Royl

back once again. This time I tried the emboss tool. On a duplicate layer use the emboss tool, play around with the direction until you get what you think is the best. You want the edge detail to be prominant. Double click the layer and change the blending mode to Overlay and bring the opacity down to about 170, again you will have to play. as in the previous message. Don't worry, I am going now to do some work.

another message, oh well. Just played around with an image while surfing something else. Try being inventive, try using tools for things you wouldn't. Sometimes it works, other times you end up in a mess. And most importantly, ALWAYS work on a a duplicate layer with the original unselected in the click box. With the working layer duplicate it. Next, on that layer find all edges. Using the Hue/Saturation tool or Black and White desaturate the layer. Double click the layer and change the blending mode to Color Burn, you will notice that you have exaggerated edges, simply reduce the opacity until you get the desired result. Bit messy but you can go in and out of the dialog, deselect the layer and note the result, then reselect the layer noting the result. You want to see an increase in sharpening without a halo effect (which in this case will be darkened edges). This will work on an image that needs fine edge sharpening, which most photo's could use as a first step (I always apply a 0.3% Gaussian Blur after this then flatten all layers so I can then work the image) There are probably some other creative ways of achieving a Fine Sharpen. Enjoy

there is an excellent sharpening plugin called Sharpen+ you can find in the plugin site. I am a photoshop user and am looking at Paint.NET. It is the most frustrating thing. I always apply a high pass sharpen to my images and it was the first thing I went to try and do. I was more than happy with Sharpen+, it can do a lot and would require some expertise to use it to its best. It is a pity that that the Photoshop Smart Sharpen is not as good. If you think high pass sharpening is a problem, I dodge and burn my images using a layer with blending mode set to overlay and filled with 50% grey which I then use the paintbrush to paint black and white where needed. Could do it in Paint.NET if only there were some flow controls. But its not a bad product for what it costs and makes you work harder at getting the desired result.