John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

I put three entries into a club competition last night, all three bombed.

Two of the entries the Judge (rightly) said were soft - and that's how they looked on the screen. Viewed at home, and on here, neither image is soft. I'll grant that our projector is low end requiring a 1400 (w) x 1050 (h) image for projection but that aside some members acheived admirable sharpness for their projections.

Should I do all my editing then crop (if necessary) and resize or should I crop (if necessary) and resize and then edit. Currently, I work on the full image, sometimes cropping first, then resizing for Facebook (if I choose to place it on my page) and again to club specifications.

My third, the third of three similar images all taken at a club event got binned because this judge didn't like borders, or maybe because it was the third and with two in his final selection didn't want three.

Sometimes, you just have to suck up to a bad night.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

Would it be possible to show those images here?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

We'd have to see the images, not your description of the images. Your recognition of the issues is useful, helping us judge if you've been too harsh on yourself, or candid and accurate.

Regarding digital borders, don't waste the image geography with non-image content.

Regarding workflow, consider processing the entire image to completion and then cropping. This gives the most flexibility for multiple crops / aspect ratios from the same original image. I mean this different than minor leveling / cropping of unneeded content from the edges, where making those corrections at the start makes more sense, as that removed content will never be used in any version of the image.

When it comes to up-size, why? Here, seeing the actual images might better clarify. But, as a general rule, resizing is a dangerous new tool in digital processing, and likely entirely unnecessary. If you were projecting 1400px wide images, what subject were you shooting so far away that you'd need to 'upsize' the image to get to 1400px wide?

Your title was 'sharpening', but I didn't see a question. In a tool like Lightroom, you have options to sharpen the image during editing, and then a separate option to sharpen the export file for the intended purpose (printing vs online display). The best tools in 2023 allow for a sharpening mask, where you can sharpen just specific image details rather than the entire image, both subject and background. If not referencing already, consider the discussion here (the ideas are general in the context of using specifically Lightroom):

Basics of Lightroom Sharpening

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I have learned that judges will knock photographs out of competition for all sorts of reasons...some valid and some not. I had a photo "knocked out" because "the color palette is all wrong." The vegetation was "too green." Actually, the palette was just about perfect. Despite being of a building ruin in a semi-arid area, the image was captured a couple of hours after a late spring rain and quite accurately represented the scene.

I have rarely entered competitions or shared images since that experience. I have no need for misguided opinions and snooty judgements guiding my photography. Instead, I have a small group of friends whose guidance I trust. Most of them are very skilled artists. They have diverse opinions which are very helpful. Their credibility is very high. Most important, we are all kind with one another. We are very careful how we communicate that something could have been done more effectively, or that a completely different choice could have been made. Most importantly, we try to follow the simple guidance, "seek first to understand, then to be understood."

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

Yes, please!?

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Two of the images (in a larger resolution) can be found on this forum at
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-771945-1.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-755935-1.html
The three attached are all at the projection resolution.
I've a copy of your guide on the PC, Paul, and found it useful. I use AFFINITY but I still found it a help.
My question (perhaps I could have worded it better) was not about sharpening per se, but when to do it, on the original or the resized for projection version.

Flower arrangement

(Download)

St. Mary the Virgin

(Download)

Storm approaching

(Download)

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thanks for the examples and links to other versions of the same image. This gives something to discuss in detail.

How was the projector set up? Personally, I no longer share vertical images here on UHH. Why? Because if people are viewing them on landscape oriented monitors, they don't get the full / proper impact of an vertically oriented image on a landscape device. You might consider which images you share in the future, if landscape is how the images are shown to the club.

Resizing the image down in pixel resolution should have a minor impact. But, your resized images are less sharp than the originals. As mentioned earlier, LR has a second sharpening option against the resized 'export' file. If something similar exists from Affinity, this is worth investigating and implementing, with analysis of the best possibly setting to use.

For the Pitstone Church, the resized version actually looks out of focus compared to the other version provided in your link. You don't have to go the pixel-level to see this obvious difference. So for sure, the cause and correction of this processing issue should be investigated and resolved. I would hope the issue is usage / configuration setting rather than a software weakness.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

I cannot provide helpful advice for your prob, EXCEPT to crop and save before editing, then edit the original, with your chosen crop in mind - later cropping the edited version to the dimensions you already chose.
I too use Affinity - have you tried using a High Pass filter layer for sharpening? - might be good for the flower pic.
I really like your "Flower Arrangement" - the border is PART of the image - and should not be removed - it supports the subject perfectly.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Working through Robin Whalleys guide to Affinity 2. The high Pass filter is a mystery to me at the moment, but I've seen him full a little more magic from an image with it.

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

I use Serif's PhotoPlus V7 and V8 when using layers, which I find less confusing - programs I used before Affinity.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

In my opinion, projectors are absolutely the worst way to view photos. Their color is usually way off and often fuzzy. A large screen TV is the best way

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

John. Perform edits, crop to image, then resize (once only) and sharpen.

The subjects shown have other issues which greatly limit their impact and hence scoring. The judge may have been skipping over them to be polite.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

It depends on what the “image content” is. There may be a difference between a photo of a deer or a squirrel and the same animal surrounded by lots of empty space. Was the image titled??

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Here's another great day-2 contribution, doing UHH proud.