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Image quality adjustments

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stevemoorevale

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Sep 16, 2019
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Lightroom Version Number
12.0.1
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  1. Windows 10
Hi.
I've used several different programs for processing in the past but none are are intuitive and easy to use as LR so i always return. However, one thing i have noticed in other software packages is that they have a very obvious way of correcting for inherent loss of sharpness due to a cameras AA filter. Capture One has sharpening based on camera and lens used, canon DPP has digital lens optimiser, DXO PureRaw has optics corrections for loss of sharpness. So i am wondering where such a feature is in LR. I am led to believe that the sharpening slider isn't particularly great compared to these other programs and is designed more as a creative sharpening tool rather than an input sharpening tool. I have also been told that moving the detail slider up to between 75 and 100 (deconvolution sharpening) is what i need.
Does anyone have any tips for maximising input sharpening? I do have Topaz but i hate round tripping through other software. I'd rather just do everything in Lr.
 
To be able to maximise your sharpening results within Lr, I seriously recommend the book "Real World Image Sharpening" by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe. Here is a link on Amazon.co.uk.... I am sure easy to find on other Amazon stores.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Shar...NQSMWW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U87LSAFJV0HA&keywords="Real+World+Image+Sharpening"+by+Bruce+Fraser+and+Jeff+Schewe.&qid=1668864170&sprefix=real+world+image+sharpening+by+bruce+fraser+and+jeff+schewe.%2Caps%2C29&sr=8-1

This book will give you a platform for understanding Sharpening in Lr, but also in any other app where you have sharpening options.

There is no one size fits all, when it comes to sharpening, as it depends on the content of the image, the effect you want to achieve and, say, the media you wish to display/print on, the final image size and multiple other factors.
 
To be able to maximise your sharpening results within Lr, I seriously recommend the book "Real World Image Sharpening" by Bruce Fraser and Jeff Schewe. Here is a link on Amazon.co.uk.... I am sure easy to find on other Amazon stores.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Shar...NQSMWW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U87LSAFJV0HA&keywords="Real+World+Image+Sharpening"+by+Bruce+Fraser+and+Jeff+Schewe.&qid=1668864170&sprefix=real+world+image+sharpening+by+bruce+fraser+and+jeff+schewe.%2Caps%2C29&sr=8-1

This book will give you a platform for understanding Sharpening in Lr, but also in any other app where you have sharpening options.

There is no one size fits all, when it comes to sharpening, as it depends on the content of the image, the effect you want to achieve and, say, the media you wish to display/print on, the final image size and multiple other factors.
Thank you. I will have a look at that. I mainly sharpen just for screen. I do print sometimes but no often. I just want to get the most out of my raw files after having lost a bit of sharpness due to he AA filter in the sensor and have seen options to do so in other software.
 
Steve, I could talk to you a lot about sharpening but I'm not sure what you are getting at. OK, so let's talk. Tell me what camera or cameras you are shooting and what it is you are seeking. Are you sharpening for viewing on big 4K professional monitors or something less like a tablet or laptop or even phone screen? Are you printing big? I think you need to take this question also to the forum of your camera on DPR.
I shoot GFX medium format and I'm a resolution freak and have an eye for image fidelity and what you call sharpness. With GFX MF, one is limited in DOF in comparison with FF or APSC, so I'm careful about where I want focus to be, and I know I can't fix OOF zones of the image with sharpening.
To be honest, and this is my opinion, sharpening tools in LR and PS (or any program) are the most overused, least understood and easiest to mess up that any other function.
Another point - know your camera and talk to other pros who shoot it. Find out the best start point for Adobe LR as the default base. For example, with Fuji GFX, we all know that since the fist Fuji Medium Format camera, Adobe has set the sharpening amount too high at 40. I always adjust it down to 35. There were some influential people at Fuji working with Adobe to get that right. Not sure if that happened yest, but I always reset to 35 as a start point and to be honest, don't play with sharpening much because I don't print big.
I don't know your level of experience, but you could be dealing with some perception and or understanding issues about "sharpness" and how what you see could also be depth of field issues, composition issues, diffraction or just a cheap lens.
So, let's talk. Tell me your level of experience, camera, monitor, if you print big and what kind of shooting you do.
You sound experienced since you are trying these other solutions. Topaz is what a lot of the big printer pros and enthusiasts use for fine tuning sharpness on big prints, but there are many more who claim LR is just fine at this now.
Talk to Jim Kasson on the DPR MF Board. He is an absolute expert on this topic, both scientifically and as a shooter. Or search for threads on this topic on that forum.
 
