Help with sharpening

[ashey]

Can someone put me on the right track about what other soft wear is out there,I have a Mac with Iphoto,Aperture2.2,and elements 6, would appreciate your thoughts on which way to go.I have noticed that the more experienced photographers images have that pop to them.

[Analog6]

You need to use the unsharp mask.

Firstly, are you shooting in RAW? If you sharpen jpegs they tend to get a coloured line round the edge that looks unnatural.

I always make sharpening the very last operation when post processing. Go to Filters/sharpen/unsharp mask.
Play with the sliders in there. I generally go about 0 - 35& for the top one, 4-8% for the middle, and am very careful with the lowest one, I usually have it quite low. As you can see what is happening in the preview window, it is easy to adjust. It is best to bring a detailed area of feature with lines / edges on it into the preview window so you can see how the edges will look.

Pick a couple of your images and have a good play around till you are happy. You'll find most of your images will need a similar sharpening amount, I rarely change my settings much.

[ricktas]

Have a read of this thread: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=8579

Not sure if you can create actions in Elements 6, but if not try the high pass sharpening method:

On the Layer palette select your Background Layer and right click. Select Duplicate Layer.

With this new layer highlighted select Filter / Other / High Pass. Set the Radius to 10 and click OK.
Zoom into your image to Actual Pixels level so you can better see what you're going to do next.
Go back to the Layer Palette and select Hard Light (you can also select soft light for a variation) from the left drop down.
Now go to the Opacity Slider and select a level of sharpening that seems best to you. Usually something between 20% and 70% will be best.

[Seesee]

Not much help maybe but I have tried most sharpening methods and feel that no one sharpening method suits all images. Unsharp is generally good as is highpass sharpening, although I think highpass is a bit more tedious for what it's worth.

I've been playing around with PS "Smart Sharpen " tool for a few weeks now and find it very good under most situation, gives me that little more control over various situations and find it's almost all I use now.

[Kym]

I understand you can load action into elements but nor create them?

Anyway... http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37172 may help.

Also: Look at the processing information in this thread... http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=24290

[Whisky_Mac]

Adobe raw is available for elements I think. It is on the Adobe site, not sure what number it is up to now. I use it to open my raw files. After balancing my exposure, checking my highlights and shadows I use the clarify, saturation and luminance buttons (buttons names may not be correct, the bottom three buttons). Clarify improves sharpening and the other two control the colour rendition. By the time I get the image to open in photoshop (you would open in elements) I have very little to do, most times it is only a further sharpen around the 30 odd mark with the unsharp filter. Be careful you don't see tram lines along your colour edges, a sure sign of over sharpening.

[Analog6]

Adobe Raw comes automatically with Elements, just the same as PS. Even humble old Elements 3 had it.

[ashey]

Thanks every one for your feedback,Im pretty new to this processing part of photography,you have given me a better understanding of how to go about it ,which was confusing me thanks again.