Question for Paul Saunders

Doug Scobie said:

You recently recommended a software package called 'Focus Magic'. I downloaded the trial version
and am suitably impressed. However, in the full version does it have the ability to do it's magic
on TIFF files as the trial version only seems to give me the option of using it on JPEG. As I shoot
in RAW and save in TIFF I am reluctant to buy the full version if it is not going to work with this
format. I can find no info in help files or FAQ's. I guess I could always save my final effort as
JPEG and then sharpen if necessary.

I run it as a Photoshop plug-in so it will sharpen anything.

It says in the help file,

Quoted message said:

The plug-in file is automatically installed for the following programs :-

Quoted message said:

Photoshop 3.04, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7

Quoted message said:

Photoshop 5 LE Photoshop Elements 1.0, 2.0 ImageReady 3.0, 7.0 Paint Shop Pro 4.14, 5, 6, 7, 8
Microsoft Photodraw 1.0, 2000 * Microsoft Picture It (Digital Image Pro) 7.0 * Ulead PhotoImpact 6,
7, 8 Corel PhotoPaint 10, 11 Corel Painter 8

However I had to manually copy the file over to my plug-ins directory, probably because it is in a
separate partition to everything else.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Doug Scobie said:

You recently recommended a software package called 'Focus Magic'. I downloaded the trial version
and am suitably impressed. However, in the full version does it have the ability to do it's magic
on TIFF files as the trial version only seems to give me the option of using it on JPEG. As I
shoot in RAW and save in TIFF I am reluctant to buy the full version if it is not going to work
with this format. I can find no info in help files or FAQ's. I guess I could always save my final
effort as JPEG and then sharpen if necessary.

The stand-alone program only seems to accept jpegs, but it also works as a Photoshop plug-in.

"manually copy the plug-in file "FocusMagic.8bf" from "C:\Program Files\Focus Magic" to the plug-in
folder for that program"

Inside Photoshop it will work on any file you load into it, but only in 8 bit mode, so I always tend
to use it last, after reducing from 16 to 8 bits (same as with normal sharpening anyway, always best
to do it last).

It also works better as a plug-in, for one thing it has a blur radius "detect" feature which can be
quite helpful (although it sometimes gets it wrong, so don't always trust it), and also it can be
used on a selection rather than the whole image. For example, let's say that you have a foreground
object which is more out of focus than the background, you could select it and apply a greater blur
radius to it than the rest of the picture.

Paul
--
The October Project 2003
wildwales.fsnet.co.ukoctober.htmlOpen ↗
wilderness-wales.co.ukwilderness-wales.co.ukOpen ↗
photosig.comuserphotosOpen ↗

Thanks for the responses. Sorted out now. Should have spotted the plug in option.

Doug