output sharpening for print

[fotojensen]

After printing out tree different prints with the output sharpening settings, high, low, and off. It is realy hard to se any different. The same is for perseptual an relative, no different at all.
I do now that the outputsharpening is based on the capture sharpening settings. Sow if the capture sharpening settings is close to perfect, maybe the output sharpening dont have any big effect?

Kai

 

[ernie]

Good question. I've been wondering about some of the same things too. I've been too lazy to do any tests though, so thanks for doing them. Also, similar, what about the export sharpening? For example, is screen-high more or less sharpening than glossy-low. I have played with that a little, but it's hard to tell. In responses to questions on Luminous Landscape forums Jeff Schewe (arguably the best sharpening expert and a founder of Pixel Genius) more or less says -trust us, we know what's best for you. I don't doubt that the sharpening algorithems are the best, but I'd sure like more information about them so I'd know how to best apply them. I've read a lot of stuff and no one seems to be able to answer some of this stuff.
To a point, I do understand that one has to just figure out what is best for him and each image. But more info would sure save a lot of experimentation.
Oh, BTW, as for perceptual vs relative intents, on one of the LL videos they say that for many images it seems to make little difference which of those rendering intents is used, but on some images it does. That's one of the reasons they advocate soft proofing.

 

[fotojensen]

Thanks Ernie, in one tutorials Jeff Schewe says that the output sharpening is based on the settings on the capture sharpening. Thats way i was thinking that there may not be mutch sharpening added on the output sharpening. If this is the case, it is more importent than ever, to set the sharpening right on the capture sharpening, i think.
I always use the highpass sharpening in Photoshop, but would like to get it done in Lightroom, thats why i am trying this out.

 

[ernie]

I didn't know about output sharpening being tied to capture sharpening, glad you told us. I have a preset that sets capture sharpening to 4' amount and 35 detail and 1' mask. I rarely have to change from this. I shoot outdoor type stuff, no portraits. On export I do everything at screen standard. I tried some of the other settings, but this seemed to work best for me.
With this setup I rarely go to PS anymore.
I haven't used LR for printing yet, but it's on my to-do list of things to learn.