martinimages
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Sharpening digital files
Its been talked about a lot over the years since digital became the main source of capture, looking at other forums its a subject thats seems to be the holly grail for some, if a picture ain't Sharp then its no good, this all depends on a few factors though, a lot of the people who are what is termed pixel peepers look into a photo with the utmost scrutiny and have never really studied the printed image from film cameras because there age is out of the film era.
The Rolls Royce is the bench mark for quality [or it used to be] film is the bench mark for digital, a well processed negative printed correctly has a look of its own, a certain quality thats hard to define, digital cant deliver the same, it never will because its a different medium to work with, in the film days the better quality needed for detail was determined by the film in usage, Pan f at 50 ISO gave a virtually grain less image that resolved detail better than say 400iso film, not because it was sharper but the fact it resolved more detail, sharpness would be the wrong word, digital DSLR cams need to be sharpened because of filters in front of the sensor that combat moire patterns and in turn soften the file, this is then corrected at edit stage or in camera by increasing the sharpening amount from nil default, to often images are ruined by bad and over sharpening files, the effects are to loose tonal range, detail and halo effects.
Th plus points for not over sharpening resolve most if not all of the problems outlined above. Lets take a raw file to be edited for print output, no in cam sharpening at all, open in PS and apply capture lab sharpening and final output sharpen and thats all thats needed to a correctly focused image, where sharpening comes into its own is using it selectively, with layer masks, to boost contrast and highlight parts within a scene.
Viewing distance is also an important factor, look at an A3+ image close up, this can be either from film and chemical process or digital and it will appear slightly fuzzy in the finer areas but stand back 3 feet and it does not matter as the print will look perfect.
So the point of me rambling on is use sharpening carefully, always remember you can only sharpen to a certain point, from that point and beyond it degrades the image, if your printing your own work then the same applies but you will need to apply a certain amount of output sharpen which on screen sometimes looks over done, but on print it does not, its just giving a slight increase to to offset against the printers inability to produce whet you see on screen, when you reduce a file for web viewing it will need sharpening, again use delicately, if its no to your liking then apply a little gaussian blur to smooth the effect slightly
Martin
--- One to one workshop in monochrome, from capture to fine art print, printing service available
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18/Apr/08, 6:10 pm
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crimbo
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Re: Sharpening digital files
for the capture sharpening which method do you use? TLR scripts
or PS smart sharpen or high pass sharpening or ACR sharpening or...?
also do you have something that you use to gauge the level of capture sharpening?
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Chris
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http://www.paddle.shetland.co.uk
http://www.paddle.shetland.co.uk/my%20piccys/index.htm
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19/Apr/08, 7:22 pm
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martinimages
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Re: Sharpening digital files
Hi Chris, TLR works fine but the one i use it from pixel genius, it sharpens per channel, does not over sharpen as the script calculates the amount needed, that is assuming no in camera sharpening was set at time of capture, shot raw and your fine
Martin
http://www.pixelgenius.com/sharpener/index.html
Last edited by martinimages, 19/Apr/08, 8:19 pm
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