Thank you. I will have a look at that. I mainly sharpen just for screen. I do print sometimes but no often. I just want to get the most out of my raw files after having lost a bit of sharpness due to he AA filter in the sensor and have seen options to do so in other software.
I didn't see Gnit's reply before mine. Yes, I skimmed that book and it will help you, But if you are sharpening for screen, I think you are way too worried about this. You don't need to get into it.
What screen? Tell me all your monitors. Is it calibrated? Is it IPS, OLED or mini LED? Is it 4k at 32 inches? If not, it should be if you are worried about this because that is where you or your clients are going to see it.
 
Steve, I could talk to you a lot about sharpening but I'm not sure what you are getting at. OK, so let's talk. Tell me what camera or cameras you are shooting and what it is you are seeking. Are you sharpening for viewing on big 4K professional monitors or something less like a tablet or laptop or even phone screen? Are you printing big? I think you need to take this question also to the forum of your camera on DPR.
I shoot GFX medium format and I'm a resolution freak and have an eye for image fidelity and what you call sharpness. With GFX MF, one is limited in DOF in comparison with FF or APSC, so I'm careful about where I want focus to be, and I know I can't fix OOF zones of the image with sharpening.
To be honest, and this is my opinion, sharpening tools in LR and PS (or any program) are the most overused, least understood and easiest to mess up that any other function.
Another point - know your camera and talk to other pros who shoot it. Find out the best start point for Adobe LR as the default base. For example, with Fuji GFX, we all know that since the fist Fuji Medium Format camera, Adobe has set the sharpening amount too high at 40. I always adjust it down to 35. There were some influential people at Fuji working with Adobe to get that right. Not sure if that happened yest, but I always reset to 35 as a start point and to be honest, don't play with sharpening much because I don't print big.
I don't know your level of experience, but you could be dealing with some perception and or understanding issues about "sharpness" and how what you see could also be depth of field issues, composition issues, diffraction or just a cheap lens.
So, let's talk. Tell me your level of experience, camera, monitor, if you print big and what kind of shooting you do.
You sound experienced since you are trying these other solutions. Topaz is what a lot of the big printer pros and enthusiasts use for fine tuning sharpness on big prints, but there are many more who claim LR is just fine at this now.
Talk to Jim Kasson on the DPR MF Board. He is an absolute expert on this topic, both scientifically and as a shooter. Or search for threads on this topic on that forum.
Thanks for your reply Greg. There’s a lot to answer there so let me try.
First of all my question was simply that in other software there’s an obvious button or slider that is designed to counter the inherent loss of sharpness in raw files created by having an AA filter over the cameras sensor. Canons own software has a feature called Digital Lens Optimiser for example. I always see an increase in sharpness when using these function but Lightroom doesn’t have such a feature m, just three sliders. The quality of an unedited raw with default sharpening to me is not as nice as when compared to say DPP or capture one at the same stage.
If I open a picture of a bird in Lightroom and I open the same picture into capture one i guarantee the bird will be far sharper (in a good way) at default than in Lightroom. This also true for Canon DPP. Even smart sharpen in photoshop walks all over the detail sliders in or to my eyes. I want to understand if these differences can be minimised by the ‘correct use’ of the detail sliders based on resolution, use case etc and is not just a case of Lightroom being worse than other programs.

I’ve been shooting for almost 20 years as a hobby. I just do it for my own enjoyment and mainly just share on Facebook but sometimes I’ll do a print.
I am aware things like resolution, end use and viewing distance play a big role in how a photo should be sharpened.

I’m using a calibrated 23” Eizo CS230 with a 1920x1080 IPS panel

Cameras I use are canon 5D4 and 5D3 plus rarely the 7d2. All my lenses are canon L series but some are quite old now.

I think as you have said above that finding the best starting point for a particular camera lens setup for Lightroom is key and also theta in the great scheme of things it doesn’t really warrant worrying about too much. It just annoys me when I see other software provide me with what I perceive as a better/sharper starting point. I want to stick with Adobe just because some of features are very good and cannot be beaten in the likes of C1 at the moment.
 
