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Hello,

my question is this. I have a M11 and use Lightroom. How do you go about sharpening your photos?

If I shoot both DNG and jpeg and have the photos side by side, the jpeg is significantly sharper than the DNG. And even if I do sharpening in Lightroom, I am never able to get the DNG as sharp as the jpeg. And no I don't always want them as sharp as the jpegs, but I often find that Im having a hard time sharpening the photos. Do you have any recommendations? Maybe I should sharpen in Photoshop?

Thanks in advance

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

I noticed that when I download my images some are not as sharp as the JPEG on the back of camera as well. I don't use a tripod as much as I should and I've noticed that handholding my camera is getting a little shaky and the more megapixels the camera has the more its exaggerated . I was getting frustrated with the sharpening in LR as it wasn't getting me where I wanted. I purchased Topaz as an add-on and it sharpens and smooths beautifully !! .. It eliminates that 'stair stepping' you see in skies and lighter areas --- it smoothes them out and the prints are awesome ... I know its not cheap but I love the results it gives me ... just my take 

Curt

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15 hours ago, Navy4RNR said:

 It eliminates that 'stair stepping' you see in skies and lighter areas --- it smoothes them out and the prints are awesome .

Curt

Do you mean posterisation? That is caused by over processing an image, usually a low pixel file and trying to stretch the tonal range until it breaks down into bands.

For the general question sharpening a low pixel file and high pixel files need separate treatments, you can't go from a P&S to an M11 and use the same settings. But it should be done at the end of post processing not at the beginning, or not at all if the image is potentially going to be used in different sizes in which case it should be sharpened to suite each size.

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4 hours ago, 250swb said:

Do you mean posterisation? That is caused by over processing an image, usually a low pixel file and trying to stretch the tonal range until it breaks down into bands.

For the general question sharpening a low pixel file and high pixel files need separate treatments, you can't go from a P&S to an M11 and use the same settings. But it should be done at the end of post processing not at the beginning, or not at all if the image is potentially going to be used in different sizes in which case it should be sharpened to suite each size.

Posterisation .. that’s the word I was looking for. Thank you ! I agree that some areas can get ‘overcooked’ in the process because there just is no information that can be retrieved, it happens. Maybe those are the images I get to just play with and figure things out and sometimes it works. I also agree at what point to sharpen on the post process. But again, whatever gets you to the final image that hits the mark. 
 

Can I ask a naive question ? How is the image impacted by sharpening midway thru the post processing ? 
 

thanks,

Curt

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Sharpening is not a simple subject. For the basics I recommend this book, despite its age. 
 

 

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