Intellisharpen v2.5 plugin

The Intellisharpen v2.5 Plugin is a new sharpening technology specific designed to accommodate all digital files including scanned film. This plugin is compatible with JPEG files straight from the camera or TIFF/JPEG files converted from RAW files. (Compatible with all digital camera files.)
Although Intellisharpen's interface appears simple and intuitive, complexity makes this plugin very smart. It provides haloless sharpening, edgesharpening, luminance sharpening, mode sharpening, and more with just the press of a button. With this plugin you can choose from low or high ISO settings. Other options allow you to sharpen fine detail. Photographers can choose from 100 Intellisharpen intensity levels and 100 sharpen fine detail levels. You can even reduce color noise from high ISO files. Another feature unique to Intellisharpen v2.5, is that you can save and load your own Intellisharpen settings.

In addition you have the ability to preview settings and tweak intensity results for maximum control over your work.

Mac Interface

 

PC Interface

NOTE: PC and Mac FM plugins are offered as separate packages. Make sure to order the correct one for your operating system.

 

 

Intellisharpen v2.5 Plugin interface

Settings: Intellisharpen v2.5 allows photographers to save and load their own custom settings. You will be able to create as many Intellisharpen settings as desired to ease your workflow.

In the example above, you can see that I have saved settings for landscape, portrait, Epson 2200 printing, Lab printing, etc...

In order to save these settings for future use, I then clicked on the "Save" button and created a custom setting called: "My landscape settings".

 

Image Type options: The Intellisharpen v2.5 plugin works with most common file extensions including 8-bit TIFF and JPEG files. Under Photoshop CS, it will work with both 8-bit and 16-bit files. Under "Image Type", you will be able to select from "Low ISO File" or "High ISO File".

  • Low ISO File: This option should be used with low noise files.
  • High ISO File: This option should be used with "grainy" files. It also works best with portrait work. ("Sharpen fine detail" is not available with this option).

 

Intensities:

  • Intellisharpen level: Intellisharpen v2.5 offers 100 intensity levels. (0-100)

0 = No Intellisharpen effect
100 = Maximum Intellisharpen effect

  • Sharpen fine detail level: This setting can be used with any Intensity level and will sharpen very fine detail in your images. However, it will make the plugin run slower (especially with 16-bit files), but is recommended when maximum sharpening is desired. It works great with landscape images but it's disabled when using "High ISO" under "Image type".
    The default setting is 50, but you can move the Sharpen fine detail level slider from 0-100.

0 = No Shapen Fine detail effect
100 = Maximum Shapen Fine detail effect

 

Halo Settings: The default halo setting is "Normal Halo" and it's the best compromise between detail sharpening and halo size. Under "Normal Halo", the plugin will already provide minimal halo around high contrast areas and therefore it's my recommended setting. However, if you would like to tweak this setting and sacrifice some sharpening for an even smaller or non-existent halo, select "Low Halo" or even the 0% halo option.

 

Intensity Tweak slider: The Intensity tweak slider is a powerful and flexible option included with this plugin.

You may choose from 100 to 0 within the selected intensity level. The intensity you choose will bring you closer to the desired effect that works best with your files.
For example, when clicking on the Apply button to preview Intellisharpen level 40, you will be able to move the Intensity Tweak slider from 100 down to 50 ---by doing that, half of the level fourty sharpening effect will be applied and shown on your image.

A complete list of features and step-by-step instructions on how to use and take full advantage of the Intellisharpen v2.5 features are presented in the User Manual bundled with this plugin.

 

Sample: (Original High ISO file)

 
Original image unsharpened (cropped 100%)

 
After running Photoshop's USM - From this sample crop you can see that Photoshop's own USM did sharpen the file but also introduced noise, artifacts and thick halo lines around high contrast areas.

 
After running Intellisharpen™ v2.5- From this sample crop you can see the high level of sharpening achieved by Intellisharpen v2.5 while leaving noise levels intact (see background). In contrary to other sharpening techniques, Intellisharpen produces 0% halo around high contrast edges.
Settings used: Intellisharpen Intensity: 84, Sharpen fine detail intensity: 36

Samples demonstrated on this page are 100% crops from original full size JPEG files compressed for the web. In the above example, Intellisharpen v2.5 was run in TIFF files and then saved as compressed JPEG for demonstration. If TIFF output is supported by your digital camera or scanner, expect even superior results.