Sharpening with Lightroom and PK Sharpener

[AlexSaunders]

Hey all,

  A post on another list asked the question:  "Possessing Lightroom, CS3 and PK sharpener what is the best workflow for sharpening your images? Is it:
Capture sharpen in Lightroom, export to CS3 and output sharpen with PK?
Don't sharpen in Lightroom, capture sharpen in CS3 and then output sharpen (all with PK)?
Do a little sharpening in Lightroom and then tweek with capture sharpening in CS3 with PK, then output sharpen?"

  My understanding is that if you are round tripping through Photoshop to output sharpen and soft-proof anyway you might as well use PK to do all your capture sharpening as well.  Therefore: don't sharpen in Lightroom, capture and output in CS3 with PK.

  Whew, sorry if that is as clear as mud.  Just wondering if I was missing something.

Cheers,
Alex

[sniper]

My personal understanding is PK does a better job than the rather basic options in LR, Pk also has a lot more options and variables to make use of, although figuring them all out can take a while (and some testing) to get the best out of it.
I suspect the full answer depends a lot on what your doing with your images after sharpening, web/print etc.    Wayne

[msbc]

Alex,

from the details given by Jeff Schewe in the LL VJ "From Camera To Print" it's my understanding that using Lightroom for Capture sharpening and PK for Creative and Output is the way to go.

Also, Jeff implied that Lightroom would have Output sharpening added in a future release - reading between his lines it seems that PK will be fully integrated into LR.

[Schewe]

Capture sharpen in Lightroom, export to CS3 and output sharpen with PK?
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This is what I do...(Michael, last time we spoke still used PKS for all sharpening).

Note that the aim for LR/CR sharpening is to "just make it look good" at 1:1 (100% zoom). Don't try to under/over sharpen because you simply can't do final sharpening visually.

After getting a "good image" and then for final output prints, I'll run the image though PKS Output Sharpen once the size/resolution (PPI/Inch) is determined.

This has worked will since LR 1.1 and CR 4.1 came out.

[AlexSaunders]

Thanks for the information guys.  I'll incorporate it and pass it along.

BTW thanks for the tutorial Jeff, motivated me to go out and spend more money on an Epson printer and really revitalized by interest in photography.

Cheers,
Alex