Sharpening

Helium_Junkie · 17 Jun 2007 at 21:44

1) Was reading something the other day that said all images from a DSLR are unsharpened, I thought that this was only true for RAW files?
2) What tools in photoshop can be used to sharpen images, and how best to use them?

wez130 · 17 Jun 2007 at 21:54

I only use unsharp mask in photoshop for sharpening as as far as i know it is true that your DSLR doesn't sharpen images.

SDK^ · 17 Jun 2007 at 22:19

I use Photo Kit Sharpener.
It's the best sharpen workflow available designed by the best in the business

JPEG images are processed in camera and you can adjust the levels from weak to strong.
It's better to process your images in an image editor though.

Messiah Khan · 17 Jun 2007 at 22:56

I used to use USM, but the last few days ive been playing with the high pass filter technique, and im really liking it as it gives me selective control over where to sharpen.

^^Gord^^ · 17 Jun 2007 at 23:10

SDK^ said:
I use Photo Kit Sharpener.
It's the best sharpen workflow available designed by the best in the business

Interesting, not heard of that. Can you post up a comparison?

SDK^ · 18 Jun 2007 at 10:22

^^Gord^^ said:
Interesting, not heard of that. Can you post up a comparison?

The advantages of using the plug-in are :

A true Capture, Creative and Output sharpening workflow.
Sharpening effects and Sharpening & Smoothing brushes.
Everything is nondestructive, and takes place on its own layer. This means that you have total freedom to delete and redo any aspect of the sharpening at any time. It also adds great flexibility to the sharpening process because each sharpening action's individual layer can have its opacity changed, thus increasing or decreasing its individual effect.

There is decent review here : http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/pk-sharpener.shtml

aztechnology · 18 Jun 2007 at 22:40

wez130 said:
I only use unsharp mask in photoshop for sharpening as as far as i know it is true that your DSLR doesn't sharpen images.

As far as I am aware, all DSLR's will apply at least some sharpening to the Jpeg outputs. There should be a setting somewhere to let you control the amount of sharpening (along with other stuff).

RAW output will have no sharpening applied as it's supposed to be straight off the sensor.