Post sharpening for Web / social media publishing

[PeterHatt]

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Mostly I use Camera Raw with a liner profile to process an image relatively flat, from there it goes to photoshop as a smart object.

If needed as in this image I use camera raws AI denoise in this case @ 70% 

[PeterHatt]

On 4/21/2025 at 5:19 PM, LocalHero1953 said:

Look for bright edges to dark objects. If you can see them at the expected viewing size and distance then you have sharpened too much or gone too far with the clarity slider. I can see it all along your horizon, especially in the first image.

As an add on to this I have noticed  using the new adaptive profile can give halos on skylines &  the like (probably because it uses masks) these can be painted out by carefully using the clone tool set to the ‘darker colour’  blend mode. But until Adobe improves this I won’t use this profile 

[costa43]

Hi Peter, I’ve experimented with this a little before as I live by many lakes and spend a lot of time on the coast too.  I find that sometimes with images like these when there is a lot of water and sky that global sharpening makes them look a little crunchy and phone like. What has worked for me is actually applying a little negative dehaze/clarity/contrast to a higher contrast image and then locally sharpening areas or adding contrast back in with the black/white sliders and curves to add a bit more depth. It takes a little bit of experimenting and every image is different but I find that it tends to lead to a more gentle, yet detailed final result. 

Edited April 23 by costa43

[PeterHatt]

6 minutes ago, costa43 said:

Peter, I’ve experimented with this a little before as I live by many lakes and spend a lot of time on the coast too.  I find that sometimes with images like these when there is a lot of water and sky that global sharpening makes them look a little crunchy and phone like. What has worked for me is actually applying a little negative dehaze/clarity/contrast to a higher contrast image and then locally sharpening areas or adding contrast back in with the black/white sliders and curves to add a bit more depth. It takes a little bit of experimenting and every image is different but I find that it tends to lead to a more gentle, yet detailed final result.

Thanks for this costa43  I will do some experimenting based on your advice myself 

[250swb]

6 hours ago, PeterHatt said:

Thanks for this costa43  I will do some experimenting based on your advice myself 

If you are using Photoshop simply make a selection of the foreground and only sharpen that, feather the edge of the selected area so the sharpening blends into the rest of the image gradually.