Adobe Lightroom’s most important (and least known about) feature

[tonyjuliano]

Automatic (yes, AUTOMATIC) input sharpening and noise reduction of images captured in RAW format.

Everyone knows about Adobe Lightroom, and lots of you out there use it – and well, I’m sure. I’m also sure a lot of you are shooting RAW. Shooting in RAW poses a challenge as this type of data capture usually does not contain any in-camera sharpening or noise reduction, necessitating this being done later in your editing work-flow.
Are you aware that you can profile each of your digital cameras for automatic adjustment of sharpness and noise reduction, at each ISO setting in Lightroom? If not, read on…
This is simply one of the most important time-savers (and the least documented one) that you can implement in your digital work-flow. Before I discovered this feature a couple of years ago, I wasted a lot of time doing input-sharpening, and then cleaning up noise in my images (especially those taken with smaller sensor cameras). Utilizing this technique I’m sure you can streamline your editing process as much as I did.
This is how it works…
First, you need put your digital camera on a tripod, then capture static images in incrementally increasing ISO settings. Pick a target of some kind (I usually use a grey card with a resolution target printed on it) and start taking properly exposed shots starting at the lowest ISO setting your camera allows, up to it’s maximum. Next import those images into Lightroom.
Before you do anything else, select “Preferences” form the “Edit” menu – then click on the “Presets” tab, make sure the 2 check-boxes I’ve highlighted in the image below are checked…

Next, open the first image in the develop module – don’t make any other adjustments, just scroll down to the sharpening and noise reduction section. Zoom in at to at least 100% and drag in the Navigator panel to see an area of the photo that highlights the effect of the sharpening adjustment. Using the sliders, adjust any of the following sharpening settings:

• Amount – Adjusts edge definition. Increase the Amount value to increase sharpening. A value of zero (0) turns off sharpening. In general, set Amount to a lower value for cleaner images. The adjustment locates pixels that differ from surrounding pixels based on the threshold you specify and increases the pixels’ contrast by the amount you specify.
• Radius – Adjusts the size of the details that sharpening is applied to. Photos with very fine details may need a lower radius setting. Photos with larger details may be able to use a larger radius. Using too large a radius generally results in unnatural-looking results.
• Detail – Adjusts how much high-frequency information is sharpened in the image and how much the sharpening process emphasizes edges. Lower settings primarily sharpen edges to remove blurring. Higher values are useful for making the textures in the image more pronounced.
• Masking – Controls an edge mask. With a setting of zero (0), everything in the image receives the same amount of sharpening. With a setting of 100, sharpening is mostly restricted to those areas near the strongest edges.

Note: Press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) while dragging a slider to see the areas being affected (white) versus the areas masked out (black).
Once you have completed the input sharpening, move on to noise reduction (if necessary)…
In the Noise Reduction area of the Detail panel, adjust any of the sliders. The first three sliders affect luminance noise. The last two sliders affect color noise.

• Luminance – Reduces luminance noise.
• Detail – Controls the luminance noise threshold. Useful for very noisy photos. Higher values preserve more detail but may produce noisier results. Lower values produce cleaner results but may also remove some detail.
• Contrast – Controls luminance contrast. Useful for very noisy photos. Higher values preserve contrast but may produce noisy blotches or mottling. Lower values produce smoother results but may also have less contrast.
• Color – Reduces color noise.
• Detail – Controls the color noise threshold. Higher values protect thin, detailed color edges but may result in color speckling. Lower values remove color speckles but may result in color bleeding.

After all your adjustments are made, and while still in the Develop module, select “develop” from the menu bar – then “Set Default Settings” from the drop-down.

A window, similar to the one below, will appear…

Select “Update to Current Settings” within this window and all the sharpening and noise reduction adjustments will be saved as a preset for this particular camera at this unique ISO setting.
All you have to do now is repeat this procedure with the rest of your images and they will all be stored as baseline presets for the future. Anytime you import an image from this camera, Lightroom will look at the ISO setting imbedded in the metadata, and automatically apply the adjustments you’ve just recorded.
While they may not be 100% “spot-on” for all your images, I’ve found that they are good for about 90 percent of what I capture. Even then, they provide a baseline for much quicker adjustments to be made.
This has made my life a whole lot easier, eliminating some of the drudgery associated with my digital work-flow. try it out for yourself, i’m sure you will agree that it is very worthwhile.


Read m ore about it here.

[jdepould]

Hi welcome to DPS.

