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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

NIK Sharpener Pro 3.0

Greetings,

I just downloaded the new version and ran some initial tests the last few hours. At a glance, this is a powerful tool in deed, and the flexibility in sharpening is outstanding in combination with photoshop CS3 (no earlier version) becuase of the integration with smart objects.

Besides the U-Point technology, one can create Output sharpening presets designed for different printers/papers, there is also a soft proof function, Raw Presharpening and selective tools are also on board.

All in all, I am impressed, and this will be my main sharpening tool in the future.

Have a look:

http://www.niksoftware.com/sharpenerpro/usa/entry.php
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
I agree, George. Despite purchasing the previous 2.x version I generally preferred to use the PhotoKit Sharpening tools due to their multi-stage subtlety and flexibility. I also felt that the Nik product was far too heavy-handed. Yuck.

But Nik has made great strides to create a better PhotoKit-like sharpening facility than the aging PhotoKit (which has been stagnant since Bruce Fraser, the "Pixel Genius" partner with the skill, died). I've used Nik Sharpener 3.0 several times since its recent release and I am very impressed. It was always pricey but it's no longer so greatly over-priced.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Greetings,

I just downloaded the new version and ran some initial tests the last few hours. At a glance, this is a powerful tool in deed, and the flexibility in sharpening is outstanding in combination with photoshop CS3 (no earlier version) becuase of the integration with smart objects.

Besides the U-Point technology, one can create Output sharpening presets designed for different printers/papers, there is also a soft proof function, Raw Presharpening and selective tools are also on board.

All in all, I am impressed, and this will be my main sharpening tool in the future.

Have a look:

http://www.niksoftware.com/sharpenerpro/usa/entry.php

Interesting stuff these Nik plugins! They have them for Aperture as well! Nik Software continues to grow and provides novel thinking which brings added capability to the table. It's U-point technology is a versatile and powerful way of selecting parts of an image to work on, very much like Asiva, but a sliucker interface. It's worth looking at! It provides an insurance policy for us as to other ways in which we can process our images independent of PS. Nik Software has undergone a blossoming. Maybe they bought another company or finally got to accept this great idea from some young new creative people, but for whatever reason, they are dynamic and growing!

Your mention of "Smart Objects" is a timely one for me. This is such an important capability, to be able to substitute down the road, an image file processed differently or a larger file, is a very future orientated feature. We'll be able to revisit our work many times without having to repeat all the steps. Have you been using Smart Objects routinely in your workflow, or is this your intention for the future? I like the idea of using this for massive files with a small version first. However, I've never tired that.

Asher
 
I agree, George. Despite purchasing the previous 2.x version I generally preferred to use the PhotoKit Sharpening tools due to their multi-stage subtlety and flexibility. I also felt that the Nik product was far too heavy-handed. Yuck.

But Nik has made great strides to create a better PhotoKit-like sharpening facility than the aging PhotoKit (which has been stagnant since Bruce Fraser, the "Pixel Genius" partner with the skill, died). I've used Nik Sharpener 3.0 several times since its recent release and I am very impressed. It was always pricey but it's no longer so greatly over-priced.

Hi Ken,

I goofed around with 2.0 and was also not too convinced. In 3.0 they really must have worked on the mathematics behind it. The results are better to my eye.

How do you like the color range tool? I really laughed when I realized how brilliant that is. You find it in a pop down menu hidden under the control point. You can add colors and sample from your picture to sharpen only this range. I tried it on a waterfall picture where I sampled only leaves and stones, and left the blurred waterfall alone. Excellent stuff.

I yet have to test the print output. But I want to create some of my own profiles first.

I find the filters in smart objects slow, but this can be due to CS3 not being optimized for 8 cores rather than NIK being slow, not sure.

However, I also like working in Layers instead of smart objects and using the selective options by brushing sharpness into areas. A very handy and quick approach can be to use the FILL mode and then erase where you rather do not have sharpening applied.

Hi Asher,

I have yet to develop a constant workflow for myself, something I want to establish this year. Currently with all the new technology in my house, I am jumping all over the place. Before that, using smart objects on a Pentium 4 with 533Mhz frontside bus and 1 Gig Ram was somewhat unusable due to processing time.

However, even on my current mac I feel this could be more speedy, but this appears to be a problem of PS to be worked on, most definately not my hardware.
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Believe it or not, I've not been able to download the demo version from their site, even after having registered and logged!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Believe it or not, I've not been able to download the demo version from their site, even after having registered and logged!
I downloaded some of the Nik Tutorial Videos. They are very slow sometimes and then time out and you get an orange @ like arrow. Just click that to try again.

Asher
 
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