Learned a bit of sharpening finesse from a video on YouTube by James Popsys. Old dog. New tricks.

What a wonderful day in Austin, Texas. It was 42° when I crawled out of bed and staggered to the kitchen to make a revitalizing cup of coffee. I stayed up too late last night reading a riveting book. Couldn't put it down. After getting enough caffeine coursing through my veins I pulled on a new pair of Timberland hiking boots, grabbed a favorite sweatshirt and headed out for adventure. Or, at least a good walk...

I chose an underutilized Leica SL2-S camera and a perennial favorite lens; the Sigma 45mm f2.8, and headed into downtown. My primary goal is always to have fun taking photographs but today I had the secondary goal of breaking in the new pair of boots. 

Yesterday, during some much needed downtime, I watched a new video that UK photographer, James Popsys, posted on his YouTube channel. He was going over post processing and he called out something that I do too often as being a quick way to ruin good photographs. I have tended, in the past, to use a plus setting on the clarity slider in Lightroom far too often. I think subconsciously substituting the visual effect of more midrange constrast when what I really want, most times, was more intelligent sharpening. I made note to wean myself off the clarity slider and then James hit me with a perfect tip about sharpening. 

I learned to sharpen way, way back in the early Photoshop days when some of the tools were more like blunt hammers than fine scalpels. I barely even noticed when Abobe added masking to the sharpening tools and have ignored it until James flung a dose of revelation at me. I really didn't understand what purpose masking would serve in sharpening (even though the Photoshop version is called "Unsharp Mask."). 

Using the masking slider in Lightroom allows you to fine tune what tones/intersections will be sharpened and what will be left alone. Leave the masking at zero and the program tries to sharpen everything. Not just the subject of the image that you might want sharpened. But when you sharpen everything you also end up sharpening noise and artifacts. Which then makes you dependent on the added step of messing with noise reduction when, many times, you don't really need to. If you use the masking slider well.

The secret is so simple. More slider = larger details and tonal intersections get sharpened instead of tiny and visually inconsequential data. Less slider = increasingly includes smaller details such as the aforementioned noise in the file. Wanna see how much or little the masking slider will affect? Hold down the option key (on a Mac) while sliding the control and you'll see an inverted, black and white version of the image and you can see how, when you move the slider to the right, it ignores smaller details and instead only changes bigger details. It's a revelation. 

What I found right off the bat with my new information was that my skies looked more natural and less crunchy. The big details that draw one's eyes were satisfyingly sharp while the small details that don't really register stayed smoother and more realistic. Here's a link for James's video covering this and a number of other post processing tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUbzmWfQFmk&t=825s

He has also convinced me to pay much more attention to luminance in the HSL panels when fine-tuning color in files. But you can watch that part for yourself. 

I tried using the masking in sharpening on all the files I processed from my walk today and was impressed with the improved subtly of the finished files. See what you think.

Today I started my walk by heading over to Torchy's Tacos on Second Street for a bacon, egg and cheese taco on a flour tortilla. That, and a small cup of coffee. Business was slow there this morning. I guess everyone was already out shopping. Being as how it's Black Friday and all. My taco came out quickly and it was enormous. Packed with eggs. Overflowing. Fork necessitating. Napkin swamping. And delicious. 

It was just the protein hit I was looking for. I headed East and dropped by the JW Marriott Hotel to use their superb restroom facilities before walking across the Congress Ave. Bridge and heading South toward the trendy shopping and dining area they now called SOCO. (Yeah. Kinda dumb. South Congress. Right. We get it.). The whole half mile of the street with the fashionable shops and "fine" dining choices was packed with people. Mostly visitors from out of town, judging by their excitement at seeing everyday excesses of Austin's post-hippie-cowboy culture.

I shot a mix of black and white and color and had a blast sliding through the crowds with as much grace as I could muster. Like photographic ballroom dancing. At the end of my long walk the temperature for the day crested around 65° and the sun was lighting up everything. I headed home to see if there was any pecan pie left. In a fit of muddled but optimistic thinking I decided a big wedge of pie would make a perfect lunch. And it did.

the mannequins are ready for the holidays.

and the holiday parties. If you blow this up every single sequin on the dress is well defined and edgy.

For part of the walk I was interested in trying out my black and white chops.

Since I am happily well adjusted (mentally) I found that I could easily switch between black and white and color when the subjects would benefit from one mode or the other. It's not that hard. 

Two things I have never understood about Yeti. Their advertising and their prices.

But here's their Austin showcase. Right at the intersection of S. Congress Ave. and Barton Springs Rd. 

deep in the heart of SOCO I found a bevy of mannequins surrounded by holiday decor. I tried out my skills. The images would look better, I think, if blow up to a couple of feet by a couple more feet. 

Your call.

holiday wall art at the famous Continental Club. 

That's where we shot the Billy Joe Shaver music video that won 

the country music video awards one year. I was the DP on that project.

It was very cool. Steve Mimms was the director.

Kendra Scott wasted no time in getting here holiday decor in gear.

just the present with which to ingratiate yourself with your favorite spouse or mistress....

interesting packages of tea at one shop in SOCO...

Purchased one and sent it to a blogger who tends to overthink... a lot of things. 

Nope. Not me. I rarely think things through. Just ask my attorney...

Youthful appreciation of art on the street.

A new way to shoot on the street. Set the camera for f8. Set the shutter speed to 1/500th. Set ISO to a wide-ranging automatic setting. Blaze way with abandon. Next time we'll work on finding more interesting subjects...

way to block the entire sidewalk with one extended family. Not mine...

the sign in the center says it all....

A couple at the street facing bar at Jo's Coffee. Just chilling out and watching the endless show of people walk by. Pretty good idea.

If it's under 68° the big, puffy down jackets are a must have!!!!

Always wanted to see what ISO 12,500 looked like in one of the restrooms at Jo's. 

I guess it looks like this...

This building, on my route, is a complete mystery to me. No signage. No windows. No signs of human activity. maybe the headquarters of an invading, superior race of lizard people? Eerie. 

I know these balls of concrete exist to prevent people from driving their cars and trucks into the sides of buildings but they still seem out of place to me. I guess it takes balls to deal with bad traffic...

That's it for today. A marvelous walk. With luck we'll be back in the pool tomorrow getting some real exercise. I've got some pie pounds I need to work off. I think a three hour hike was a good start. Now off looking to see if there is still more pie. Pecan pie. The best pie.

I did  search on the web to find out what the human limits per day of pecan pie might be but my research came up empty. I guess the real number is....unlimited.

Hope you all had a fun and vibrant holiday filled with all kinds of food and photos. Skip black Friday and wait for the 2029 models to arrive. That's one plan.
 

Oh darn. Did I forget the affiliate links again? Dear me...