Photoshop question

[plastii]

Hi.

I was working with a pretty noisy/soft photo few days ago and was thinking - should I first sharpen the image, then do someting about the noise or vice versa? What's your opinion on that?

Thanks
Marek.

 

[Big Mike]

Sharpening is usually something I leave for the end of the workflow. Keep in mind that sharpening doesn't really fix soft photos, and it will likely make the noise more noticeable.

 

[plastii]

Thanks for the info.

 

[LokiZ]

Depending on how the image is to be used you can help to reduce noise in my opinion by reducing the size of the image. Is the image being sent to print or staying digital as in for with the net?

I have to agree with Big Mike, the sharpening is best usually being the last item on the post process to do list.

If you can reduce the size of the image, it may at least help to cancel out what sharpening will do to the noise in the image whenever you choose to sharpen.

I also have to agree that sharpening alone will not fix soft photos. The amount or degree it can do any good at all is marginal at best.

Is the picture entirely soft or soft at your main focus of the photo due to being sharp at the wrong point?

 

[camz]

Yes it really really depends. I usually only sharpen when I'm posting in the web. However for print unless you know the treshold of your printhouse I wouldn't recommend it especially on a noisy photo.

In CS4 when you're actually using the noise reduction tool you can perserve the details by sharpening at the same time. There's also the surface blur trick that you can use to reduce noise but that needs practice. Surface blur sometimes actually help sharpen the edges in some instance depending on the content of your shot.

You mind posting or telling us what the pic is about?

 

[vegasvisionstudios]

Want to make something appear sharper, blur it's surroundings.

 

[plastii]

This is for a panoramic photo I did few weeks ago. I will try to post it but I don't know if you'll se the details. Maybe soft is the wrong word but I needed to sharpen it and reduce some noise. The original size is 70x10 inches.
Thanks

 

[camz]

I'm really having a hard time seeing what you're saying since it's such a small dimension...maybe post a larger dimension of the photo, cropped where you think the problem is?

 

[plastii]

I guess the bottom line is: noice work first, then sharpening.

Thanks.

 

[LokiZ]

super point Vegas, super point.

 

[Alpha]

Or use a sharpening technique that doesn't introduce much noise, like USM'ing the L channel in Lab color mode. The biggest problem with sharpening is that when you do it to a channel that contains colors you will introduce comparatively much more noise than doing it to a channel that doesn't. The vast majority of all sharpening doesn't intrinsically have anything to do with color. Therefore, you're causing collateral damage in the form of noise when you sharpen a color-containing channel.

Cheers