Sharpening full-size images for Smugmug

[dhilberg]

Until recently I have simply put web-sized images on my Smugmug, not full-size. I had no interest in selling or printing, but would like to now. I want the images to be sharp both on Smugmug and in print, but am not sure how much sharpening to apply without ordering test prints (which is what I'm trying to avoid if possible, although I may just do it out of curiosity). The full-sized images I've sharpened for Smugmug don't look nearly as sharp as the web-sized ones I have. I'm assuming I'll have to play around with Smugmug's sharpening too, which I now have access to since I recently upgraded to a Power user account.

For those of you that put your full-size images on Smugmug, how do you sharpen them? What is your technique? Do your prints look equally good? What sharpening values do you use in the gallery settings?

I've done a ton of Googling on the subject, and have found an equally large number of differing methods. I'm familiar with smart sharpen, which is what I used on my web-sized images, and am somewhat familiar with unsharp mask and the high-pass filter method. I preferred the results I got with smart sharpen.

Anyway, any insight you have on this would be appreciated! :thumbup:

Thanks.

 

[PhotoXopher]

If I remember right SmugMug has a default setting to sharpen images for print.

 

[benpsut]

Dennis, I was in the same boat. I'm using CS2, I don't know what you're using, but I do an unsharp mask and double and a half of my usual sharpening made my prints look tack sharp. I'm used to resizing down to 1024 for my publishing site so it was tough to learn sharpening full sized image. Try it out. Also, if you're not an AdoramaPix user yet, if you sign up they give you 25 free 4x6s. It'll give you a rough idea how to do what you need to your images to make the prints look great. All you pay is shipping. Give it a try and good luck!

Ben