, Afghanistan. Well it makes a change from being underwater, right?

Does anyone know what the Lightroom equivalent is of the Photoshop filter "Unsharp Mask"? I'm used to using this filter in PS to prepare pics for agencies. Here in the dust I'm trying to minimise the steps I need to prepare images and just can't work out what the equivalent would be to do the job in LR.

Thoughts most welcome.

Meanwhile, while you Pixelers are preparing to dip your rigs in salt water, spare a thought for we who are now dipping ours in dust....

Best wishes from Afghanistan

Hi Tim,

Cant remember the actual step in PS but I think this is the LR equivalent you mention...or one of them,

scroll down on the right and go to the sharpen field (all from memory this so excuse me if I've used the wrong wording) click on the little square by the image and choose the area you want zoomed on from the main image, zoom into the pciture 1:1 on the main screen. Hold down the ALT key and slide the sharpening slide up and the images will turn black and white, the further you slide up the more it sharpens, the sliders above it have an effect too, saying all this, I think it shows very little difference IMO. Clarity is also useful, and Clarity & Sharpen with a mask (round button top right to create your mask(s))...if its this one let me know. The export sharpen may work wel too

Take care out there

Clarity.

CC

edit: Just seen that this has been posted

Good luck out there!

Hi Tim,

So we're not confused; In Lightroom I think you're looking for Sharpening, it's under the Develop module / Detail panel / Sharpening

In previous versions of Lightroom, when sharpening you had to be zoomed into 100% to see the effects of the sharpening. If you're in the Lightroom 3 you can see your sharpening even at the lowest zoom level.

From the Adobe help file;

Amount - Adjusts edge definition. Increase the Amount value to increase sharpening. A value of zero (0) turns off sharpening. The adjustment locates pixels that differ from surrounding pixels based on the threshold you specify and increases the pixels’ contrast by the amount you specify.

Radius - Adjusts the size of the details that sharpening is applied to. Photos with very fine details may need a lower radius setting. Photos with larger details may be able to use a larger radius. Using too large a radius generally results in unnatural-looking results.

Detail - Adjusts how much high-frequency information is sharpened in the image and how much the sharpening process emphasizes edges. Lower settings primarily sharpen edges to remove blurring. Higher values are useful for making the textures in the image more pronounced.

Masking - Controls an edge mask. With a setting of zero (0), everything in the image receives the same amount of sharpening. With a setting of 100, sharpening is mostly restricted to those areas near the strongest edges.

Holding down the Alt key can be very helpful as Paul describes.

The Clarity tool is sort of like using the Unsharp Mask in Photoshop, but without the extra sharpness. Clarity affects the contrast only in the midtone range.

I'm trying to figure out if there are two places on the planet further apart in culture, environment, and general vib than KBR and Helmand. I think you have the record Tim.

Stay cool,

Steve

LOL, you guys are great.

I'm doing images for an agency and was using PS to do the final processing after an initial pass through LR. One step I used in PS, required by the agency, was to use the PS filter "Unsharp Mask". I'm not entirely sure what this does (!) but I think Steve may be right with it creating a similar effect to Clarity in LR.

Out here in the dust, I'm trying to cut down on the amount of time all my gear (laptop included) is exposed. So I'm looking to see if I can do all the steps the agency require in LR - rather than, as I do at present, some in LR, and then finally in PS. The one I havn't been able to work out is the LR equivalent of the PS Unsharp Mask.

So thanks for all the advice guys.

Yeah Steve, this is about as far from KBR as a human can get without a Saturn V..... well, maybe I should say that if there is a greater switch I'm not sure i need the experience.

This is actually my second time in Afghanistan since the Taliban were removed. I was with the British Embassy for 18 months a few years back. Afghans really deserve our support and I feel I want to do my bit.

This is the best tutorial for Lightroom Sharpening I've read:

http://lightroom-news.com/lightroom-11-update/sharpening/

Although it was written for Version 1 it is equally applicable for later versions (except for noise reduction).

If you want to simulate Unsharp Mask this should do the trick:

When Detail is set to 100, you could say that the Amount and Radius sharpening settings are allowed to process the image with almost the same effect as the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop.

Hope your Tim Tams aren't melting in the heat.

Brilliant! Thanks Gudge - really helpful.....

Ahhhhhhh, TimTams. I dream of TimTams. And bread. Butter. Meat not out of a can. Vegetables. Fruit. But only one more week to go before I go on 2 weeks leave. Then I will eat my way through the curry houses of Manchester (UK). And there are many......

Aha! You did go back to afghan. Good to hear from you Tim. Is it true? Life in a warzone is easier than living in Lembeh?

Aha! You did go back to afghan. Good to hear from you Tim. Is it true? Life in a warzone is easier than living in Lembeh?

LOL, you know I would never be that indiscrete, Mike......

Curiously there are moments when there is no water, a huge queue for a bowl of soup and its 42 degrees in the shade that I quite miss KBR and Lembeh.

Odd eh?

Hope you guys are in top form and NAD is thriving.