Your sharpening workflow

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retnull

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A post-processing inquiry:

What's your sharpening workflow --
once, twice, more?
Pixel radius settings?
General tips/philosophy on sharpening?

Thanks!
Kurt
 
Kurt. if you refer to digital PP (otherwise, the above link):

Two-pass sharpening is my favourite.

First, conversion of RAW / DNG with only small amount of sharpening, or sometimes no sharpening at all (in Capture One Pro I use Radius 0.5, amount 100 to 200 % and threshold 0.8).

Second, for prints Nik sharpener pro plugin, and for downsizing and resharpen I work in LAB mode.
For downsizing, the Lanczos algorithm is better than the rest (and bilinear is better than bicubic in PS !).
After downsizing, convert to LAB color and select the L channel. Invert the L channel, and perform smart sharpen (radius 0.5 to 1.0, 60 to 150%, fade shadows 32%, tonal width 50%, radius 1 and fade lights 26%, tonal width 68%, radius 1). Sometimes it is good to apply the last sharpening on a separate layer, to mask unwanted effects in soft areas later.

Carsten

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38068178@N08/sets/
http://www.carstenranke.com
 
I use PhotoKit sharpener from Pixel Genius.

With scanned film I use PhotoKit's capture sharpening, resize, then use Photokit's output sharpening.

But I don't know a lot about sharpening. I just find I'm happy with the ease, results, and control I have using PhotoKit.
 
one weak pass with unsharp mask at the end of the process, that's it.

i really get a chuckle when someone posts that i oversharpened an image...
 
Odd thread for the analogue printing/darkroom forum.

I usually do two bits of sharpening. A large radius (10+ pixels) but very low percentage. Then a small radius to tighten up some grain in my B&W shots.
 
I sharpen at the end of Post, before I resize for the web...
I keep the radus low. and move the sharpen lever back and forth until I get just past the un-sharpness of the preview... fast CPUs and realtime adj preview are great tools.
 
Sharpening - a scheme I like/use

Sharpening - a scheme I like/use

Several years ago Wilfred van der Vegte posted a sharpening tutorial on Contaxg.com. I found his actions to be quite useful, and they can be automated in Photoshop. The link to his article is below:

http://contaxg.com/document.php?id=3163

There are alternatives explained in the posts associated with the article.

--Frank
 
I read a big book on sharpening, I can't remember the name of it, but I will find it if you are interested. This book was monumental to read. But basically it said: A little blur (Gaussian, to reduce noise) to start, then slight sharpening to bring it back, after that you wait until the end to do your final sharpening. My problem was I don't do digital, even though they also discussed film that has been scanned, and they do all of their sharpening with relation to final output size. It was too much for me but if you want to read it, I'll remember the name of the book for you (but be prepared for a long read).
 
Sharpening, like so many things in photography, is a rabbit hole. You have to decide how far you want to go down that hole.

To me, finding something that works for you, looks good to you, and just using it is the best approach to enjoying the hobby. Now, if you have commercial responsibilities, maybe you need to go farther down the hole.
 
Mackinaw said:
You've got that right. Some pics I see are so oversharpened I get the feeling that if you dropped the image it would break into a thousand pieces.

Jim B.
Click to expand...

i guess my point was that some folks don't know sharpened from a hole in the wall.
i do not sharpen my images, i do use unsharp mask, and yet there are those 'experts' out there saying my image is oversharpened.
 
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