Thanks for your reply Greg. There’s a lot to answer there so let me try.
First of all my question was simply that in other software there’s an obvious button or slider that is designed to counter the inherent loss of sharpness in raw files created by having an AA filter over the cameras sensor. Canons own software has a feature called Digital Lens Optimiser for example. I always see an increase in sharpness when using these function but Lightroom doesn’t have such a feature m, just three sliders. The quality of an unedited raw with default sharpening to me is not as nice as when compared to say DPP or capture one at the same stage.
If I open a picture of a bird in Lightroom and I open the same picture into capture one i guarantee the bird will be far sharper (in a good way) at default than in Lightroom. This also true for Canon DPP. Even smart sharpen in photoshop walks all over the detail sliders in or to my eyes. I want to understand if these differences can be minimised by the ‘correct use’ of the detail sliders based on resolution, use case etc and is not just a case of Lightroom being worse than other programs.

I’ve been shooting for almost 20 years as a hobby. I just do it for my own enjoyment and mainly just share on Facebook but sometimes I’ll do a print.
I am aware things like resolution, end use and viewing distance play a big role in how a photo should be sharpened.

I’m using a calibrated 23” Eizo CS230 with a 1920x1080 IPS panel

Cameras I use are canon 5D4 and 5D3 plus rarely the 7d2. All my lenses are canon L series but some are quite old now.

I think as you have said above that finding the best starting point for a particular camera lens setup for Lightroom is key and also theta in the great scheme of things it doesn’t really warrant worrying about too much. It just annoys me when I see other software provide me with what I perceive as a better/sharper starting point. I want to stick with Adobe just because some of features are very good and cannot be beaten in the likes of C1 at the moment.
Steve,
You are saying a lot of things that are causing me to wonder what you are seeing when you open that Canon file in LR vs the Canon proprietary Digital Photo Professional or also C1. When you say you open a Canon image in LR and it appears softer than in the Canon raw editing software or C1, are you opening a CR2 raw or a jpeg?

You shoot raw of course, right? But I wonder since Canon DLO is now in-camera on all the new models and applies only to the jpeg files - not CR2 raw. But I think with the 5D4 it did not conduct these DLO corrections and you had to take it to the Canon raw editing software that had DLO in it - Digital Photo Pro. I can assure you that LR beats that editing software across the Board, but let's move on from that because I am going from memory and not really checking or researching to make sure what I say here is totally accurate technically, so just take this as friendly input.

I shot Canon for 30 years and I too shot the 5D4 as my travel DSLR back in the day not too long ago. I had every L lens you can imagine. I sold it all 4 or 5 years ago and went all-in on Fuji APSC as a travel rig and then Medium Format GFX to feed my resolution and image fidelity addiction. I think you are mixing terms and describing things a bit incorrectly and mixing apples and oranges in your discussion of "sharpening".

Canon DLO is software (now in-camera) that digitally corrects things like various types of distortion, Chromatic Aberration and known distortions of the various Canon Lenses. It also uses some tricks to help with diffraction at small apertures (of questionable value in my opinion) that apply some sharpening algorithms, but all of this is only for in-camera produced jpegs. But back in the day of the wonderful Canon 5D4, I don't think DLO was in camera. You had to take it out to the Canon raw editing software. If you still use that Canon raw editing software and like it and think it does better automatic corrections than LR, then use it. But in my opinion, it does not.

I have edited many thousands of Canon raw files in LR and just looked a bunch of old Canon 5D raw files in LR and trust me ... they are not soft, and I assure you that you can use LR to do anything that DLO did for you with that raw file.

But tell me you are looking at a raw file and not an exported jpeg or in-camera produced jpeg.

This is why I advised you to take this same question to the DPR Canon Board. You will get instant feedback that perhaps more accurately describes what I'm trying to tell you. But be careful. On all the camera boards and especially DPR, there are trolls and marketers who will attack Adobe on any post like this. There are also a lot of childish C1 vs LR battles that constantly rage there.
 
