The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Question re sharpening

GMB

Active member
Actually, it's 2 questions:

1) I'm putting together a Blurb book for myself and my family with the photos of a trip to Namibia. Size of the book is 30x40 cm (large landscape format in Blurb). Photos were taken with M8 and treated in LR3 (some also in PS). I have used the standard sharpening settings in LR and then exported the photos as JEPGS. I did not tick the option sharpening in the output menue and also did not apply any additional sharpening; also no settings regarding the size of the photos. Would you recommend any additional sharpening and, if yes, when and how would you apply it?

2) More generally, what is your sharpening work flow, in particular when working with LR?

Thanks.

Georg
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I do not work with LR so cannot comment specifically. However, I *DO* apply capture and output sharpening to any file intended for print. Any in-cam jpeg usually has capture sharpening applied by the camera. If your M8>LR file was originally a RAW and not an in-cam jpeg with camera sharpening applied, then I'd apply some base capture sharpening during raw conversion, then I'd then work each file individually in CS for output sharpening specific to the image, but that's me.
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
I'm in total agreement with Jack. Each image must be treated as an individual when dealing with landscape. It's tempting at times to run a batch processing on multiple images however I've found in dealing with landscape images that often just doesn't work out.

Once you reached the point of sharpening then open each image individually and let the image tell you where it wants to go.

One caveat - while I don't use LR I do use CS5 extensively and will normally sharpen the image as the last point prior to printing.

Don
 

David Schneider

New member
I'm noticing a bit of a trend to do as Jack said, to do a base sharpening at capture and then final sharpening just before printing. Before it was gospel to sharpen only just before printing.
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
I was thinking about this thread just now while working up a couple images from our Jackson Hole trip. Something I've been doing for awhile to add sharpness/punch is normally the last thing I do prior to saving. Go to filter (in CS5) drop down to "other" and click the "high pass". Let me step back here and cover something else which I forgot and got ahead of myself. Once you're ready for this duplicate the image then flatten the layers then duplicate your background layer - then go to filter and other and select high pass. Your image will turn into a funky line type drawing. I normally set the radius between 6 to 10 depending on the image then click okay. Your duplicate layer with turn somewhat opaque. Next step is to switch from "normal" "soft light". This should give you an image that is slightly more sharpen and have just a tad more punch to it. You can of course add a layer mask and paint in the areas where you want this to happen leaving the rest in the original state.

Hope this helps someone

Don
 

GMB

Active member
Thanks everyone for the helpful responses. One further question if I may: I had always understood that the amount of sharpening will depend on the size of the print. Hence, first set the size you want to print and then sharpen. Is that correct or can you do one sharpening and then print different sizes?

Georg
 
Top