Color Fringing Tip Here's a tip for dealing with color fringing that may occur when applying Unsharp Mask. After sharpening the image file, go to the Fade command (Edit>Fade Unsharp Mask) that appears only after a filter is applied. Leave the Opacity setting at 100 percent, but select Luminosity from the pop-up menu. Any color artifacts should then be gone! External Solutions nik Sharpener Pro 2.0 (www.nikmultimedia.com) is a Photoshop compatible plug-in that lets you apply sharpening to parts of an image with selective brush strokes or applied to the whole image and selectively brushed out. The Advanced menu contains five sliders that can be associated with different colors. You pick the color and each slider lets you increase or decrease the sharpening applied to image areas with that color! nik Sharpener Pro 2.0 is a Photoshop compatible plug-in that lets you apply sharpening to any part of an image with selective brush strokes, which is a good reason for having a graphics tablet handy. Acclaim Software’s (www. focusmagic.com) Eric Schwerzel claims that 60 percent of blurred photographs are caused by motion. Therefore, he developed a Photoshop compatible plug-in called Focus Magic to recover detail from photographs blurred by movement. It improves images for which there is otherwise no hope. You can download a free version that allows you to sharpen up to 10 images. A sturdy tripod is a useful accessory when image sharpness is critical. Acclaim Software’s Focus Magic is a Photoshop compatible plug-in that can reinstate as much of the original “in focus” image as possible, allowing it to recover detail from photographs blurred by movement. One of my favorite methods for sharpening digital images is Pixel Genius’ (www.pixelgenius.com) PhotoKit Sharpener that matches the method of sharpening to the way the image was made—either film or digital. With this set of Automate plug-ins (File>Automate>PhotoKit Capture Sharpener Expert), you select the way your original image was captured from a pop-up window and PhotoKit Sharpener does all the work. As an Automatic plug-in (File>Automate>PhotoKit Capture Sharpener Expert) PhotoKit Sharpener is an indispensable set of plug-ins for the serious photographer and Photoshop user. COMPANIES MENTIONED Adobe Systems Inc. 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110 408/536-6000 fax: 408/537-6000 www.adobe.com Lensbabies, LLC 135 SE Main St., Suite 201 Portland, OR 97214 503/453-4451 www.lensbabies.com nik Multimedia 7580 Metropolitan Dr. Suite 208 San Diego, CA 92108 619/725-3150 fax: 619/725-3151 www.nikmultimedia.com Pixel Genius 624 West Willow St. Chicago, IL 60614 www.pixelgenius.com