Another alternative to USM is Digital GEM from Applied Science Fiction. This program is designed to remove noise from images (which it does very well), but many users buy it for the sharpening capabilities of the plug-in. It has a simple slider with neutral in the middle. Going to the left, you can soften the image, excellent for portrait work or go to the right for sharpening.
The sharpening doesn't cause the ringing and other artifacts that USM does until you get very aggressive (above 85% or so). You can get a trial copy at www.asf.com. To use just the sharpening portion of the plug-in, move both noise removal sliders to zero. Jack Phipps Applied Science Fiction -----Original Message----- From: Steve Bradshaw [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 24, 2003 9:05 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PRODIG] USM software I have just seen a piece of software that has completely "WOW'd" me. For years now many people have complained about the lack of control over Photoshops' Un-sharp Masking and cmyk conversion. This morning we have had a demo of a new piece of software called 'ColorMaestro' from a company called 'Safam 786' that works basically as scanner software without the scanner. We took a fashion shot of a model wearing a knitted jumper shot on a Sinar 23 fitted to a Contax and output as an 8 bit tiff. We then used both ColorMeastro and Photoshop to sharpen the image and convert to CMYK before proofing to a Cromalin. The results from ColorMaestro are absolutely outstanding. The detail it managed to drag out of the image that Photoshop couldn't was amazing. The Photoshop image looks very soft by comparison ( and up until now we have been completely satisfied with those results ). The results from 16 bit files are claimed to be even better but we haven't tested that yet. If you are interested in finding out more you can contact Al Pethania on 01242-251786 or 07720-888786 in the UK Steve Bradshaw Photographer p ++44 (0)161 273 7551 . f ++44 (0)161 274 3326 . isdn ++44 (0)161 272 7166 http://www.photolink.co.uk . (ps. by the way, I have no personal link with this company). =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
