DPP Exercise 24 - Sharpening for Print

Although I have done this exercise I see very little advantage in posting copies of the prints into this blog as the restrictions placed on downloading images onto the blog mitigate against showing clearly the differences in the images produced - not even the one that is supposedly over-sharpened.

I was surprised to see reference to the Unsharp mask in the Course material. Whilst it is still part of Photoshop filters I haven't used it for some time not least because I have never really understood the usefulness of the Threshold slider. What is more as I shoot all my images in Raw I first consider the use of the tools provided in the Raw converter. The first is 'Detail' that determines how much the edges are affected by sharpening. Personally I leave this slider alone purely on the grounds that there are, in my opinion, better tools for sharpening elsewhere (I have set the default amount of sharpening applied to the image to zero rather than the '25' that is the built in default). Second in the Raw converter is the 'Clarity' slider. It is not a sharpening tool but acts on the mid-tones to provide 'snap' to your image. The result is an image that looks sharper although sharpening has not been applied. I don't know why this should be the case but for me it works and is my tool of choice. There is a sharpness slider in the Adjustment tool dialogue and this can be very useful for local sharpening within the image that can be done without affecting the overall image.

In the main body of Photoshop are the sharpening filters. In CS5 Adobe have up-rated the sharpen tool and it is reported to work well. I have not used it because in previous versions of Photoshop using this tool was a recipe for disaster. Perhaps I should give it a whirl sometime. My own favourite is the Smart Sharpen tool and this is the one that I use most of the time on my images. Set to 'Advanced' I have no standard settings for particular types of image or output as there is a danger of just hitting the O.K. button without really checking. I have noticed the greater the amount of 'Clarity' I have used the lower the settings need to be in Smart Sharpen.

I did not find this exercise particularly illuminating. Sharpening and the amount applied is, for me, a case by case process depending both on the intended output media and most importantly the subject of the image. Architectural images can often benefit from a great deal of sharpening whereas portraits have to be sharpened with great care and often selectively.