I have edited many thousands of Canon raw files in LR and just looked a bunch of old Canon 5D raw files in LR and trust me ... they are not soft, and I assure you that you can use LR to do anything that DLO did for you with that raw file.
Just to confirm a point re sharpening. The vast majority of raw images are slightly soft straight off the sensor. The reason is that the sensor pixel only holds one of the red/green/blue colours. The raw conversion engine has to interpolate what the actual r/g/b values are using an algorithm which evaluates surrounding pixels, thus resulting in a certain 'softness'. A min level of sharpening is required to get to an acceptable base camp. This might vary depending on the content of the image (ie detailed vegetation versus smooth blue skies). To apply sharpening the editor needs to fully understand the Lr or PS sharpening sliders. Finding the right starting point is good, but it may not be dependent on only the camera or lens... you might be better to have starting points for portraits, landscapes, architecture, etc.. Then you need different levels of sharpening for screen, matte or glossy paper. Then you may want to apply selective sharpening (ie extra sharpening on some areas and less sharpening on others).

For images which I know will only ever be displayed on an ipad or phone I will only use Lr sharpening sliders. Anything I go to the trouble of printing will get a round trip to Photoshop and may get a series of sophisticated sharpening techniques applied within Photoshop and perhaps using third party tools (or I may be happy with just the Lr sliders, depending always on the image content).
 
Greg, i have come to the conclusion that i am worrying too much about it and perhaps the improvements i'm seeing elsewhere and are perhaps just a case of a better automation than that which Lr can offer. Using the sliders correctly in Lr can yield the same if not better results when used right. Certainly tricks like sharpness falloff correction in C1 can be reproduced easily in Lr with a radial filter for example.

I am indeed shooting raw and yes the DLO images i refer to were done on the raw using DPP. I agree DPP is inferior these days.
Just out of interest i did an unscientific test. Same photo in Lr, DPP and C1 (each labelled) and all have had exposure increased by 1 stop but everything else completely untouched and left as default after import. I must say DPP looks horrible here and i would say there's not a lot between C1 and Lr so i think i need to spend some time learning the sliders . I have bought that book which will help too i think. The last photo is my edited final image which has been sharpened to taste in Lr and exported at 2048 and sharpen for screen.
 

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I must say, you caused me to go back and review some of my old 5D3 and 4 files in LR - those babies are nice. They are sharper (sharper being a general word to convey how the res - image fidelity appears to me) than my Fuji XT-4 and XH-2 APSC files.
I think when I get home from Mexico (I'm there now), I'm going to go re-edit some Canon FF 5D3 files I shot in Ecuador a decade ago. My LR skills (and the program itself) are way better now.
 
Thank you. I will have a look at that. I mainly sharpen just for screen. I do print sometimes but no often. I just want to get the most out of my raw files after having lost a bit of sharpness due to he AA filter in the sensor and have seen options to do so in other software.
It may not be labeled as clearly as in other software, but the Sharpening section of the Detail panel in the Develop module is the primary place to address capture sharpening. The historical background is in the Real World Sharpening book Gnits recommended, because the philosophy in the book is the actual foundation of how Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw handle sharpening.

The authors of the book, Jeff Schewe and the late Bruce Fraser, advocate a three-stage sharpening process:
  • Capture sharpening, which is intended to compensate for the inherent softness of digital sensor capture.
  • Creative sharpening, which is purely personal judgment that advances the style or look you want, not to address sensor softness or screen/print output.
  • Output sharpening, which optimizes sharpening for a specific type of output for screen or print, so is therefore applied only to the version sent to that type of output.
The basics are laid out in an article Bruce wrote in 2003: Thoughts on a Sharpening Workflow. The book is an expanded explanation of those ideas.

Bruce and Jeff were (and Jeff still is) closely involved with the development of Lightroom and Camera Raw. Their sharpening philosophy was realized in LR/ACR like this:
  • You apply capture sharpening in the Sharpening section of the Detail panel. General sharpening is all you should be paying attention to in this panel, compensating for sensor softness and simply getting to a good baseline image. Not yet sharpening for pure aesthetics or screen/print sharpening.
  • You apply creative sharpening with the masking tools. Originally this usually meant brushing in additional Sharpening where needed using an Adjustment Brush, but the new Masking panel makes this much easier because of how the range and object/people masks allow much faster and more precise targeting of areas to be sharpened (or softened) further.
  • You apply output sharpening in the Export dialog box or Print module. This is precisely why both of those have an Output Sharpening option. Output Sharpening tries to account for media type and resolution, and is based on PixelGenius PhotoKit Sharpener which Bruce and Jeff were involved with.
Hopefully that helps clear up where you want to do capture sharpening in Lightroom and Camera Raw, and it should help to know that where the sharpening options appear in those applications is based on that specific three-stage workflow. And that’s why even though the book Gnits recommended is over a decade old, the philosophy and workflow it talks about is still relevant to the current versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw.
 
