About Sharpening

[andrew99]

I've heard people say they sharpen their images differently for different uses (print vs web, etc). Can someone explain what is the difference, and what techniques you use? I have Photoshop and use Unsharp Mask and high-pass sharpening, but I'm confused about why or how I should sharpen differently for printing. Do printed images need more or less sharpening?

 

[Arch]

I just sharpen until the image looks right, then thats how i would print it. However when i reduce the image to say 600x800 or whatever for the web, i will sharpen again, this is just so its looks good on screen and to restore some of the sharpness that the image size reduction caused.

 

[NJMAN]

Here is a formula that I use for sharpening prints only. It seems to do a very good job.

1. Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen Edges
2. Edit > Fade Sharpen Edges (opacity: 63%, mode: normal)
3. Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (9%, 1.3, 4)
4. Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask (25%, 1.7, 0)

You might want to make this into an action to speed up the process.

This does a decent job on increasing the edge contrast and making standard print sizes sharper. Mind you, this doesn't perform magic if the image is out of focus or noticably soft. Always try to get the focus correct in camera first before doing this step.

Try it and see how your full res images look at 100%. You can also try it at different print sizes, like 8x10, 5x7, and 4x6. I am doing this in CS2. If I resize it for web viewing (800, 700, or 600 px, at the longest size), I always do some extra micro sharpening.

Hope this helps.