Sharpening in RAW

[Fox Paw]

I've read that sharpening should be the last processing step. Makes sense. I've also read and heard that as many adjustments should be made in RAW as possible. Makes sense. But the two notions leave me scratching me head about whether and how much to sharpen an image in RAW. I usually do, some, and sharpen it again at the end. I'm not sure that's right. Any thoughts?

 

[Overread18 6]

As I process and then edit my RAW I don't do noise removal or sharpening until the very end in my editing - so my RAW gets coverted with no sharpening and opened into photoshop elements - levels, curves, and a few other edits are done then noise followed at the end by sharpening

 

[Fox Paw]

Thanks, Overread.

 

[ksmattfish]

Bruce Fraser, author of the "Real World Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop", recommends a 3 step sharpening method. A slight after capture sharpening, selective sharpening of subject matter that needs it, and then a final global sharpening based on output type and size.

I'm using CS2. I find that the sharpening slider bar in Camera Raw often enhances artifacts, noise, and chromatic aberration particularly at high contrast edges, and that I can do a much nicer job in Photoshop with USM and/or Smart Sharpen. I also get better results reducing luminous noise in PS than ACR, although I do leave the color noise reduction set to the default in ACR.

When in doubt, make test prints, and judge with your own eyes and the eyes of your peers.

 

[Overread18 6]

I have done a little bit of selective sharpening - its a tricky skill to make sure that you don't oversharpen that area and lose the integration with the blurry background. As for prints I have read that one can boost sharpening more when printing with less of a downside, though I have never tried (not got a good enough printer to ever see the difference with )

 

[Alpha]

I think sharpening first is generally a bad idea, especially where people are involved. It makes fine retouching more difficult. It also limits your ability to use processing techniques that increase apparent sharpness.

 

[Bifurcator]

.

• http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126794

.

 

[Garbz]

If you know only a minor retouch is necessary (change in colour, maybe a gradient map) then sharpening first is not different from sharpening later.

That said NEVER sharpen twice in an attempt to reach the same effect. It'll cause haloing.

 

[Bifurcator]

The Doenoe method in the link above is 2 levels of sharpening. (done twice)

All sharpening causes halos - it just whether or not it's pronounced enough or sized in a manor, to be noticeable. It's kinda how sharpening works - or more correctly it's one of the results of that kind of filter. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "...in an attempt to reach the same effect." though.

 

[Alpha]

He means that successive sharpening is exponential, not additive. It magnifies the local effects of previous sharpening steps. I have some tests around here to prove it.

 

[Overread18 6]

that was one of my threads;
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=129551

although when I do my second sharpening this is after a resize of photo.

 

[Bifurcator]

He means that successive sharpening is exponential, not additive. It magnifies the local effects of previous sharpening steps. I have some tests around here to prove it.

No need to prove it. That is correct. I just didn't catch the meaning. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Arran Lomas]

I normally sharpen first in raw, quite a lot, but reading this thread has made me think twice about doing that in future lol

 

[Garbz]

I mean consider someone sharpening at 200% with a radius of 0.4px, and then sharpening by 30% with a radius of 30px. That's two different effects, however if you say sharpen at 1px 100% it is not the same as sharpening 1px 50% twice. The latter will take the sharpened effect and resharpen, but since the image looks vastly different now the sharpening is different. See below.

All sharpening does not cause halo as I meant it. There are the halos caused from over sharpening, but what I was talking about is the halo caused by applying sharpening to an image that has been sharpened. Even if you apply light sharpening this could be a problem which is not visible if sharpened heavily once.

Below is the effect. I don't remember the exact specs but I sharpened the middle, and sharpened the bottom bar twice with half the strength:

You better have a very good reason for wanting the bottom effect to appear in a photograph.

 

[Bifurcator]

Hehehe...


Yeah paragraph 1 (above) was the meaning I guessed at but wasn't totally sure.

Thanks!