Question for the Photo Group on sharpening. Opinions welcome.

[JeffR]

Specifically, I'm curious as to whether you:

A) Use unsharp masking as your preferred sharpening method,

and

B) What settings you prefer. Of course, different photos require different settings, but do you have a baseline setting you use before making further adjustments?

More specifically, I'm asking this in the context of sharpening for web output, rather than print.

Thanks for any thoughts you might want to share. I've been reading about this topic for weeks since deciding I don't like the USM settings I used to use, and the only thing definitive I've learned is that there's little consensus on the issue.

[JeffR]

1. And a kick, since I've pushed this down the page.

:kick:

[alfredo]

2. I use Wavelet Sharpen, and unsharp mask depending on what I want and

need from an image. I set it high, then fade it to where it appears right. There's time when I want to "see" the sharpening.


I never print.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I don't use the unsharp mask very much

and when I sharpen, I usually use the "soft light" option and not a lot. That's just my personal preference.

[Adsos Letter]

4. I use unmask sharpening, but I have no baseline setting

I used Digital Imagepro 10 (with its clunky unsharp masking function) for so long that I now find that adjustments with the "clarity" tool in Lightroom2 will often provide enough sharpening. Lightroom2 has its own sharpening issues, as export of resized shots to disk (or whatever) involves 3 choices of sharpening for the screen: Low, Standard, and High, which adds a bit of uncertainty on the first exported version.

If you are using a more expensive/functional program than Lightroom2, then you probably don't have these issues.

Sharpening is an issue for me because I often overdo it, something I am trying to unlearn since my SX200 IS will provide sharp images if held steady enough (and a shout-out to alfredo for giving me some useful tips for steadying the monopod!) and because I often prefer images sharpened beyond what others find preferable.

I'm also using a point-and-shoot whose manual focus dial is too "fluid" to be really convenient (read: "functional") so I am generally at the mercy of a steady base, and the camera's own ability to focus.

Not actually sure this helps much, but "Hello" anyway. :D

[ManiacJoe]

5. Sharpening gets done twice.

First, on input to the post processing to "fix" what the camera's filters did. For this I use a plug-in called "Focus Magic" (http://www.FocusMagic.com). It handles both out-of-focus blur as well as motion blur. FM works with Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and as a standalone app. For my Nikon D200, this is usually set at "2 pixels" for out-of-focus blur. Back when I used USM for this, it was probably set to something like this for people-based subjects
Clipping: 3
Radius: 1.4
Strength: 120


Then at the end when the image is resized for output, it needs to be sharpened again. Usually just a little for web sites, but for prints it can be noticeably more. For web output (800x600) of people-based subjects, I usually am running USM in Paint Shop Pro at
Clipping: 5
Radius: 0.6
Strength: 50

[CC]

6. I use smart sharpen (PhotoShop)

and not sure what numbers. Depends on the photo. Wanted to at least start this so I can find it easy tomorrow. I'll try looking at numbers then. I try to compensate for the inherent camera blur and no more. I want it to look true to life and always worry about over doing it.

[Cassandra]

7. I haven't quite figured out...

how to do any sharpening yet other than Auto. No shortage of images that could use some help there, though.

[Stevenmarc]

8. Nik Sharpner Pro 3.0

I find it pretty much fool proof, you set it for the type of output you want and it does the rest and even though you can tweek it I found that most of default settings are spot on. Also if you want to get a bit more creative you can use the Nik control points to selectively sharpen areas of the picture

[JeffR]

9. Thanks for your responses, everyone.

:hi: