[close-enough]

First I want to say that I was shocked at how much slower Lightroom runs with K-5II RAW files over K-x raw files. And I thought I had a new Mac -- a MacBook Pro portable until a couple months ago the latest version with 8 megs of RAM. I'm using DNG.

So, I'm cautious about switching to Photo Ninja because their own ads stress having a very fast computer.

Does anyone have recommendations for using Lightroom's built-in deblur?

[rawr]

Lightroom's built-in deblur

You mean sharpening? There's no 'de-blur' function.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 * Sharpening and noise reduction

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-4/develop-settings-sharpening/

[close-enough]

You mean sharpening? There's no 'de-blur' function.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 * Sharpening and noise reduction

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-lightroom-4/develop-settings-sharpening/

Thanks, I meant sharpening to overcome the AA filter

The 2nd link above, the film, was incredibly useful. I highly recommend that everyone that doesn't know exactly what the radius, detail and mask slider in the Lightroom details or sharpening panel do - watch it.

That said, the video author doesn't like Lightroom sharpening and recommends using PhotoShop.

hmm., I don't want to update my ancient Photoshop license. But I do have a Nik Software Sharpener license. Does anyone use Nik software's Sharpener?

[Adam]

Photoshop's unsharp mark and ACR's sharpening is pretty good. You're not always going to get the same level of sharpness as from the IIs, but it'll come very close.

Adam
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[Class A]

That said, the video author doesn't like Lightroom sharpening and recommends using PhotoShop.

He is also known as "the Photoshop guy" and pushes PS rather heavily.

In many Lightroom tutorials he showcases Photoshop whether it makes sense or not.

ACR sharpening (PS) and LR sharpening is identical.

I don't see how the sharpening he uses in PS is superiour to LR sharpening and believe it is just one of his old habits and/or an example of him trying to sell Photoshop on top of LR.

[rawr]

hmm., I don't want to update my ancient Photoshop license. But I do have a Nik Software Sharpener license. Does anyone use Nik software's Sharpener?

Just stick with the sharpening tools in Lightroom, and master them. They are powerful enough. No need for PS just to do sharpening, esp as Class A says, the LR tools are identical to the PS tools.

Also no need to be obsessed with sharpening. I only ever sharpen very, very lightly, and sometimes just stick with the LR defaults. No need to sharpen the hell out of everything just to pretend you have a K-5IIs. With good focus, the right aperture, the right ISO, no motion blur etc and a good lens, you can get plenty of sharpness out of any K-5 without hardly any need for extra sharpness via software.

[ihasa]

If you want to literally 'deblur' an image, try something like FocusMagic (plug in for PS). It works in a different way to the sharpening techniques above, which all actually create contrast haloes on edges to create the impression of sharpness. I leave my Lightroom sharpening to defaults, and deal with softness correction in FocusMagic, and final sharpening with USM in Photoshop after I have resized to the correct print/web size. You can also do output sharpening in the export window in lightroom.

[JohnBee]

First I want to say that I was shocked at how much slower Lightroom runs with K-5II RAW files over K-x raw files. And I thought I had a new Mac -- a MacBook Pro portable until a couple months ago the latest version with 8 megs of RAM. I'm using DNG.

So, I'm cautious about switching to Photo Ninja because their own ads stress having a very fast computer.

Does anyone have recommendations for using Lightroom's built-in deblur?

Topaz Detail.
Out of all the tools I've used to date, Detail has proven to be the best of the lot hands-down.

PS. Topaz currently has a new version in beta atm. that is proving to be even better than the v2 version. Though the original v2 is still very good.

[Michaelina2]

...Does anyone use Nik software's Sharpener?

Yes... it, when combined with NIK's other plug-ins to LR4.2, is highly recommended.

NIK offers excellent (free, too) on-line tutorials that will give you a quick boost to get you up and running. I started with Topaz (like it, too), but found NIK's offering better suited to my way of thinking about pp. In fact, now, I find pp fun and look forward to returning to my desktop after a day in the field to see what's there to explore further, then develop. It took about a month of use to mature my work-flow so I rarely spend more than 3 minutes on an image.

The tools in NIK's kit are very powerful. A little bit (no pun intended) goes a long way.

For tons of K-5/7/20D/100D/Q examples, check out my sig links, below. You be the judge...

Cheers...M

[Eric Seavey]

Indeed, as others already have pointed out, deblurring is quite different from sharpening. I am planning on posting a comparative review of a number of plugins that are commercially available. Topaz Infocus, Focus Magic and Refocus, DeblurMyImage are all examples of the computational intensive deconvolution type of deblurring software. They are meant to improve slightly out of focus images.
For the price of 15 euro (about $20), I purchased the DeblurMyImage that comes as a stand along and PS plugin. Not sure if it can be linked to LR. You can give it a whirl and see if it creates satisfactory results in.

Good luck

[riff]

deblurring is quite different from sharpening. I am planning on posting a comparative review of a number of plugins that are commercially available.

I for one will be very interested in your findings! Looking forward to it, thanks Eric.

[Noam]

I don't have a IIs and don't care to "mimic" or equalize it. But FWIW,

For a clean low-ISO daylight landscape photo try as a starting point Amount 50, Radius 0.6, Detail 60, and Mask 15 (for clean skies). For a portrait, try a lower Amount, higher Radius, and much lower Detail.

Cheers