Re: [Gimp-user] Gimp 2.10.24 - “Smart” Sharpening...

[Ken Moffat <zarniwhoop ntlworld com>]

On Wed, Aug 04, 2021 at 12:22:28AM +0200, tx3falcon--- via gimp-user-list wrote:
> I like the idea of being able to edit photo's, gifs, etc..., in gimp, however, when it comes to sharpening 
> images, I find the complete lack of some general auto-sharpen, auto-focus image options, quite 
> disconcerting, to say the least.

I'm amused by the idea of "auto-focus" in relation to a photo which
has been taken.  On a past version (possibly 2.4) many years ago I
had a slightly out of focus photo which I was able to "adjust" to
look less unsharp.  But there was nothing automatic about the
process - try varying the options in whichever tool it was, review,
save-as if it looked possible, undo, try different settings, select
the least bad or accept it wasn't worth putting online.

Note that the intrinsic sharpening filters in recent 2.10 do not by
default do anything severe.

Nowadays, for sharpening I tend to use the options from g'mic
(typically, zoom to between 150% and 400% to review details, but
also zoom out to see the full photo, or at least a bigger area, to
look for anomalies, and usually stick to the default settings).  But
unless your finished image is going to be shown at a small size
(online), or printed to view at a distance, then sharpening can only
do a little before it is noticeable in parts of the photo.

> The present inability of gimp to do so, leaves much to be desired. Even upon further searching the gimp 
> tutorials, when I came to the sections that dealt with sharpening images, not only are the descriptive 
> terms in the tutorials themselves, different from the actual options presented in the latest version of 
> gimp (making it excruciatingly difficult to figure out and sometimes impossible quite simply because the 
> options are just not present, or are found in another window alltogether), but the arduous process 
> described, that one has to go through, simply to sharpen and focus an image, is exacerbatingly frustrating.

If you find a tutorial for an earlier minor version (2.8, 2.6,
earlier) you should expect that it will usually be severely out of
date and unlikely to be any help except for (sometimes) producing
other search terms.  Also, the gimp registry has been defunct for
some time, so ignore anything with links to that.

ĸen
-- 
Truth, in front of her huge walk-in wardrobe, selected black leather
boots with stiletto heels for such a barefaced truth.
                                     - Unseen Academicals