Silver efex artifact

Photopathe · May 4, 2020

Hi! I am sometimes getting this kind of "artifact" in silver efex which is probably well known but I don't know how to call it. I am having a hard time figuring out what exactly is causing it, what specific setting(s) and how to avoid it or correct it. It's a king of halo effect but as a thin line. You can see it all along the horizon line in the attached picture but even more so on the right around the mountain chain. For those who are curious this is Vestrahorn in Iceland. I would be quite satisfied with this picture and those adjustments if it wouldn't be for this unwanted effect.
Thanks for any advice!

Photopathe · May 9, 2020

Anybody?

Alan Edward Klein · May 9, 2020

I also see it along the top of the mountain on the right. Isn't that due to over-sharpening?

Frank53 · May 10, 2020

Have you used a tiff or a jpeg file?
If you do heavy post processing like this it should be tiff, as large as possible.
Regards,
Frank

nmp · May 10, 2020

This may not be Silver Efex's doing, although it may be exaggerating what was already there (a tell-tale sign of sharpening artifact as Alan suggested.) Check on the color image just before using Silver Efex - do you see a hint of it or more? Check before sharpening and after. If it is sharpening related, you can add a mask on the sharpening layer and using a brush, block out the offending portion.

Alan Johnson · May 10, 2020

I got a very similar effect when I processed the attached to sharpen the fine detail, but IIRC it did not go through my silver effex.
I never figured out the cause of it but it may be related to the "Radius" in sharpening, which was set to 1 in my example.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98816417@N08/48424157527/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/

Photopathe · May 10, 2020

I used the raw file. It looks like it is indeed related to sharpening and clarity as well. I have set clarity and shapening to zero before sending to Silver efex and the undesirable effect dissapeared. Also if I apply the same amount of sharpening and clarity in LR but after processing in Silver efex the undesirable effect is almost absent. So I guess it's a better workflow to always process in Silver Efex first without any editing in LR and then apply some final editing in LR?

Photopathe · May 12, 2020

What workflow is recommended? Or which one do you use?

nmp · May 13, 2020

Photopathe said:
What workflow is recommended? Or which one do you use?

I don't use Silver Efex, but as a general rule, I sharpen only at the end of all adjustments. Also, apply where it is needed and block areas that do not need - like the sky etc. I do not use LR - only PS so I do not know how that translates to LR.

My workflow -

Capture sharpening in Camera Raw (look over trouble spots and mask out if needed,) then to PS, make all adjustments including converting to B&W etc, then creative sharpening in area of interest. Finally if printing I might add a output sharpening layer before sending the file to the printer.

Peltigera · May 13, 2020

Photopathe said:
What workflow is recommended? Or which one do you use?

Sharpening accentuates most image defects that might be present and on that basis you should sharpen last. When I first learnt about digital processing, I was taught that you should sharpen as a first stage when importing the Raw file and again as a last step when exporting the fully processed file. I no longer do the initial sharpening.

Photopathe · May 22, 2020

Thanks everyone! It’s been most helpful!

jtk · Jun 25, 2020

Silver Efex is a convenient short-cut but that convenience isn't necessarily simple. The various actions sometimes bring extra unbidden sharpening...just converting to B+W can sometimes ... In any case, sometimes it's best to sharpen in plain old PS.

Silver efex artifact

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