Sharpening Techique

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Hi everyone, I've meant to write this post a long time agoto share with you guys my sharpening technique that I have learned and used the past couple years.


Here is the imageright after resizing and without any sharpening applied to it.





This image was resized from its original size of 3596 x 2397 to 750 x 500. Every time you resize an image you NEED to sharpen it. Below is the sharpened version of the above image.





After I resized the image to 750 x 500 in Adobe Photoshop CS2, I use Smart Sharpen with the Amount of 100%, Radius 0.1 and REMOVE = Lens Blur. The Shadow and Highlight tabs I left them at default.


Can you see the differences between the two versions?


Remember the needed amount of sharpening depends on the size of the image. If you have a different dimension you need to play with the amount until you get a desirable result. I use the same technique for my images on Photo.net, but with different amount of sharpening.


Never Never Never post the originalsize of yourimage on the web, if you do so, you'd either get a very soft image or an oversharpened image or only part of the original image.


Last but not least, never cheat yourself by resizing and sharpeninga soft and out of focus image. We all know that a soft small size image with some sharppeningcan look quitesharp and nicewhen displayed on the web.[]


Thanks for reading,everyone and feel free to comment or chipin if you have any other tips.[]


Image taken with Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM, f/4, 1/640, ISO 250, Manual Exposure, handheld.


Nate.

[Oren]

Thanks Nate, many people don't know that and this post is a good idea.

[Chuck Lee]

Thanks for reading,everyone and feel free to comment or chipin if you have any other tips.[img]/emoticons/emotion-2.gif[/img]

I know this may sound cheesy, but I've been batch sharpening with Irfanview for quite a while. I use to use USM (200-250, .6-.7, 0-1.0) but have found that the sharpening algoritm offered by Irfanview under Effects Browser does a fantastic job from 50 - 75 for my FF 5D images. Most of the time, when the full size images have been treated this way, my reductions from zenfolio for web display look great. (some good examples here) I post process with SilkyPixwith all sharpening off. False color reduction does a great job of reducing chroma noise when converting to jpeg. After developing from Silkypix Pro, I batch in sharpening using Irfanview. I use Picasa as my viewer and some times do some luminosity adjustments and cropping there. For large sets of photojournalistic photos like partys, family occasions, etc. the results are very good.


If I were to reduce for e-mail I would reduce using Irfanviews resampling Lanczos filter and decide then whether to apply a little USM (100-150)or sharpening @ < 50.


Of course, if I'm working on very important payed forwork in Photoshop, I'll use USM most of the time to get the image ready for print.


Good thread topic Nate......!!

[Joel Bookhammer]

Thanks Nate for shareing your sharpening technique I have wondered this quite a bit when you post your images and they are awesome. But on the same note the unsharpened version isstill great and goes to show how much time and effort you spend into getting great shots!


Thanks


Joel

[HiFiGuy1]

Nate,


The first shot clearly has some issues. I think the performance of your lens needs to be thoroughly evaluated, independently of course. Send it to me ASAP, and I will conduct the tests myself. I cannot give you a time frame, as I intend to really run it through its paces, in order to provide you with the most detailed analysis possible. This one time, I will offer this service to you absolutely free of charge.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

<div id="ctl00_ctl00_bcr_bcr_PostForm__QuoteText"]


Nate,


The first shot clearly has some issues. I think the performance of your lens needs to be thoroughly evaluated, independently of course. Send it to me ASAP, and I will conduct the tests myself. I cannot give you a time frame, as I intend to really run it through its paces, in order to provide you with the most detailed analysis possible. This one time, I will offer this service to you absolutely free of charge.
</div>

Thanks for the offer HifiGuy1, but I have to decline it. My lens is still under warranty, therefore Canon will fix it for free and it usually takes about a week, and by the way do you know that I only live about 20 minutes from Canon Irvine? when sensor cleaning was free I just dropped my cameras there and went to catch a movie at the Irvine Spectrum Mall.

[Todd Ovick]

<div id="ctl00_ctl00_bcr_bcr_PostForm__QuoteText"]


Nate,


The first shot clearly has some issues. I think the performance of your lens needs to be thoroughly evaluated, independently of course. Send it to me ASAP, and I will conduct the tests myself. I cannot give you a time frame, as I intend to really run it through its paces, in order to provide you with the most detailed analysis possible. This one time, I will offer this service to you absolutely free of charge.
</div>

Thanks for the offer HifiGuy1, but I have to decline it. My lens is still under warranty, therefore Canon will fix it for free and it usually takes about a week, and by the way do you know that I only live about 20 minutes from Canon Irvine? when sensor cleaning was free I just dropped my cameras there and went to catch a movie at the Irvine Spectrum Mall.
<div style="clear: both;"]</div>

Nate, Correct me if i am wrong but, I think HiFiGuy1 posted that as a compliment to your lens and photograph. You can always send your lens' to me as well for calibration i would be more than happy!....hehehehe....Great shots by the way!!!


also, when i reduce the size of my photographs, i do it in PS using the "image size" selection under the "Image" drop down menu. when i reduce the size i always select the "Resample image" block and choose "bicubic sharper" in CS2. This option in CS3 and CS4 is stated as "bicubic sharper (best for reduction)".


My question for you is, do you think that additional sharpening through photoshop's Sharpening filters is required when reducing images as i do (stated above)? or is it just persnal preference?


Todd

[HiFiGuy1]

LOL!!! []


Nate, you're killing me! I was being facetious. Your lens looks to be working VERY well. In all seriousness, when I am wearing my reading glasses, I get a really good look at both shots, and I honestly prefer the first one. I think the second is slightly<span style="font-weight: normal;"]over-sharpened for my taste. I'd love to have a copy of the first one in full size and RAW.