Latest efforts

[rjlittlefield]

Cool! I agree, much improved.

For what it's worth, the USM parameters I suggested are what I use after resizing with just bicubic, not bicubic sharper. Those USM parameters and bicubic sharper might be a bit much when used together.

On the other hand, what pops out the bottom is always what validates the process. This image looks very nice except that the background is a bit noisy and there's a sharpening halo around your signature text.

The noisy background is due to PMax combined with sharpening. I usually address that using ZS retouching as discussed here. It's tempting to apply noise reduction software, but every time I try that stuff, it "plasticizes" some of my subject in addition to clearing up the background. Other people seem to have more success, or maybe I just don't know what their subjects looked like before NR.

The halo on the signature text is due to sharpening after flattening. For images that I'm going to post, I always keep an "original" Photoshop .psd file that still has all the layers separated and also contains hidden layers with unaltered pixel content. Then if I decide that I need to change the sharpening for some reason, I can do that without introducing more artifacts.

--Rik

[Roadwart]

I`ll bear the sharpening tips in mind for future stacks, as well as the tips on retouching from the other thread.

I think what I`ll do from now on is add the copyright after sharpening rather than before.

The PSD file is a good call too. Its not something I would have thought of. One thing I do know is, I`m gonna have to buy some bigger hard drives.