How do you sharpen?

[bluefluff]

Hi there!

I do portraits mainly, and I'm trying to hone my skills more and really sharpen my images well (mainly the eyes/lips) and I just wondered if there were any tricks some of you might do that sharpen really successfully, without ruining smooth skin, and not generating much noise. I've found lately that using the sharpening Detail tab in Camera Raw is good, by using the masking slider, pushing it right to the end, which generally then only sharpens the eyes, nostrils, lips, and outlines of bodies, etc.

How do you sharpen?

 

[KmH]

The company Pixel Genius LLC wrote the code that is the sharpening panel in ACR.

It helps if you have a solid fundamental understanding of what 'sharpening' is.

There are many sharpening techniques one can choose to use.

Two of Pixel Genius's people also wrote the very informative image sharpening book - Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

 

[fjrabon]

I use Aperture for sharpening (and almost all of my most basic edits), mostly because stuff like this, it seems way more intuitive.

With Aperture, there is a global sharpening, and you can also selectively sharpen as well by just simply brushing sharpness in. I generally will add some very mild global sharpening to the entire image, unless there is already a bit of noise in the photo to begin with. Then, I use the brush, which has a simple amount slider that works well for 99% of what I need to do) and brush in the particular areas I want sharper (eyes, mouth, outlines, details in buildings, etc).

Then I'll use a skin smoothing brush as necessary (though there are programs that have better skin smoothing than Aperture's native version, it works perfectly for 90% of what I do) and de-noise as necessary.

If the photo is particularly noisy, I usually will export and use something more powerful on it, as Aperture's noise reduction isn't super strong.

While it's not great for really heavy edits and merging different images, Aperture is really great, fast, intuitive and simple for your 'normal' edits.

 

[lemonart]

I more often than not do not need any more sharpening than what I get from Aperture's built in sharpen function... I have a magic setting too . Fairly simple: load the adjustment, set the bottom slider (I think it's radius... Don't know off the top) to a value of 3.0, hit enter, and presto!

Occasionally I'll add extra or adjust to taste but that setting seems to work very well for me 90% of the time.

Beyond using a sharpening adjustment, I find other adjustments can contribute to how sharp and defined the picture can appear to the eye. Things like contrast (mid contrast as well), and even boosting certain focus colors. In your photo can help define features. I'd use these types of things sparingly.

One final technique I use is, I don't always look at the adjustment slider! I grab the knob or arrow or whatever with the mouse and I adjust while looking at the picture only. It helps one stay away from becoming biased to certain settings or feeling subconsciously that they need more or less of something... That's how I found my magical setting above. I found for almost every picture I stopped moving the slider around 3.0. I didn't care where it ended up, but that's where it ended up 8/10 times so that now my personal default.

Anyways... This is all stuff that works for me. If it helps it helps, but ultimately just do what works/looks good for/to you!

Lem

 

[KmH]

Like Peano alludes to, I sharpen in stages - capture sharpen, local sharpen, output sharpen.

 

[CreativeSnaps]

I sharpen the whole image in ACR and then I sharpen selectively and not the whole image in photoshop.

 

[Orrin]

I generally use the 'unsharp mask' in Gimp.

 

[bunny99123]

I use the sharpening tool in PS. Can adjust percentages and brush diameter.

 

[bluefluff]

cheers all!

i have really improved my sharpening!

love the comments re sharpening in stages and it being selective

i now use the high pass filter - blending mode 'vivid light' 50% opacity and mask out skin and background - and it's a huge improvement!

thanks for taking the time to share what u know