Here you can select the type of sharpening done based on what type of output you’ll be using, either print or display. The Output Sharpener is where most people will find Sharpener Pro 3.0 the most useful. The Creative Sharpener is used to control the strength of the output specific sharpening as well as applying sharpening to specific areas of the image with the use of Control Points, a feature found in the other Nik plug-ins that make selection of specific areas of an image much easier than traditional masking techniques. This sharpening pass, if you choose to use it, should be a more subtle pass on the image, done prior to any other adjustments in Photoshop or Aperture (if you use the RAW Presharpener, be sure to turn sharpening off in the RAW converter). The first is RAW Presharpening, which is useful for overcoming the softening that is inherent in most digital images. There are three modes available in Sharpener Pro 3.0. You also have the Loupe, in the lower right of the window, for a full-size before and after comparison. Along with a large preview area, Sharpener Pro 3.0 allows you to zoom in for more detail. Sharpener Pro 3.0 has the new standard interface found in other Nik products like Dfine and Silver EFex Pro, and along with a plug-in for Photoshop, you can also install an Aperture 2.1 compatible plug-in (hopefully a Lightroom 2.1 compliant version will follow soon). The newest release of Nik Sharpener Pro is version 3.0 and it offers a number of new features and improvements that make it well worth a look. So, sharpening tools like Photokit Sharpener and Nik Sharpener Pro are popular alternatives to the standard Unsharp Mask method in Photoshop. It’s easy to over-sharpen, creating artifacts and halos that scream digital manipulation, and the controls in Photoshop aren’t that intuitive. Sharpening digital images can be a problem for many people.

Nik collection sharpener pro 3