I am planning on entering the the MFDB world soon I hope and was wondering since there is no AA filter on a MFDB is capture sharpening still required in post, and if so what are some of the basics I should be aware of?
Coming from FF DSLR, capture sharpening is a critical process to get the best results I have found, unfortunately if I talk to 10 people on this subject I get 10 completely different answers.
Thanks
Steven Kornreich
Depends a lot on what you shoot, I suggest. I shoot mostly beauty/fashion/glamour. I do still use capture sharpening as part of my process, applied just after a first pass of major blemis removal. however, unlike when shooting a 1DsIII or a D3x, I apply capture sharpening to MFDB files very selectively, giving my lightly sharpened layer a layer mask an only picking out parts of the image that are critical to the image, and often reducing the opacity of that layer. There are times and situations where I skip the step, if I've absolutely nailed the focus, but given the nature of what I'm shooting (people breathe/wobble/move), I alm often off critical focus on the eyes by a few mm (or more), so capture focus can be of benefit.
I find that selective capture sharpening can add to the three dimentional nature of the image. In fashion, garment details like zippers or bows or piping - whatever - often take capture sharpening well. The Iris of the eye too, of course. Sometimes teeth. In 35mm capture, I'd often sharpen the eyebrows, lips and nostrils as well, but I find that not always necessary in MFDB. The hair closest to the camera will get a low-opacity brush pass as well.
All of this is done just to get sharpness up to minimum levels. I never take capture sharpening very far, b/c as pointed out above, the purpose of the image at this point is usually either unknown or, more likely if you're bothering to work an image up - it's destined to be used in multiple ways (web/print for display at least, magazine possibly).
Obviously, this is just my approach, and may or may not be the right approach for you. I'll add that I'm new to MFDB files, but am coming out of years of doing this with 35mm files.
B