Sharpening and printing ??

[dcclark]

Also be aware that flickr apparently re-sharpens its reduced-size images (meaning, anything except for the "full size" view).

I always sharpen as a last step, using layers (so that it's easily adjustable). Sharpening before that point usually is pointless, since you'll lose the sharpness as you do further editing.

[teaking]

I have looked into sharpening and read around and like most things there more than one way to skin a cat lol. Most people will sharpen as a last step and is the easiest way to sharpen. But alot of proffesional graphics editors will use a 3 stage workflow. Why?? I guess it gives them more cotrol at different stages and they can preview the sharpness throughout.

There first stage would be capture sharpening applied straight to the image, this brings clarity back to the image from the digital nature of the camera applying filters to your pixels.

The second stage would be creative sharpening applied after all editing has been done incliding resizing and cropping, this is your standard sharpening USM or Highpass usualy done at 100% layer masks can also be used to selectively sharpen the end result is a sharp looking image on screen.

The final stage would be output sharpening this is specific to device for example on a monitor you may skip this step, for print it would look over sharpened on screen and is usualy done around 50% zoom. If in doubt ask for sharpening guidlines for specific printers from your lab.

... ... Seems alot of work!! would be interesting to compare results.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by teaking

I have looked into sharpening and read around and like most things there more than one way to skin a cat lol. Most people will sharpen as a last step and is the easiest way to sharpen. But alot of proffesional graphics editors will use a 3 stage workflow. Why?? I guess it gives them more cotrol at different stages and they can preview the sharpness throughout.

There first stage would be capture sharpening applied straight to the image, this brings clarity back to the image from the digital nature of the camera applying filters to your pixels.

The second stage would be creative sharpening applied after all editing has been done incliding resizing and cropping, this is your standard sharpening USM or Highpass usualy done at 100% layer masks can also be used to selectively sharpen the end result is a sharp looking image on screen.

The final stage would be output sharpening this is specific to device for example on a monitor you may skip this step, for print it would look over sharpened on screen and is usualy done around 50% zoom. If in doubt ask for sharpening guidlines for specific printers from your lab.

... ... Seems alot of work!! would be interesting to compare results.

This is pretty much what I do. When I open the RAW file, it gets edited (sometimes rather heavily) and one of those steps is a subtle re-sharpening. Once in PS, I have a High Pass layer that I add (sharpening for web) and then, if need be, I re-sharpen again (usually just duplicating the high pass layer I already have) for Print. It's not that much work if you get into the habit of doing it

[teaking]

Thanks Os, its really interesting to hear from someone who uses this method and to hear you can set it up so it doesnt take too long I like those ideas think I may have to borrow them and play around