charles brown Loc: Tennesse

I always shot in RAW with sharpening turned off in the camera. Yet when it comes to sharpening in PP I never know how much to use so I usually do none. I use my RAW file for PP and save as new file. I know that sharpening is one of the last things to do in PP but what is the best way to tell when it is done right without having to print several photos using up expensive ink?? My camera is a 70s and I use Capture NX for PP.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Off hand, I would say look at it in 100% and decide what you think. I read something recently, and it might have been here - or maybe it was a photo site - about how cameras do not produce all the sharpness that you might want because of their sensors - or whatever - so some pp sharpening is usually necessary. I always give my pp images a little sharpening.

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

Sharpening should be the last thing done on PP. Blow the photo up to 100%, pick an area with fine detail and then sharpen. Afterwards look at the entire photo closely to see if any areas are in excess. At this point only you can decide if it was too much, after all, it is you that needs to be satisfied.

Jim D

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

Thanks oldtool and Jerry - will be a big help. Appreciate you keeping it straightforward and easy to understand.

Nikonuser Loc: South Dakota

I use Capture NX and use shapening in PP last after 100% look. Don't push or over do it as you will notice it especially in larger prints which for some reason does not show up when you are looking at the monitor. PP for sharpening is just to tweak. Practice, practice, practice.

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

You are right - need to shot more and then practice practice practice.

gym Loc: Athens, Georgia

If you're sharpening in Photoshop elements, is there a 'number' that you don't wish go exceed?

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

In Picnik, my "Sharpness" scale is 1 to 40. Through experience, I found that mid-way or greater, introduced more digital artifacts than I liked. I routinely sharpen to 17 or 18 on my scale.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

I don't use Capture NX as I'm a Lightroom aficianado. However, sharpening and noise reduction go hand-in-hand.
Some color noise reduction is automatically applied in LR, so my first step is luminance noise reduction, just enough to get rid of the noise, not enough to cause loss of detail. I then do my sharpening, watching carefully for edge halos as these are one sign of oversharpening. Sharpening can cause some more noise to appear so I often tweak the luminance noise reduction again. It requires a balancng act between the two of them to get the right amount of each and it is always a compromise. Too much of either and the image will degrade. I find myself going back and forth between the two of them until I get that balance.

Sharpening works on high contrast edges and too much of it will cause a halo effect anywhere there is a sharp edge against a smooth surface such as the sky. Too much sharpening will also cause a pebbly effect to appear on smooth, textureless areas. When these artifacts appear, I back off until they disappear.

Noise reduction is overdone when you start to loose detail and you get that smooth, plasticy look. I add only as much NR as is needed to get rid of the worst of the noise. With high ISO shots I will accept a little noise in favor of detail.

Every program seem to have it's own scale so I'm not sure if asking for peoples numbers is generally helpful. It is something you have to play around with to get comfortable at it.

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

try shooting two raw images. In 'camera raw' use the sharpening tools and only adjust the amt to about '100.' and 'save' it.

bring the other up in camera raw and just save it.

open them both up in the editor and look at both of them side by side and make an informed decision. the ol addage, do it all in pp is old news and lazy. unless you know your workflow demands post processing sharpening, try it in 'camera raw' processing and see what you think.

I use it quite a bit when I do weddings. Usually the raw crunching by acr leaves the image a little soft as does the anti-bias filter(s) used by cameras.

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

Do you mean turn on the sharpening in the camera itself or are you talking about comparing two of the same images, one sharpen in NX and the other not sharpened.

tkhphotography Loc: Gresham, Or, not Seattle

No, sorry if I'm unclear...tied up with a wedding all weekend and working nites I don't get much sleep.

neway, my workflow for raw images is to download them into ACR (PSE10) and when I bring them up there I use the sharpening tools on the second click in to the right. I just shot the wedding and am 95% done with pp. Everyone of them I sharpened in ACR before I took them in the 'editor' phase is great. I've never trusted or tried much sharpening in camera, but it may be a good idea.

I just don't understand why people load raw images, save them as high jpegs and then sharpen..I think you would want to sharpen as much pixels as possible..

If I'm still confusing you, 3 hrs sleep in 2 1/2 days..pm me.