We generally prefer members to post directly on the forum, rather than linking out to other sites (even if it's just copy/paste with an attribution and link). Posting a link without the actual text makes it look like you're trolling for pageviews and clicks.

[tonyjuliano]

Originally Posted by jdepould

Hi welcome to DPS.

We generally prefer members to post directly on the forum, rather than linking out to other sites (even if it's just copy/paste with an attribution and link). Posting a link without the actual text makes it look like you're trolling for pageviews and clicks.

Sorry, edited.

[Photologyst]

Thanks for the info. However, both of these processes are typically done at the end of PS adjustments. There are already several sharpening presets in LR. Additionally, one size does not usually fit all.

Has something changed in the process?

[tonyjuliano]

Originally Posted by Photologyst

Thanks for the info. However, both of these processes are typically done at the end of PS adjustments. There are already several sharpening presets in LR. Additionally, one size does not usually fit all.

Has something changed in the process?

That's what you choose to do, not everyone uses PhotoShop. In fact, Lightroom 3, and its huge improvements in both the Sharpness and Noise Reduction tools it provides, has almost "obsoleted" PS for me.

"One size" - restricted to a particular camera serial number, and a particular ISO - gets you very close, saving tons of time (read the article carefully)

[Photologyst]

Originally Posted by tonyjuliano

That's what you choose to do, not everyone uses PhotoShop. In fact, Lightroom 3, and its huge improvements in both the Sharpness and Noise Reduction tools it provides, has almost "obsoleted" PS for me.

"One size" - restricted to a particular camera serial number, and a particular ISO - gets you very close, saving tons of time (read the article carefully)

I use LR almost exclusively.

You still have not answered the question. The fact that sharpening and noise reduction are typically recommended to be done at the end of the PS process.

[tonyjuliano]

Originally Posted by Photologyst

I use LR almost exclusively.

You still have not answered the question. The fact that sharpening and noise reduction are typically recommended to be done at the end of the PS process.

Okay... What, exactly is the "PS" process you are referring to?

Obviously, I mistook your reference to mean "PhotoShop".

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by tonyjuliano

Okay... What, exactly is the "PS" process you are referring to?

Obviously, I mistook your reference to mean "PhotoShop".

Hi Tony, great post.
The issue is that Photologyst doesn't understand is that nowadays many (I want to say most) professionals who take sharpening seriously apply some variant of the "3 step" or "3 pass" sharpening which almost always includes a "input sharpening" phase (often done with ACR, but now that LR3 uses same ACR algorythms some just go straight to LR). She's stuck in the older "sharpen only at the end" mentality.. which is fair, many people relatively unexperiences with PP are. Therefore her comment is only accurate lacking knowledge of what one of the more popular theories of sharpening is nowadays.

Photologyst, so that you're no longer uninformed, here is what is commonly known as the "3 step" or "3 pass" sharpening theory. Remember, just because you don't know it, doesn't make it wrong. Please stay up to date before trying to slam someone who's posted a very useful bit of info:

3 pass/step sharpening:

1 -Capture/input Sharpening is applied early in the image-editing process, and just aims to restore any sharpness that was lost in the capture process.

2_ Creative Sharpening is usually applied locally to focus on specific features in an image. For example, people often give eyes a little extra sharpness in head shots.

3_ Output Sharpening is applied to files that have already had capture and creative sharpening applied, after they've been sized to final output resolution, and is tailored to a specific type of output process (ie type/size/quality of print).

Again, Tony, very useful and accurate information.

And also, don't worry, Photologyst doesn't like to read whole post before replying particularly the part where you already said that these settings don't necessarily apply to ALL images, but I agree it's a great place to start!

Well done and welcome to DPS.

[tonyjuliano]

Thank you, kind sir...

As you had deducted, I was confused as to what "Photologyst" was trying to convey. I hope you don't mind, I've quoted you in my original post here. Should go a long way to clarify the original intent of the posting.

Thanks again for clearing that up.

[RLucas]

I ALWAYS apply noise reduction first. The way I look at it, is LR is completely non destructive, so you can apply settings in what ever order you feel like, and it gives you a real time result. I am sure the internal workflow in LR3 applies these settings in a certain order too. I don't really care, I just want my pictures purty!

Al, as a complete newb to LR, thanks for putting that in to an easy to digest manner for us slower people.

This is a great tut Tony! I am going to have to apply this myself, since I am always between ISO800, and 1600. The quicker I can get through it, the better!
Thanks again!