Excellent sharpening tool, real annoying if you've used it and have become a mac
user as the makers can't be bothered to update it to run out of rosetta.
Have finally given up using it as hate running PS in rosetta mode, use smart sharpen instead this reportedly operates in the same deconvolution way.
I have used it for a long time, but for capture sharpening only. I just seem to get better results than any other method I have tried eliminating all sharpening in ACR and using Focus Magic as the first thing I do in Photoshop (using the settings "fix focus blur" with a radius of 1 at 100%). I suspect that it uses a different approach than traditional sharpening methods so that when I do my output sharpening I'm not heaping the same method on top of itself, thereby multiplying the downside of that method (every method has a downside).
Like Mike, I also use Focus Magic for capture sharpening and really like it. It is very easy to "tune" to make sure you are not creating halos. One of the downsides of deconvolution sharpeners like FM was the intensive processing required but I find that FM runs pretty snappy on today's machines.
Believe it or not, I also use FM for output sharpening for down-sampled images for the web. I use a blur width of 1 and an amount of 75 or 100% on the down-sampled image in Photoshop and then do an Edit>Fade in luminosity mode to fine-tune the sharpening so it is good but not "sparkly".
There aren't many deconvolution sharpeners available for general use (there are specialized programs for astro-photography) but another good one is Focus Fixer. Focus Fixer differs from Focus Magic in the following ways:
- Possibly slightly better deconvolution quality (I can't prove that)
- Really limited to capture sharpening ONLY (FM can be used in more general ways to make images with off-focus or motion-blur "less bad")
- Can make automatic adjustments based on the lens and f-stop used by reading the EXIF data from the image.
- Costs $99.95 as a bundle with blurring, noise-reduction, and shadow-recovery utilities (Focus Magic runs $45.00).
As Tim alluded to, both Focus Magic and Focus Fixer are made by small shops so their updates are often a little slow in coming. To date, neither supports 64-bit Photoshop. It appears that Focus Fixer MAY be a little more accomodating for Macs but I would suggest contacting the developer to be sure.
Smart Sharpen in Photoshop also reportedly uses deconvolution methods but I find it much harder to "tune" than the above products and the quirks in the interface are annoying.
