================================================================================ Upscale Sharpen Actions Set for Adobe® Photoshop® CC or 2020+ version 1.5 ================================================================================ Contents -------- 1. Introduction and How To 2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 3. Troubleshooting 4. Policies and Legal Stuff ================================================================================ 1. Introduction and How To --------------------------- Thanks for your purchase of our actions! These sharpening actions define a whole new realm of ultra-fine, super-crisp sharpening. They can make a good photo great, correcting the inherent softness seen in digital images made with Bayer-pattern cameras, especially those that have been upsampled up to 1.5x. They bring out detail you may not know is there. Actions are predefined image processing steps for Adobe® Photoshop® that can be loaded and executed on an open image. You can even assign your favorite actions to function keys. More can be done with actions than you might imagine! Installation: First, make the Actions panel visible in Adobe® Photoshop®: In Photoshop, click on the Window menu then check the Actions entry. You now see the Actions panel. Of particular note is the little menu button near the upper-right corner just below the X, which is a tiny arrow with lines next to it. Click that to see the Actions panel fly-out menu functions, such as "Load Actions". If you have plenty of screen space, you may want to detach the Actions panel so that you can see it all the time. To do this, grab the Actions tab and just drag it out of the panel. A separate Actions panel window will be created, and should stay where you put it. Now install the Upscale Sharpen actions into your copy of Adobe® Photoshop®: Save the Upscale Sharpen vX_X.atn file to your hard drive. Note: I recommend creating a special folder just for your collection of actions, separate from those in the Program Files\Adobe Photoshop... area. This will avoid loss of the actions files in the future if you change Adobe® Photoshop® versions. Now, just double-click the .atn file in Explorer or Finder and the actions will be automatically loaded into Photoshop CC or Photoshop 2020+. Freshly loaded actions will appear at the bottom of the Actions panel. You may have to scroll down to see them. To execute an action: Make your document current and choose an image layer. Click once on the name of the desired action to highlight it. Click on the play button at the bottom of the Actions panel. Actions can be assigned to function keys - double click the action to see the menu to set that up. Some of our actions take quite a few steps and a few moments to complete so please be patient and don't click anything or press any keys while they're running (this can confuse things). The activity will cease, the play button will un-highlight, and the display will update when all the steps are done. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- These actions take quite a few steps and may consume a large amount of computer resources for large images, so please be patient and don't click anything (or hold down the Alt key) while they're running (this can confuse things). The activity in the status bar will cease and the display will update when all the steps are done. You should NOT be prompted and you should end up with an image the same size as your original. There are 17 different actions. Their names are descriptive of what they do and should be used for: Sharpening Halo Reduction - Reduces sharpening halos from prior sharpening. Light Sharp High ISO - Minor detail enhancement for very noisy images. Light Sharp Med ISO - Minor detail enhancement for noisy images. Light Sharp Low ISO - Minor detail enhancement for most typical images. Light Sharp Max Texture - Minor detail enhancement for very clean images. Med Sharp High ISO - Detail and edge enhancement for very noisy images. Med Sharp Med ISO - Detail and edge enhancement for noisy images. Med Sharp Low ISO - Detail and edge enhancement for most typical images. Med Sharp Max Texture - Detail and edge enhancement for very clean images. Hvy Sharp High ISO - Heavy edge enhancement for very noisy images. Hvy Sharp Med ISO - Heavy edge enhancement for noisy images. Hvy Sharp Low ISO - Heavy edge enhancement for most typical images. Hvy Sharp Max Texture - Heavy edge enhancement for very clean images. Bright Halo Reduction - Use to remove excess sharpening halos in skies, etc. The following actions can be applied immediately after running an action above: ...As Layer On Top - Makes 2 layers with action results above the original. ...As Layer Underneath - Makes 2 layers with action results below the original. ...Per Selection Only - Restricts results to the area selected before. Generally speaking, the Med Sharp actions are a good place to start. We use the Med Sharp Low ISO action most. Experiment a bit on smaller images to get to know them. See what good things you can do to fuzzy images. If an action doesn't seem to be effective or something unexpected shows up in your image use the history and start again, adding operations or changing the order of your steps. Note that a snapshot of your image is saved at the top of the History panel just before sharpening begins. Oh, one last thing: Your payment gets you updates of this Actions Set whenever I add new functions, refine them, make them work better, or have a tip/trick announcement to make. We won't disclose your eMail address to anyone else. we hate spam. Good luck, have fun, and let us know how they work for you! Thanks again! -Noel Carboni ProDigital Software ================================================================================ 2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ------------------------------------ Q: Do the Upscale Sharpen actions work on a Macintosh? Yes, they work equally well on PC and Macintosh systems running Adobe Photoshop CC 14.x or Photoshop 2020 or newer. Q: Will the Upscale Sharpen actions work with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements? No. Q: Can I apply an action or effect to only part of an image? Yes. Here's a method for "painting" the effect of an action onto any part of any image: 1. Run a sharpening action. 