Crop, then sharpen OR Sharpen, then crop?

[Peeb]

Does the image come out the same either way, or is it superior to order it one way or the other?

 

[The_Traveler]

denoise then sharpen, crop anytime

 

[DarkShadow]

For me the last thing I do is sharpen no matter what editing I do,Especially if some noise reduction is needed I would not what to sharpen the noise then try to remove it later.I think everyone has there own work flow for what works best for them.

 

[Vtec44]

Crop then sharpen. IMHO, it's more efficient that way.

 

[unpopular]

image quality wise it does not matter. radius is variable by feature size, not total file size. I usually crop before I start anything, after I rotate and correct for perspective. but it does not matter.

 

[jaomul]

If you crop first, then you have only the elements you want to in a photo to concentrate on with the rest of your post processing, which is probably less distracting and enabling more focus in what you want (pardon the pun)

 

[Peeb]

denoise then sharpen, crop anytime

That makes sense- thanks!

 

[Peeb]

For me the last thing I do is sharpen no matter what editing I do,Especially if some noise reduction is needed I would not what to sharpen the noise then try to remove it later.I think everyone has there own work flow for what works best for them.

Seems logical!

 

[Peeb]

Crop then sharpen. IMHO, it's more efficient that way.

I suppose you can better see what 'final' impact your degree of sharpening will have to apply it post-crop. Yeah, I can see that.

 

[Peeb]

image quality wise it does not matter. radius is variable by feature size, not total file size. I usually crop before I start anything, after I rotate and correct for perspective. but it does not matter.

I suppose that's what I've traditionally done, but never really thought about the logic of things.

 

[Peeb]

If you crop first, then you have only the elements you want to in a photo to concentrate on with the rest of your post processing, which is probably less distracting and enabling more focus in what you want (pardon the pun)

I'm seeing a pattern here!

 

[KmH]

I start my editing in my Raw converter (ACR) and one of my initial steps is global capture sharpening and doing global noise reduction.
I don't crop in ACR because I prefer the Crop tool in Photoshop.
But cropping is one of the first things I do I in Photoshop if I am going to crop.

In Photoshop after cropping I do whatever, if any, local sharpening I want done in the image.
I do a last global sharpening if the image is destined for print (output sharpening).

 

[WayneF]

Sharpening affects and changes the pixels at the edges that should be sharp. If you then resample that photo smaller, you lose most pixels, and lose this effect.

Cropping trims off edges, but does not affect the remaining pixels, so it won't matter when cropping is done, but sharpening should be done after any resulting resampling, and after most tonal processing.

Short bottom line, sharpening should be done as last operation.

This is often true of cropping too, since cropping must be done to fit the paper AFTER the decision to print 4x6 or 5x7 or 8x10, etc. Just saying, if you crop your master to 4x6 shape, then attempts to later print 8x10 may not have enough side room remaining. Vice versa may not have enough height remaining. So I would say, do not sharpen or crop your master copy at all, not until after the final size goal is defined (specifically meaning, each and every final size goal to be implemented. as last operation).

A cropping exception could be raw processing, since all edits are lossless, all the original pixels remain and can be recovered. Still, you crop for every size to be printed.

 

[JoeW]

First, I suspect that is may have some variation depending upon which program you're using and if we're talking an individual photo or batch processing. That caveat noted...

I always crop first. Several reasons:
--I agree with Wayne above.
--you can sharpen, do other edits, then crop and go "oh crap, once I crop it's too pixelated and I don't like it without the crop." In short, the crop determines what is going to be in the picture. Start with that. Once you've done the crop, you can then look at it and see if you want to sharpen the entire photo, only sharpen specific areas, use some type of filter and possible blur some areas. But the crop determines what the basic picture is you're going to be creating for the viewer.
--The crop changes the focus of the photo (and thus the edits you decide you need to do). You might do a lot of sharpening, then look at the photo and crop it so it shows and abstract (shadow and light) where sharpening wasn't necessary.

 

[Dikkie]

I start my editing in my Raw converter (ACR) and one of my initial steps is global capture sharpening and doing global noise reduction.
I don't crop in ACR because I prefer the Crop tool in Photoshop.
But cropping is one of the first things I do I in Photoshop if I am going to crop.

In Photoshop after cropping I do whatever, if any, local sharpening I want done in the image.
I do a last global sharpening if the image is destined for print.

Same here.
However, I use GIMP instead of Photoshop.
In general, I follow the same workflow.