I sent this last night but it looks like it didn't get through
All RAW files will need some sharpening. The digital image is inherently ever-so-slightly unsharp. This is because above the actual ccd there is an optical layer that throws the image slightly out of focus in order to "Spread the light" a little. This is compensate for the fact that each photosite is only reading a single colour in RGB. There is an algorithm that corrects for this but you do need a certain amount of sharpening.
As a rule of thumb, in unsharp mask, you can set the diameter to between 1/4 and 1/5 the megapixel size of the image. So, in a 6 megapixel image you can start at about 1.2 (1/5 of 6) which will give subtle sharpening to 1.5 (1/4 of 6) which will give you quite strong sharpening. Start the "Amount" at 100%
Increasing the amount will increase the contrast at the edges while the radius changes the thickness of the bright line..
Generally I find it is better to increase the amount rather than the radius.
The threshold can usually be left at 0. This is for when there's some fine detail that you don't want sharpened. It is useful for skin texture or in noisy images where you don't want the noise or other artifacts sharpened.
Herschel Mair
Head of the Department of Photography,
Head of the Department of Photography,
Higher College of Technology
Muscat
Sultanate of Oman
Muscat
Sultanate of Oman
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+ (986) 99899 673
----- Original Message ----
From: lea murphy <lea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students <photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 3, 2006 7:48:55 AM
Subject: Re: Sharpening, and improving focus, and reducing motion blur
Actually, Emily, you don't have to have sharpening applied within the ARC of PS...you can have it be set to 'preview only' then when it dumps out to PS there is no sharpening applied until you apply it from within PS. Gives more control, I believe.
From: lea murphy <lea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students <photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 3, 2006 7:48:55 AM
Subject: Re: Sharpening, and improving focus, and reducing motion blur
Actually, Emily, you don't have to have sharpening applied within the ARC of PS...you can have it be set to 'preview only' then when it dumps out to PS there is no sharpening applied until you apply it from within PS. Gives more control, I believe.
Lea
On Nov 2, 2006, at 10:16 AM, Emily L. Ferguson wrote:
At 8:51 AM -0600 11/2/06, lea murphy wrote:I've not yet shot a raw image that hasn't benefited from sharpening.Yes, sirree! But the sharpening isn't done in Photoshop. It's done in the RAW converter! Which is possibly why I do so little of it using the PS settings.Even using RAW conversion I still try to sharpen as little as humanly possible, however.--Emily L. Fergusonmailto:elf@xxxxxxxx 508-563-6822New England landscapes, wooden boats and races
lea murphy
www.leamurphy.com
www.whinydogpress.com
blog: web.mac.com/leamurphy
