to those who sharpen your pic what is your optimum setting in USM? BTW i rarely use USM now & use smart sharpen, is there a difference between the two?

in smart sharpen there are also 3 options of sharpen method, what are the difference in them & in which picture/ situation to use them.

there is no optimum settings for usm or smart sharpen. the settings totally depends on the photograph that you plan to sharpen. its more or less a guesstimate how the results come out.

I can bet that most of the members of our forum do not print their images, instead they keep them on file and post them on galleries such as this. Do you print your photos Willy? Sharpening for print is totally different than sharpening for web. As Nino said there are no magic settings. I can tell you though from experience that if you plan to output your images, you need to sharpen them more. In a printing seminar that I attented, the legendary Bruce Fraser gave a lecture. He said that you want to get your prints "crunchy" on the monitor for it to be effective in print. Again, how much depends on the image. Output to mat papers need more sharpening than output to glossy papers.

thanks nick for your input, yes i bring my shots to the shop & print @ 4R biggest would be 8R. one time i really sharppened the pictures before brigging them to the shop, the output was well dissapointing :( when viewed in the PC the pictures where ok but when they printed them out there where white streaks like by the edges of the eye, teeth or hair.

it's really hard to estimate the final output unless you have a couple of tries...

usaully, in my experience, what you see when you view an image in 200% is what you see in print. that's why i try to work in 200% zoom setting as often as possible (often times, opening the same image in two separate windows so i could see the changes real time in two zoom views). when sharpenning, try to avoid doing it too much that you'd be getting "halos". halos are good though when you're gunning for some kind of edgy aura/spiritual effect.

In Photoshop USM their are three sliders, Amount, Radius and Threshold, can somebody please explains to us newbies, if what each slider actually do or anong effect ng each slider.

tnx:)

AMOUNT is simply the amount of sharpening you want to introduce.

RADIUS is how wide a halo you will use. The larger the radius the more halo you get.
How much radius you use depends on the image and also the image size. You want to use a larger radius if you have a larger print.

THRESHOLD is how much detail get affected by the sharpening. A zero threshold means everything gets sharpened. You seldom want to use zero because it means that noise will also be sharpened. You should zoom into your photo and play with the threshold setting to give you an idea of the optimum number.

No set standards here. Every image is different and takes different settings.

woooh..... tnx:Grin:
its the info that i needed and explained in a way that a newbie like me can understand.

tnx mam pilar

..also how about in Smart Sharpen, is it also the same for the Amount & Radius?
how about in the Remove Gaussian, Len & Motion Blur at what moment should these be used?

& it gets more complicated in the advanced setting coz theres Shadow & Highlight both with 3 options to calibrate. when should these be used?

AMOUNT is simply the amount of sharpening you want to introduce.

RADIUS is how wide a halo you will use. The larger the radius the more halo you get.
How much radius you use depends on the image and also the image size. You want to use a larger radius if you have a larger print.

THRESHOLD is how much detail get affected by the sharpening. A zero threshold means everything gets sharpened. You seldom want to use zero because it means that noise will also be sharpened. You should zoom into your photo and play with the threshold setting to give you an idea of the optimum number.

No set standards here. Every image is different and takes different settings.


:Grin: Wow! Thanks! that's extremely helpful to me! :Grin:

thanks so much for this tip.

i'm almost set to bring some 50 photos for printing... i shall review them first and take into consideration your tips.

i really am learning from this site.

thanks!


I can bet that most of the members of our forum do not print their images, instead they keep them on file and post them on galleries such as this. Do you print your photos Willy? Sharpening for print is totally different than sharpening for web. As Nino said there are no magic settings. I can tell you though from experience that if you plan to output your images, you need to sharpen them more. In a printing seminar that I attented, the legendary Bruce Fraser gave a lecture. He said that you want to get your prints "crunchy" on the monitor for it to be effective in print. Again, how much depends on the image. Output to mat papers need more sharpening than output to glossy papers.

Sharpening is one of the most debated PS moves. Many of the pros now agree that sharpening should be done in three stages. Maybe you should incorporate this into your workflow. Try it and see if it works better for your images.

Stage 1- Capture Sharpen. This is the first move you do since digital capture is inherently soft. Capture sharpen is usually an edge sharpen so only the edges of a photo are sharpened and you don't sharpen noise. If shooting in RAW, turn off sharpening and do it in PS instead. Are you familiar with edge sharpening? If not, I can explain how to do it.

Stage 2: Selective Sharpening. This usually happens during the middle of the workflow. In portraits it would probably mean selectively sharpening the eyes or eye brows.

Stage 3: Output Sharpen. When you flatten your file for print, you should give it one last sharpen for print. The amount depends on both the size of the print and the paper used. Glossy papers get less sharpening while matte papers get more.

thanks, nick!

hi nick,

i am not familiar with edge sharpening and how it is done..
can you please explain it and instructions on how to do it.

thanks in advance!

