A major reworking of my Sharpening extension for Photoshop has been released.

I’m happy to introduce you to the new features. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words – so a 720p video is… oh so much better! Enjoy the following weird, fun six minutes, that are everything you need to know about Double USM 2.

What not to like? You can go buy it here on my website (preferred option) or soon on Adobe Add-ons as well.

If you need to ponder a bit more, let me recap what is that all about – briefly because we all have no time to waste. Double USM is about sharpening, i.e. all the tricks we use to turn newborn digital images into razor sharp sources of gorgeous detail.

Whatever fancy technique you happen to use for this purpose, the goal is to visually enhance the edges of your picture’s subjects. Chances are that you and your Sharpening filter are doing so injecting halos: dark and light ones.

Halos are created setting three parameters: Amount (intensity), Radius (thickness), and Threshold (noise control).

The UnSharp Mask filter and its descendants cannot discriminate the control of Light and Dark halos. They’re created equal. Which is not so cool: super-experts like Dan Margulis, pooling a large number of professionals over the years, have found that Light Halos are the ones giving the feeling of oversharpening – the cardinal sin of the post-producer.

Double USM 2 is to the rescue: you’re allowed to selectively control Amount, Radius and Threshold for Dark and Light Halos separately. Better, sharper images! Plus, you have advanced preview options and Presets.

What for? Tone down Light Halos on Traditional Sharpening.

Use HiRaLoAm (High Radius Low Amount) to enhance the local contrast.

Or perhaps mix them both for creative purposes.

For the technically inclined, Double USM is not anymore a script, but a Panel, that drives a C++ plugin, internally working with 32bits precision. It supports 8bit, 16bit and 32bit (HDR) images, on Photoshop from version CC up to CC 2017, both Mac and PC.

You can find some before/after on my website CC-Extensions, which contains a big red purchase button as well. Transactions are managed by Fastspring, the very same service Adobe uses for its marketplace – a direct link for buying Double USM here. Alternatively, it will be available for purchase soon on Adobe Add-ons as well.

Thank you!