I'd like to start a discussion about image sharpening. Please do join in...
Until recently I thought I had the sharpening thing straight. I turned sharpening off everywhere I could - in my camera, in my processing software, uploading to UF. I was shooting RAW and would store any processed images as unsharpened PSDs or possibly JPGs. Then, whenever I used an image, I would adjust the size for the particular usage (printing, uploading to UF, sending by email etc) and the final step before saving would be sharpening. The only exception to this was that if I was adding a frame, as I do to images I upload to UF, I would do this after sharpening. This was the procedure that had been recommended to me by various sources including people on UF. It was clearly stated:
- sharpening should always be the final step!
And I would examine the final result carefully to make sure no unintended halos or harsh edges had occurred.
But suddenly it seems that things have become more complex. I have recently switched to using Lightroom for managing and processing my RAW images (great stuff - it's based on RawShooter that I used to use and has taken the RawShooter concept many steps further). Lightroom does not modify RAW files but saves any post-processing and editing separately. It includes sharpening tools - which I suppose should be used if you are going to print directly from Lightroom. But sharpening is not turned off by default. And if you are going to export to PSD or JPG, then the export procedure gives another opportunity to sharpen. Is there not a risk of duplication here, potentially resulting in over-sharpening?
If the PSD / JPG is going to be further processed, even if only (or especially if) to resize the image, presumably no sharpening should be done in Lightroom or on exporting from Lightroom?
And there's a further complication. I have started uploading a few images to another site where they can be viewed and from where prints can be ordered. The site requests files at the highest possible quality ie. sharpening at the Lightroom output stage. Fine for printing, but is this best for onscreen viewing? And what happens when a print is made? Does the printer check / adjust the sharpening? OK, I know that depends on the individual circumstance but it's another thought in my mind.
If it is still true that sharpening should be the final step, is there not a problem with Lightroom? Sharpening is introduced in the "Develop" module, after which images can be saved, printed, uploaded to the web etc. But this implies that sharpening is done before resizing.
Any thoughts?
AJ
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