Hi, so I have used Lightroom for a number of years but decided with all the hype to jump on to PL 9, in L/R I can hold down the alt key to show a greyscale image when sharpening is there an option to do the same in PL 9 please? Thankyou. Russ.
Hi Russell - The short answer is; No.
However, the sharpening process in PhotoLab is different from LR …
PL applies sharpening via an Optics Module that’s specific to the {Body+Lens} combo that captured the image … and it’s automatically applied according to attributes of each separate image; not as a general “fits-all” setting.
- You can adjust these settings, as you may require, via sliders on the Lens Sharpness Optimisation palette … tho, that’s usually not necessary.
Note: Do not confuse PL’s unique sharpening process with Unsharp Mask; which is provided as a crude/basic tool only for cases where an Optics Module is NOT available for the {Body+Lens} combo that captured the image … and DO NOT use Unsharp Mask unless that’s the case.
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What John-M says 
, plus DXO applies variable sharpness across the frame according to the lenses optical characteristics. Crudely, more sharpness is applied to the edges of the frame where lenses generally have reduced sharpness, compared to the centre.
A general point, all software works differently based on their underlying development philosophy. Sliders may have the same name but don’t work in the same way. Therefore you need to learn how any particular software works and use it in the way it was intended. For example, I would recommend always applying DeepPrime (DP3 runs quickly) noise reduction to all images. DXO applies noise reduction, chromatic aberration and white balance during the demosaic process, so you need to think of the DeepPrime noise reduction options as different demosaic engines in LR speak. You wouldn’t choose the older, less able, demosaic engines in LR so best to avoid this in DXO.
If you have any problems just ask on these forums as there are plenty of people like John-M who can offer assistance, it’s what these forums are for.
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(As Ian and John have said above!)
But also, take some time to play with PhotoLab’s contrast sliders, which can also be used to enhance an image to great effect (or accent specific parts, via masking). Personally I like to apply negative contrast values to the background of an image while giving a little boost to subjects.
If you also have the FilmPack add-on to PhotoLab, you can use Fine Contrast which is a really nice contrast mode. Annoyingly, it’s not possible to apply this one selectively via masking. You could, however, apply it positively as a global value then use masks to reduce contrast/micro-contrast on anything that isn’t the subject.
This all stands apart from the sharpening described by John and Ian above. However, it can recover a lot of detail.
Oh, and you can’t hold down the alt key to show a grayscale image BUT you could convert the whole thing to B&W in the colour palette, make your changes, then convert back to colour when you’re happy. This is a bit long winded vs. holding “alt”, mind you.
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Thankyou. Have been looking for videos on how to process Wildlife/Bird images but so far all I have found is quick rushed videos on how to use PL 9. overall. Russ.
Thankyou also for your reply and advice. Russ.
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Take any video as a starting point and pause it as soon as you see something new – then experiment yourself.
I’ve used this feature in LightRoom to locate sensor dust spots – well known trick, missing in PhotoLab. However, I found it useless for LR sharpening and preferred to watch for “biting look” and check for halos “manually” in obvious places. It’s even less useful for the way PhotoLab does optical micro-corrections, which one can call sub-pixel level operations. Since migrating from LR to PL7, now at PL9, I think I’ve never used unsharp mask, except perhaps when negative microcontrast was not enough in some portraits. Then one could use negative unsharp mask intensity (still very few practical cases for that). I’m not familiar with present bird editing/sharpening culture, though. Still, I think Lens Sharpness Optimization, Microcontrast, Fine-contrast (available with FilmPack license) should be enough for the purpose.
Off-topic: BTW, one can expect dust spots detection and removal tool in PL 10, probably sometime in September, since it’s already in PureRAW 6.
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