Hello, I’m Robin Whalley. Welcome to Lenscraft. Today I want to share the second video
looking at Nik Sharpener Pro. This time we’re going to be discussing the Nik Output Sharpener.
Introduction music
In the previous video we looked at the Nik RAW Presharpener
and outlined a three-stage approach to sharpening. The RAW Presharpener covered
the first stage of Capture Sharpening. This time we’re looking at stages two and three; Creative Sharpening and Output Sharpening.
Here you can see the results of the Capture Sharpening applied using Nik RAW Presharpener to a new layer.
After applying Capture Sharpening you would usually make further adjustments with the Nik Collection. Once you’re happy with the image
you would apply Creative and Output sharpening as a final step.
By the way, if you’re interested to learn the best order for using the Nik Collection plugins
I’ve published a tutorial on my website. I’ll put the details
in the video description below. Let’s now open the image in Nik Output Sharpener.
Although we’ve been talking about Creative Sharpening and Output Sharpening as two separate steps
Nik combines them into the Output Sharpener plugin.
Notice we have three sections to the interface. The Output Sharpening
the Creative Sharpening and the Selective Sharpening. The Creative Sharpening and Selective Sharpening are really the same
thing but applied in different ways. We’re going to start by applying the adjustments in the Creative Sharpening section.
These controls work globally across the entire image. They affect all areas of the image which can cause problems where
you have continuous tone, like the sky. The first thing we’re going to do is set our “Output Sharpening Strength” slider to 0.
This hides the effect of the controls in the Output Sharpening section and allows us to concentrate on the Creative
Sharpening adjustments we're making. You can check it’s having no effect using the Preview option.
The Structure slider’s used to enhance the larger structures in the scene.
But if you increase it too far it can damage the colour and saturation.
The Local Contrast slider enhances the contrast around finer details, making them appear clearer.
Focus enhances the very fine details of the image, also making them clearer.
You can see the effect better using the Split Screen preview.
Unfortunately, these sliders also cause noise to become more visible.
Here we’re seeing noise in the sky. We can correct this by adding Control Points to select the sky.
Let’s switch to viewing the Effect Mask.
Notice that each of these Control Points has the same controls as the Creative Sharpening panel.
When you add a Control Point, you’re replacing the Creative Sharpening
panel adjustments with those you set on the Control Point. Now because we want to
avoid sharpening the sky, we should set the Output Sharpening Strength slider to
zero per cent on the control points.
Let’s now take a look at the Output Sharpening controls. First though, we need to
remember to return the Output Sharpening Strength slider to 100%.
The way to use the Output Sharpening controls is to first select what your sharpening the image
for. Typically, this is going to be for Display on a screen or
printing on an Inkjet.
With the Inkjet settings, you select your options and the plugin applies the correct level
of sharpening to optimise the print. In this example we want to print to Matte
paper at 2880 pixels by 1440 is the resolution
resolution. We've also set a viewing distance for the print of 60 to 150 centimetres.
Some of these options may make your on screen view look terrible but you need to trust the software.
It will set the right level of sharpening for the output.
Notice also that the sharpening isn’t having any effect on the sky.
That’s because we selected it using Control Points and set the Output Sharpening
Strength on those to 0. If we now change to doing Display sharpening
we see the controls change to being Adaptive Sharpening.
To get the best results here, think of the Adaptive Sharpening slider as adjusting the sharpening radius.
When you move it too high sharpening halos become visible. Lower values tend to disguise the sharpening halo.
You can then use the Output Sharpening Strength slider to increase or reduce the effect.
I should also mention that I’m recording this video on a Mac with a scaled 5K screen. Because Nik Sharpener Pro doesn’t recognise
the scaling, it shows we’re zoomed to 100%
but it’s really 200%. If we go back to Photoshop we can see what 100% magnification now looks like.
As you can see, the sharpening‘s made a considerable difference to the image.
If you feel the sharpening a little bit too strong you can also reduce the opacity of the layer.
I hope you enjoyed todays video. If you found it helpful please share it with others and don’t forget to subscribe. I’m Robin Whalley.
You’ve been watching Lenscraft. I’ll see you next week for another Lenscraft video.
Ending music.