It may not be labeled as clearly as in other software, but the Sharpening section of the Detail panel in the Develop module is the primary place to address capture sharpening. The historical background is in the Real World Sharpening book Gnits recommended, because the philosophy in the book is the actual foundation of how Lightroom Classic and Adobe Camera Raw handle sharpening.

The authors of the book, Jeff Schewe and the late Bruce Fraser, advocate a three-stage sharpening process:
  • Capture sharpening, which is intended to compensate for the inherent softness of digital sensor capture.
  • Creative sharpening, which is purely personal judgment that advances the style or look you want, not to address sensor softness or screen/print output.
  • Output sharpening, which optimizes sharpening for a specific type of output for screen or print, so is therefore applied only to the version sent to that type of output.
The basics are laid out in an article Bruce wrote in 2003: Thoughts on a Sharpening Workflow. The book is an expanded explanation of those ideas.

Bruce and Jeff were (and Jeff still is) closely involved with the development of Lightroom and Camera Raw. Their sharpening philosophy was realized in LR/ACR like this:
  • You apply capture sharpening in the Sharpening section of the Detail panel. General sharpening is all you should be paying attention to in this panel, compensating for sensor softness and simply getting to a good baseline image. Not yet sharpening for pure aesthetics or screen/print sharpening.
  • You apply creative sharpening with the masking tools. Originally this usually meant brushing in additional Sharpening where needed using an Adjustment Brush, but the new Masking panel makes this much easier because of how the range and object/people masks allow much faster and more precise targeting of areas to be sharpened (or softened) further.
  • You apply output sharpening in the Export dialog box or Print module. This is precisely why both of those have an Output Sharpening option. Output Sharpening tries to account for media type and resolution, and is based on PixelGenius PhotoKit Sharpener which Bruce and Jeff were involved with.
Hopefully that helps clear up where you want to do capture sharpening in Lightroom and Camera Raw, and it should help to know that where the sharpening options appear in those applications is based on that specific three-stage workflow. And that’s why even though the book Gnits recommended is over a decade old, the philosophy and workflow it talks about is still relevant to the current versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw.
That's a very nice post and a good little overview of the basics. Now let me add this and it is my opinion only based on many years of peeking at tens of thousands of very high-res files at full 1:1 res on a high-end 32-inch 4K pro monitor. Unless you are printing big and unless you over-sharpen, you are not going to see whole lot of difference in the tweaking of the sliders beyond a good base start point for that camera (like me changing amount to 35 from the default 40 for the GFX 100.
For Steve, who is viewing on a 2K monitor, I'm surprised he notices all of these differences and I think a lot of it is over=played. But it is certainly good to get the basic knowledge. Every image is differant. Just get in there with LR and start experimenting at full res. Move the sliders and watch what happens.
 
you are not going to see whole lot of difference in the tweaking of the sliders beyond a good base start point for that camera (like me changing amount to 35 from the default 40 for the GFX 100.
I disagree. The following is over-simplification, but the Amount is like a volume control, Radius controls width of halos, Detail is linked to Radius and effect depends on busy or detailed content. Masking determines where sharpening is applied. So ... initially Adobe set up sharpening defaults for portraits and landscapes, so that models did not have over-sharpened skin and landscape pictures had general sufficient detail. Masking is especially powerful for determining where sharpening is applied. The exception is if you are going to use 3rd party products for sharpening, where some may prefer that no sharpening is applied at all before sending to the sharpening plug-in.

At the end of the day, sharpening is like a sauce ... individual views on what is the correct settings to apply will vary.
 
That's a very nice post and a good little overview of the basics. Now let me add this and it is my opinion only based on many years of peeking at tens of thousands of very high-res files at full 1:1 res on a high-end 32-inch 4K pro monitor. Unless you are printing big and unless you over-sharpen, you are not going to see whole lot of difference in the tweaking of the sliders beyond a good base start point for that camera (like me changing amount to 35 from the default 40 for the GFX 100.
For Steve, who is viewing on a 2K monitor, I'm surprised he notices all of these differences and I think a lot of it is over=played. But it is certainly good to get the basic knowledge. Every image is differant. Just get in there with LR and start experimenting at full res. Move the sliders and watch what happens.
Thanks everyone for your answers.
I have been doing a lot of reading and experimenting and am continuing to read that book.
What i have found in my experimenting tonight and through information here and in the book is that i need to identify whether my photo (or at least the area i'm sharpening) is high frequency or low frequency. High frequency needs a lower radius than 1 and low frequency needs radius greater than 1.
So far i am finding with my 5D4 files that adjusting the radius to suit the image type and then using amount to taste and increasing detail to 35 is giving my good results (better than before). I'm using the masking slider too.
I haven't played with any high iso images yet. I will keep playing.