Sharpening is one of the most debated PS moves. Many of the pros now agree that sharpening should be done in three stages. Maybe you should incorporate this into your workflow. Try it and see if it works better for your images.

Stage 1- Capture Sharpen. This is the first move you do since digital capture is inherently soft. Capture sharpen is usually an edge sharpen so only the edges of a photo are sharpened and you don't sharpen noise. If shooting in RAW, turn off sharpening and do it in PS instead. Are you familiar with edge sharpening? If not, I can explain how to do it.

Stage 2: Selective Sharpening. This usually happens during the middle of the workflow. In portraits it would probably mean selectively sharpening the eyes or eye brows.

Stage 3: Output Sharpen. When you flatten your file for print, you should give it one last sharpen for print. The amount depends on both the size of the print and the paper used. Glossy papers get less sharpening while matte papers get more.

should edge sharpening be the 1st step in PP? before other adjustments (eg levels, curves, etc.) are made?

kindly explain how to do edge sharpening. thanks!

I believe Edge Sharpening should be the first step. Once you learn how to do this, you will see that it makes your photos look better. The effect is very subtle but its there. The technique:

1) Go to the Channels palette and Duplicate the channel with the most contrast. Usually the Green channel is the best.

2) Filter>Stylize> Find Edges ---Your image may look like a pencil sketch now. What the filter just did is find the edges of your photo.

3) Image>Adjustments>Levels-- Bring the black slider to the right until you get a good clean black line around the edges. Bring the white slider to the left to add some white to the picture. You basically want to have a black line around the edges of your image and white everywhere else. You should play around with this until you get it right. Sometimes you have to run Levels twice to get the best effect.

4) Image>Adjustments>Invert- You want to invert the image where white becomes black and black becomes white. Notice that your edge now is white.

5) Load channel as selection. At the bottom left of the channels palette there is an icon that is round with dots around it. Click that. Notice that only the white edges are now selected.

6) Go back to Layers Palette and Duplicate the Background Layer.

7) Image>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask- settings depend on the photo. Usually use around Amount 100%, Size 2%, Threshold 0. Since the edges of the photo are only selected you can use strong setting like this. Notice that only the edges will now be sharpened.

And that's it! A nice crisp image to start your edits. Let me know if this makes a difference to your images. Its subtle but excellent.

Here's another way of edge sharpening:

1) Select the layer the needs to be edge sharpened. Duplicate that layer and make sure it's on top of the original layer. Just to make things clearer, name the duplicate layer as "edge".

2) Select the duplicate layer named "edge". Go to Filters>Other>High Pass. Adjust the settings of the radius so that only the edges of the photo pops out. If you noticed, the layer turns into gray. That's normal. No need to panic yet.

3) After the High Pass Filter, apply an unsharp mask on the "edge" layer. How much? Until the edges that were defined by the filter pops out more.

4) Lastly, changed the blending mode of the "edge" layer to overlay.

There you go!

Sharpening is one of the most debated PS moves. Many of the pros now agree that sharpening should be done in three stages. Maybe you should incorporate this into your workflow. Try it and see if it works better for your images.

Stage 1- Capture Sharpen. This is the first move you do since digital capture is inherently soft. Capture sharpen is usually an edge sharpen so only the edges of a photo are sharpened and you don't sharpen noise. If shooting in RAW, turn off sharpening and do it in PS instead. Are you familiar with edge sharpening? If not, I can explain how to do it.

Stage 2: Selective Sharpening. This usually happens during the middle of the workflow. In portraits it would probably mean selectively sharpening the eyes or eye brows.

Stage 3: Output Sharpen. When you flatten your file for print, you should give it one last sharpen for print. The amount depends on both the size of the print and the paper used. Glossy papers get less sharpening while matte papers get more.

I agree with Mr Nick. I have been using this sharpening toolkit (http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/TLRSharpeningToolkit.htm) which is a set of photoshop actions that allows you to incorporate sharpening as part of your workflow. I guess it's doing almost the same thing that Mr. Nick has instructed here (http://www.digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showpost.php?p=2684&postcount=16).

You can use it for the different stages of your workflow: Capture, Creative, and Output.

My only problem is I am not using it as intended :Scared:. I use the Capture Sharpening action as the last part of my workflow. I know it's wrong but when I tried using the Creative and Output sharpening, the result (on-screen) wasn't very good. The edges seemed to be very sharp.

Maybe I am doing something wrong with my workflow. Can I post some pictures here where I can show my problems and maybe anyone could help me, too?

Marco,

I've tried Glenn Mitchell's sharpening toolkit. You will get your images very sharp, and sharper than what you may be used to. My first question is, have you tried printing your photos? If you are just sharpening to keep your images on a computer or post in an on-line gallery like we have here, then you don't have to sharpen your image much. Its when you have to output it where the sharpening counts.

