Help needed with sharpening in ACR

[andrewcollier]

I am struggling to understand the workings of sharpening in ACR with Elements 6. Previously I had settled for the default settings, but there must be many times when they would be better varied. Are there any online tutorials that would give me some guidance?

Any thoughts appreciated

 

[andy_fozzy]

I'm using ACR to process RAW's, and a response to a question I asked recently was that sharpening has no effect until you're zoomed in at least 100%.

So my question is, what's the point?
I rarely use 100% zoom on pics :shrug:

 

[glitch]

You've got the wrong idea here, Andy. And that's not been helped by a rather vague explanation in the other thread you've mentioned.

When someone refers to 100% they're usually going to be talking about seeing an image at it's native pixel resolution where 1 pixel of the image = 1 pixel of your screen. Sometimes that's referred to as a 100% zoom/crop or viewing at 1:1. And some of the things you would do in post-processing don't really show up unless you are viewing the image at this level.

Let's assume you have a monitor that runs at a resolution of 1680x1050. And let's also assume you are working on an image that's 3000x2000 pixels. You cannot possibly see the whole of the image at 1:1 on your screen as you don't have enough pixels. So at any time you can see the whole image on your screen you are effectively zoomed out. If you were to crop the image down, say to 750x500, you would then be able to see the image at a 100% zoom.

When it comes to sharpening, any amount will affect the image in some way. But unless you are viewing the image at 100% (either by zooming in or the image being small enough to fit on the screen) you won't really notice the sharpening having any effect. You'd have to over-sharpen to such a degree that you'd ruin the image.

In any case, sharpening should be the very last thing you do to an image before you export it. So if you're displaying your images on the web, you can do all your editing first (levels, colour balance, saturation, etc) and then resize the image for its intended use. And then you would sharpen it.

And by doing that you'll probably find that you're viewing the image at 100% and will be able to see exactly what the sharpening is doing while also being able to view the entire image on the screen.

 

[Paul-S]

I am struggling to understand the workings of sharpening in ACR with Elements 6. Previously I had settled for the default settings, but there must be many times when they would be better varied. Are there any online tutorials that would give me some guidance?

Any thoughts appreciated

Very basicly it works like this

You need to be zoomed in to 100% to see the effects and you need to be holding the Alt Key down when making changes to the sliders.

1- The Sharpness slider does what it says.

2- The Radius slider should be set between 1 and 2 under normal conditions

3- The Detail slider adjusts the contrast/sharpness of fine detail, the more you increase this will also increases edge halos.

4- The Masking Slider stops any of the other sliders setting being applied to parts of the image that show as black when holding the Alt key down and adjusting it.

Now basicly what you use will be decided by the type of image and if you are going to do any post processing.

If a image contains all fine detail you would use just the first 3 sliders with emhpasis on the detail slider.

If it were a portrait you would use the masking feature so sharpening was not applied to the skin and emphasise blemishes.

By clicking on and of the preveiw box you can see it with and without the applied sharpening, all of this must be done at 100% veiwing.

 

[Anthony.Ralph]

[..]

In any case, sharpening should be the very last thing you do to an image before you export it.

This isn't really true.

Typically there are three types/stages to sharpening.

Firstly there is capture sharpening which is what the tools in ACR are all about. This stage is to compensate for the softening effect of the sensor filter.

Once the image is moved to PS or whatever for creative work, a second, optional, stage of sharpening is employed: often called creative sharpening, which is used in combination with masks, etc. to apply the effects in a localised manner.

The third stage is output sharpening and is applied with the final size and output media in mind (web, print, etc.)


Edit:: check out this Martin Evening movie. It comes from his new book... http://www.photoshopforphotographers.com/pscs4/movies-capturesharpen.html

Anthony.

 

[glitch]

Don't get me wrong, Anthony, I'm with you on all that. Been doing similar myself for a while now. But given that the target of my explanation was struggling with the basics I thought it wise to not confuse the issue any further.

But as I said and as you have quite nicely pointed out, sharpening is the final thing that you should do before exporting. Any sharpening done before that should really be done by someone who understands the processes and reasoning behind the methodology.

Or at least read the book.

 

[Anthony.Ralph]

Don't get me wrong, Anthony, I'm with you on all that. Been doing similar myself for a while now. But given that the target of my explanation was struggling with the basics I thought it wise to not confuse the issue any further.

But as I said and as you have quite nicely pointed out, sharpening is the final thing that you should do before exporting. Any sharpening done before that should really be done by someone who understands the processes and reasoning behind the methodology.

Or at least read the book.

Yes, we are both on the same page here (pun?).

Interestingly, both Lightroom and ACR 5.2 now offer both input sharpening and output sharpening. So assuming any creative sharpening can be achieved by using the sharpening slider in the adjustment brush tool, all three elements are covered without (necessarily) going into Photoshop itself.

Did you get a chance to see the Martin Evening tutorial by the way? It's certainly something I would recommend the OP to have a squint at...

Anthony.