2. Run the ...As Layer Underneath action to place the newly sharpened image in a new layer underneath your original. 3. Choose the eraser tool and erase through to the lower layer to show the effect. Note that you can use partial opacity or flow and fuzzy-edged brushes with the Eraser tool. 4. Layer-Merge Down to recombine the two layers. Another way to accomplish this is to run the ...As Layer On Top action, then use a layer mask to hide or reveal parts of the sharpened image. Q: Can I apply an action to only selected parts of an image? Yes. If you select the part you want the action to run on, run the action (which will affect the entire image), then run the ...Per Selection Only action the result will then be limited to your prior selection. Q: Can I apply an action only partially to an entire image? Yes. Use the ...As Layer On Top action, then make the upper layer partially transparent to mix the two layers together and show the sharpening results only partially, mixed with the unsharpened image layer below. Q: Why are the Upscale Sharpen actions provided in a zip file? I package the actions in a zip file to ensure the download proceeds as quickly as possible, and also to provide assurance that the file has not been corrupted or truncated. We will be happy to eMail you an unzipped copy on your request. Simply eMail us at: Contact@ProDigitalSoftware.com Q: Can I use Upscale Sharpen actions in 16 bit-per-color mode? Yes. Note that sharpening an image in 16 bit mode, while producing slightly finer results, can take a bit longer than sharpening in 8 bit mode. Q: Can I use Upscale Sharpen actions on a CMYK image? How about Lab? Yes. The actions work in all modes. Q: How do I know which action to use and when? Generally speaking, you'll want to get a feel for how they work by experimenting and comparing before and after images. I recommend trying each action on relatively small images, cropped from your full-sized dSLR images, for quick results. One very handy technique is, after having run a Upscale Sharpen action, to back up one history state using ...As Layer On Top. This will yield a sharpened image as the selected layer, and the original image on the layer just beneath it. You can easily do before/after comparisons by clicking the layer visibility icon (eyeball) on the sharpened layer. I've organized the action names so that you can match them to your image. For example, if you have a medium ISO image (e.g., ISO 400) that you want to sharpen only a little, choose Light Sharpen Med ISO. The actions with names that end in "Max Texture" will work best on images with very, very low noise. The Bright Halo Reduction is a very specialized action that will allow you to remove the most obvious effects of digital sharpening artifacts left by OTHER TOOLS in very bright parts of your image. In other words it will darken the bright halos you might see in bright sky areas around dark leaves or branches. Q: Sometimes I get odd results - an unsharp image or image windows with weird names. Why is this? Make sure you don't hold any keys (e.g., the Alt or Ctrl key) down while the actions are running. Please see the Troubleshooting section, below. ================================================================================ 3. Troubleshooting ------------------- We've worked to make installing and running these actions as straightforward as possible. However, if you do experience a problem installing or running them, please check this section for information on ways to correct the problem. We apologize for any trouble you may be having. Please read all the way through this section. However, please don't hesitate to eMail me at: Contact@ProDigitalSoftware.com Don't worry, we will make every effort to get the actions working properly for you on your system. The results are well worth the effort! Symptom: Sometimes I get odd results - an unsharp or strange looking image or image windows with weird names. Why is this? Make sure you don't hold any keys (e.g., the Alt or Ctrl key) down while the actions are running. Adobe® Photoshop® does funky things if you do. I know these sharpening actions sometimes take a long time to run, and it's tempting to go do other things on your workstation, but try to stay off the keyboard if you do. The actions will normally open an extra document window during normal operation. This is expected; please be patient and wait for the action to finish. Symptom: The action stops at every single step. Should it stop like this? No. The actions are supposed to run all the way through without stopping. Look at the little boxes just to the left of the actions names. The first (leftmost) one should have a little checkmark in it and the second one should be blank. If either box is not as described, please click on it, or load the actions afresh from the files I've provided you. If you've accidentally checked or unchecked boxes, or have enabled the "prompt" feature, don't forget that you can always remove the entire actions set from within the Actions panel and reload it afresh from the .atn file that we have supplied. ================================================================================ 3. Policies and Legal Stuff ---------------------------- Licensing Policy Only one person per copy of Upscale Sharpen may use these actions. You may install and use the actions on all the machines you use, but if more than one person will be using these actions at a time, please purchase a separate license for each person. Updates I may be adding handy new features to Upscale Sharpen from time to time. Your purchase entitles you to free updates. Check http://www.ProDigitalSoftware.com to see our current offerings. Questions and Feedback If you'd like to eMail me to let me know how the actions are working for you, or to ask me a question, please feel free to do so. Here's our eMail address: Contact@ProDigitalSoftware.com Privacy Policy We will not disclose your eMail address to anyone else. We hate spam. Guarantee If these actions don't work for you or you are unhappy with them, please let me know via eMail. If I can't make them work properly and make you happy I'll give you your money back. ================================================================================