Post and lets have a look.

Marco,

I've tried Glenn Mitchell's sharpening toolkit. You will get your images very sharp, and sharper than what you may be used to. My first question is, have you tried printing your photos? If you are just sharpening to keep your images on a computer or post in an on-line gallery like we have here, then you don't have to sharpen your image much. Its when you have to output it where the sharpening counts.

Post and lets have a look.

Hi Nick,

My original full-sized file is found here (http://www.f3mphotography.com/images/DigiPhoto/DSC_2581_Orig.jpg).

Just applying Capture Highpass Sharpening, some curves adjustments and Output Highpass Sharpening, this is what I get:

http://www.f3mphotography.com/images/DigiPhoto/DSC_2581-Sharp.jpg

The stubles of the groom is so much pronounced. That I didn't like.

Before I saw this forum, this is what I had:

http://www.f3mphotography.com/images/DigiPhoto/DSC_2581_No_Output_Sharpen.jpg

I wanted a dreamy look with saturated greens. Then I applied Output Highpass Sharpening and this is what I get:

http://www.f3mphotography.com/images/DigiPhoto/DSC_2581.jpg

I already like this but I don't know what you guys think. Or maybe you could do something to improve my photo?

Thanks a lot!

looks good to me but arent they a lil yellow? maybe you can do a mask of the couple and remove the yellow tint. i guess when you made the greens greener you also affected the couple....

Marco,

I've tried Glenn Mitchell's sharpening toolkit. You will get your images very sharp, and sharper than what you may be used to. My first question is, have you tried printing your photos? If you are just sharpening to keep your images on a computer or post in an on-line gallery like we have here, then you don't have to sharpen your image much. Its when you have to output it where the sharpening counts.

Post and lets have a look.

Mr. Nick,

Did you look at the pictures already? I was hoping you could help me if you are not too busy. If you have a workflow I can follow, that would be good. All I want is for the photos to look sharp and with bright contrasts without losing the skin tone.

Thanks a lot!

Marco

Marco,

Sorry I missed this thread. Had a look at your photo now. Why don't you try these moves and then post the result after trying. And then when you do, I think we should start a new thread for this.

1) Duplicate your Background layer twice. This should then give you three background layer copies. Deactivate the top layer so that what you only see is the bottom and middle layer.
2) On the middle change blend mode to Overlay. Reduce Opacity to 50%. Then apply a Gaussian Blur of around 12. Add a white layer mask. Paint in Black with soft brush at 50% opacity over the eyes of bride and groom and the hair of the groom.
3) Activate the top layer. Change the blend mode to Color. This should bring back the natural skin tones of the bride and groom while keeping the dreamy mood of the second layer. Add a white layer mask. Now with a soft brush at 100%, paint with black brush the green bushes, and flowers. This will bring the saturated color of the middle layer out. I suggest to not paint the leaves and tree behind the couple though.

It might get you what you are looking for (dreamy look with saturation?) The middle blurred Overlay layer will get you the dreamy look but a bit saturated. The top layer to Color Mode will return the color to its normal state. Then you add the saturation from the layer beneath by painting on the mask.

These moves should take no longer than ten minutes. Post. I'm curious.

Marco,

Sorry I missed this thread. Had a look at your photo now. Why don't you try these moves and then post the result after trying. And then when you do, I think we should start a new thread for this.

1) Duplicate your Background layer twice. This should then give you three background layer copies. Deactivate the top layer so that what you only see is the bottom and middle layer.
2) On the middle change blend mode to Overlay. Reduce Opacity to 50%. Then apply a Gaussian Blur of around 12. Add a white layer mask. Paint in Black with soft brush at 50% opacity over the eyes of bride and groom and the hair of the groom.
3) Activate the top layer. Change the blend mode to Color. This should bring back the natural skin tones of the bride and groom while keeping the dreamy mood of the second layer. Add a white layer mask. Now with a soft brush at 100%, paint with black brush the green bushes, and flowers. This will bring the saturated color of the middle layer out. I suggest to not paint the leaves and tree behind the couple though.

It might get you what you are looking for (dreamy look with saturation?) The middle blurred Overlay layer will get you the dreamy look but a bit saturated. The top layer to Color Mode will return the color to its normal state. Then you add the saturation from the layer beneath by painting on the mask.

These moves should take no longer than ten minutes. Post. I'm curious.

I posted my work based on your suggestions on this new thread (http://www.digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=743).

Thanks.

this is a very useful thread...

hi guys,

does anyone here knows the MARC ADAMUS landscape sharpening technique posting for web? if so do you have a link to the website or the step by step process? please advice guys, thanks! :)

very informative thread.... thanks for sharing.