M8 and Photoshop

[GarethC]

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The sharper images out of the M8 are on the verge of driving me nuts as I find myself over sharpening so jaggies seem to appear alot sooner and quicker, there seems to be a very fine line between sharpened jaggies and perfection on screen. Can you give me some ideas of what you do with smart sharpen, particularly with daylight portraits, natural light as these seem to be the most noticable to me at least.

 

Also, now that I, at long last, have IR cut filters on the lenses does that mean that sharpening is a thing of the past for some of you?

 

I've already eliminated capture sharpening in order to avoid over sharpening and I can see the argument for not sharpening but the image does seem to benefit from it.

[scottv]

Not sure of your work flow...

but I shoot raw, use CS3, unsharp mask.

Try amount 50, radius .5, threshold 0.

It is better to set unsharp mask low and do it twice than in one go.

Can also try using duplicate layer for more subtle control.

 

I understood smart sharpen was for problem pics i.e. attempting to correct blur etc.

 

Might be stating the obvious but hope helps.

[rwfreund]

I rarely sharpen except when I print, then it depends on size, paper, and printer.

-bob

[Guest WPalank]

Gareth,

Assuming you shoot RAW, check your sharpening settings under the "Detail" tab in ACR. Is it set to "Preview Only"? This can be changed in Camera RAW preferences.Capture sharpening should be just enough to make up for what is lost from the analog to digital conversion.

Very few people I know are using Smart Sharpen and stick to Unsharp Mask in PS.

I learned a trick from Jeff Schewe at a recent Photoshop World. He suggests (as everyone has always said) sharpen only when your image is at 100% to see what is happening to your image. But zoom out to 25% to see get an idea of the effect of sharpening on an image going to an Ink Jet Print. Here is a recent article of his at Adobe Photoshop News regarding sharpening in ACR 4.1:

PhotoshopNews: Photoshop News and Information » Archive » About Camera Raw 4.1

[GarethC]

Great, thanks guys. That's exactly what I needed.

[Photoskeptic]

Gareth, I'm doing my sharpening in ACR 4.1. I set Clarity to 60, then go to the sharpening section and set it at 150 and the lowest pixel it will go (I think .4) and that's it. Sometimes it looks too sharp on my screen but when it's printed everything looks great. And I shoot (mostly) with a 35 ASPH which some say is too sharp and contrasty for the M8. Nonsense.

[ChrisC]

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Gareth - Check out this current thread concerning the making of large prints from M8 files; sharpening is discussed as an important element of the work process:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/34540-big-enlargements-m8.html

 

In a commercial setting, you would most likely sharpen for an appearance which satisfies the client regardless of whether they understand the differences between full screen size appearance and what's needed for the printed output. Sharpening for in-house printing is another matter, and here you can better control your final sharpen to look 'over sharpened' at 100% screen size, but which looks good in the print. For what it's worth , my own preference to date has been to sharpen at a radius of 0.3 with a higher % than Scott, and avoid halation - but my technique is always evolving, as are my preferences. Read the suggested thread, you might find it fascinating.

 

................. Chris

[Scott Gregory]

I thought I read recently somewhere on the Forum that some people are turning off the sharpening in camera on the M8 and just using photoshop sharpening. Any truth to that from people and if so how is it working for you. Does the file come out of the camera fairly decent without sharpening?

 

Scott

[ChrisC]

In-camera sharpening is only applied to in camera Jpegs and not to RAW files, it can be fairly horrid and is well worth turning off if you shoot Jpegs.

 

.............. Chris