Simple Question

[samoliver]

In which order should I perform these steps?

1)Crop
2)Resize
3)Sharpen
4)Color/Exposure corrections
5)Convert to .JPG


Thanks everyone!

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[ann]

you will probably get a 100 different answers, but this is something that George DeWolfe recommends in his book on Fine print Workshop

crop
contrast
brightners
color
defects
sharpness

 

[skieur]

you will probably get a 100 different answers, but this is something that George DeWolfe recommends in his book on Fine print Workshop

crop
contrast
brightners
color
defects
sharpness

I would add: Check for picture noise and artifacts and eliminate if necessary.

skieur

 

[Garbz]

Cropping is lossless in terms of how it affects other filters and can be performed whenever. Resizing affects noise performance so it would be a good idea to do that after you apply all your adjustments, and noise reduction if needed. Sharpen should be the very last step before saving out to JPEG, as sharpening twice introduces halos, and the sharpening should be catered to your application. I.e. I sharpen differently for small pictures than large ones.

 

[mrodgers]

....and the sharpening should be catered to your application. I.e. I sharpen differently for small pictures than large ones.

I've always been confused by this one. How do you know how to sharpen something for different end results?

My camera is x megapixels. I crop them, adjust them, then sharpen everything pretty much the same. I understand how to sharpen differently for the end result. Whether I am printing 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, or reducing to 800 px on a side for uploaded viewing, I am adjusting an x megapixel image on my screen. I don't know how to sharpen other than sharpen until it looks good on my screen in front of me right at that moment.

 

[Helen B]

The best you can do is to view at the physical size it will end up - so if you are going to print at 4x6, view it on screen at 4x6 after resampling to the ppi the printer requires. If you are going to print at 8x10, then view at 8x10 while sharpening.

Best,
Helen

 

[Overread]

with the 2 links in at the end of the post (which happen to be the same link with different names) I think this is an adbot

 

[ksmattfish]

For me it depends on the photo and what processing techniques I'm using. If I can do it all in Lightroom it really doesn't matter what order I do it in, because it doesn't get applied until I export the photo from Lightroom.

I like Bruce Fraser's strategy for sharpening: a smidge of post-capture sharpening, localized sharpening as needed, and finally a general, overall sharpening based on output (big print, small print, web pic, etc...).

Unless I'm positive that the photo will only be needed at one size in the future I like to save a tiff, psd, or raw at the original resolution, and without applying the final output sharpening. With that file I can resize and finish sharpening depending on what I need.

 

[Garbz]

I've always been confused by this one. How do you know how to sharpen something for different end results?

Think of it this way. You post an image on the web and people see the pixels in actual size. The sharpening must be tailored so the image looks good on a whole.
Now print a 6x4 from a 10 megapixel camera. The print resolution is 645ppi. You can get away with no sharpening at all. Unless you print on a super printer and then look at the image under the loupe you won't notice that the individual pixels are not as defined.

This is one of the reasons why in the photoshop resize dialogue it says "Bicubic Sharper (best for reductions)"

 

[pete_6109]

I always adjust levels first. Am I the only one doing that?
Levels
Contrast
Color Balance
Touch up
Crop/resample if needed
Sharpen