short Lightroom 3 tip: sharpening

[Marquinius]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

When you have been using LR2 and the older Camera RAW tool, you'll probably be used to doing your sharpening rather in the high numbers. Some tutorials tell you to go way over 100% and manage the halos and edges with the other sliders.

 

Please note that LR3 and Camera RAW 6.3 have a new sharpening engine/logic and you should immediately drop the numbers! For a landscape I now use a sharpening of something like 50%.

 

Here's an example: look at what happens with the trees in the background and look at the sky!. I left the other sliders the same, to show you the effect to the max. Of course the photo need some more thought with regard to the reeds in the foreground, etc. But keep in mind that you're looking at a screen capture with low res.

 

first photo: 110% with curly sharpening artifacts in the trees

second photo: 50% without curly artifacts

 

So, slow down and don't overdo your sharpening.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[jaapv]

I certainly agree with tuning the sharpening down, but I think a bit more is to be said about sharpening as a one-pass action. Firstly it should be in three passes, once at RAW conversion, with as few artefacts as possible and in conjunction with noise control,, then creative sharpening locally on the image and then for specific output with special attention to the intensity and width of the sharpening halos. Secondly the radius MUST be adjusted to the frequency of the image, between 0.5 and 1.0 for high-frequency images, from 1.0 to 1.5 for low-frequency images.

Edited January 5, 2011 by jaapv

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Marquinius]

I certainly agree with tuning the sharpening down, but I think a bit more is to be said about sharpening as a one-pass action. Firstly it should be in three passes, once at RAW conversion, with as few artefacts as possible and in conjunction with noise control,, then creative sharpening locally on the image and then for specific output with special attention to the intensity and width of the sharpening halos. Secondly the radius MUST be adjusted to the frequency of the image, between 0.5 and 1.0 for high-frequency images, from 1.0 to 1.5 for low-frequency images.

 

I concur. Without hesitation. But how to keep this thread as simple as possible? Most people who are not really into PS and LR just shy away from all these technicalities. And on screen you can damn well do anything and it still will look "good".

[jaapv]

Whatever else, the radius thing is, imo the root cause of most malsharpened images we see.

[Marquinius]

You know what, let's get a little deeper into this thing. I see a lot of photos on the forum that are either too soft or (worse) too harsh due to not well thought through application of sharpening. So here's my bit, feel free to add, distract, change, whatever.

 

Adobe states:

Radius Adjusts the size of the details that sharpening is applied to. Photos with very fine details may need a lower radius setting. Photos with larger details may be able to use a larger radius. Using too large a radius generally results in unnatural-looking results.

 

What it boils down to is, that for photos with a lot of fine detail ("high frequency", you apply a lower radius and for photos with less detail ("low frequency"), you can (but do not necessarily need) apply more radius.

 

Of course everything depends on taste, but there are some things you need to keep in mind. Not only is the depiction itself a pointer for radius, but also the quality of the lens and the digital chip in the camera.

 

Now how to take that to your photos? Best way in my opinion, is to zoom to 100% on an important part of your photo, start at a radius of 0,5 and slide it up to (max 1,5) until you see that things are deteriorating. If you keep the option (mac) or alt (PC) key pressed, you can see exactly what's happening.

 

Whatever: don't overdo it!

Edited January 6, 2011 by Marquinius