*always* sharpen?

[catspaw]

Among many other things covered in the introduction to an online class I'm taking was the idea that you sharpen every single photo you take

:scratch

Did I miss this somewhere or perhaps is this something unique to this teacher? I understand sharpening before printing, but this was not about printing at all. Does anyone here do this or find themselves doing a LOT of sharpening?

thanks :)

[cmason]

Among many other things covered in the introduction to an online class I'm taking was the idea that you sharpen every single photo you take

:scratch

Did I miss this somewhere or perhaps is this something unique to this teacher? I understand sharpening before printing, but this was not about printing at all. Does anyone here do this or find themselves doing a LOT of sharpening?

thanks :)

Sharpen RAW yes, but JPEG have already been sharpened in camera. Many can benefit for additional sharpening, in particular Unsharp mask if PS can be helpful

[Tim Kamppinen]

Among many other things covered in the introduction to an online class I'm taking was the idea that you sharpen every single photo you take

:scratch

Did I miss this somewhere or perhaps is this something unique to this teacher? I understand sharpening before printing, but this was not about printing at all. Does anyone here do this or find themselves doing a LOT of sharpening?

thanks :)

I always sharpen in Camera RAW (because raw files are soft SOOC) but in PS I don't do it for every photo... If I want it to look sharper than it does, I sharpen... if I think it looks good, I don't...

[pathfinder]

Leah,

I do capture sharpening in Adobe RAW converter ( or its equivalent in LR2 ) on every image I intend to process through to a saved image. If I intend to upload an image to smugmug, it will be sharpened in its pass through my Raw converter on the way. It may receive further creative sharpening before output as a final jpg in addition.


The conversion of an image to a data file in a camera sensor, results in some blurring due to the the way the data is captured by the sensor array. Capture sharpening restores the sharpness the image originally possessed before digitization.

If you are shooting jpgs, this is sharpening is being done for you by your camera according to the choices you have made for it.

[ziggy53]

I prefer to do a minimal sharpening in the RAW conversion and then I have 3 different PS actions for sharpening in different ways:

1) A midtone sharpening action. http://visual-vacations.com/Photography/SharpeningActions.htm
2) A global and then localized USM sharpening (in 2 strengths, homegrown).
3) "Luko" sharpening action from this thread: http://www.treklens.com/workshops/72602/photo10976.htm

Generally the midtone sharpening works well without halos and on most images. I do alter it sometimes by eliminating some of the final steps of shadow-highlight recovery. I rarely use more than one action but if I do it is midtone first and then Luko.

I also tend to keep in-camera JPG sharpening down and use software sharpening later. I found that the in-camera sharpening tend to show the JPG aliasing artifacts more readily than computer/software sharpening.

[WingsOfLovePhoto]

I ALWAYs sharpen RAW people pictures in PS using unsharp mask at 75%, 2, 3 to get the eyes sharp. Other "things" not necessarily. Usually trying to sharpen a jpeg with this method is too much. As said before, they are usually sharpened in camera. Scott Kelby's book has great instructions for sharpening all kinds of things...

[Art Scott]

I always sharpen.....using unsharp mask......that is my very last operation prior to final saving......I do all my post processing then go to Genuine Fractals for my uprezing and then USM and save those puppies...........

[catspaw]

I let LR2 do the sharpening for me, although on occasion I'll play with it myself if there's some reason to. I think I'll go back to the OP to find out what her intentions in the statement were.

However, the replies here - VERY enlightening! thank you one and all :)

[Nikolai]

Remember to remind me about that on Sunday - we'll be covering a lot of very effective postprocessing techinques that day... :wink