All that being said i just shoot as a hobby and for my own viewing pleasure, plus outputting for facebook sometimes so none of this really matter greatly in the great scheme of things and i shouldn't fuss too much about it.
 
I disagree. The following is over-simplification, but the Amount is like a volume control, Radius controls width of halos, Detail is linked to Radius and effect depends on busy or detailed content. Masking determines where sharpening is applied. So ... initially Adobe set up sharpening defaults for portraits and landscapes, so that models did not have over-sharpened skin and landscape pictures had general sufficient detail. Masking is especially powerful for determining where sharpening is applied. The exception is if you are going to use 3rd party products for sharpening, where some may prefer that no sharpening is applied at all before sending to the sharpening plug-in.

At the end of the day, sharpening is like a sauce ... individual views on what is the correct settings to apply will vary.
I agree with your disagreement, and I said that badly. I had said earlier that I see a lot of over sharpening and that it is a misunderstood and often abused feature in LR. I just think the OP was too worried about it and mixing a bit of the recipe of terms and sharpening vs many of the other things we see that can cause parts of an image to not look as "sharp" as we expected.
I know how to sharpen my files in LR as I'm a res junkie obsessed with having every pixel in sharp focus and am constantly tweaking my photography to try to get that unobtainable ideal (which is one reason I started focus stacking with MF files.
That is a whole 'nother subject and causes heads to explode when I tell people I don't like their artful focus falloff and bokeh... LOL....
 
What i have found in my experimenting tonight and through information here and in the book is that i need to identify whether my photo (or at least the area i'm sharpening) is high frequency or low frequency. High frequency needs a lower radius than 1 and low frequency needs radius greater than 1.
Well done…. you are in the groove and compliments for getting the book and absorbing key points. Just a word of caution. Camera sensors now have substantially higher rez than when the book was written and that may influence radius selection. However, you efforts will deliver long term benefit to you and give you a solid basis for handling both sharpness and noise in the future, irrespective of what apps you use to edit. You can now create your own sharpness / noise settings for your most frequent scenarios with confidence and understanding these parameters means that you no longer need to fuss about it.
 
Besides my statements above about sharpening in general ... yes, like Gnits repeated, one needs to understand the basics of what is going on if you are going to be a pro or enthusiast photographer and actually be interested in tweaking your raw files to seek certain outcomes. That said, a lot of it is taste and personal to some degree. I can tell you on the photography forums, enthusiasts and pros argue endlessly about this and for many years now I have thought it was all overblown, unless printing artfully and very large. Now that doesn't mean to blow off sharpening.
Yes, sharpening is important, but not that hard when you get down to the brass knuckles.
I have a 32-inch 4K mini-LED calibrated professional monitor designed for photo editing and high-end productivity work. It is not very challenging once you play with the few LR sliders to see what is happening and get what you want. When you take a 200 MP Medium Format file and view it at full res on a screen like that, one can learn quickly how to sharpen.
I also think it is important to know one's camera and what is established best practice as a start-point in LR for decent sharpening for that sensor. Every image is different and might require all kinds of sharpening tweaks if you are really fine-tuning an image for peak-big-printing like a lot of guys do.
But for most of us and for observing images on most mediums these days, it's not a big challenge or even a big deal.
But you gotta know the basics, sure. I could go on photography forums I know right now and find some birder or BIF shooter complaining about sharpening when they really instead had a DOF, camera shake or missed focus problem and they wanted to sharpen their way out of it. Happens all the time.
Also remember that the sensors and their various filters and correction algorithms are light-years better now than back in the early digital day when some of this stuff was first written about and agonized over. The old thoughts about "it is soft of the sensor after the Bayer filter" is a bit of a throw-back argument, but has some truth to it still of course.
Yes, sharpening is important! Use your eyeballs and practice.
 
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