Sharpening Workflow for photo book

[kpdesigns492]

I'm unsure about the best way to sharpen individual photos for my very long photo books! Here's a workflow that I think would work best. Please see my workflow and notes below:

1. Import RAW images into Lightroom 3.

2. Color Correct, capture sharpen images within the Develop Module

3. Export RAW images as Tiffs at max res with no output sharpening and import into an InDesign template created by me. Inside of InDesign I resize photos to the desired size.
When I am sure about the size, I have a script that can resize all the images in photoshop and re-imports them back into InDesign at 100%.

4. Take those same resized images and import them into LR 3. Export the images from LR 3 with export sharpening. (I tested this out and the low matte setting works best for me.)

5. Update everything in Indesign with the export sharpened images.

6. Create a PDF of the book and then convert PDFs to JPGS to be uploaded to Shared Ink. (They only accept JPGS from a program like InDesign.)

Can anyone shed some light on this? I know this is a long convoluted process, but I don't know how else to get the best output.

Thanks!

[Rhossydd]

That's pretty much what I've done when creating books with InDesign, the only difference is that I use an action in Photoshop to apply Photokit Sharpener to all the resized images rather than use LR.
I would expect your workflow with LR to give just as good results though.

HTH

Paul

[Rhossydd]

For anyone interested, I've been contacted off list to provide more details, the script I use is at http://sites.google.com/a/lapay.biz/www/scr1-showimageproperties2
This is free and works with most versions of InDesign on all platforms.

Paul

[mbalensiefer]

Hi! I hope I am not jumping this thread since it looks as if we've found a correct answer.

 I am looking for a good sharpening utility/workflow that I can use to batch-file images for Web resolution from (500-2000 pixels) down to 480 pixels.
 It would have to be a "hands-off, batch-file-able approach.

Thank you!
Mike

[digitaldog]

4. Take those same resized images and import them into LR 3. Export the images from LR 3 with export sharpening. (I tested this out and the low matte setting works best for me.)

Keep in mind that the output sharpening routines in LR are optimized for ink jet output. If you are printing to a “photo book” using a different process (Indigo, Nexpress, etc, IOW, a digital press), the output sharpening would be different. That’s a halftone device.

[kpdesigns492]

I've tried both Lightroom's and Photokit Sharpener and I actually preferred lightroom's sharpening when printing my photo books.

[Lightsmith]

That is not a good process if you wish to maximize image quality in the finished product. The amount of sharpening I apply depends upon the subject and I only sharpen after I have downsized the image to what it will be in the album. Big difference between the amount of sharpening needed for a 16x20 print, 10x20 album spread, 10x10 page image, or a 5x7 image on a page layout.

I have also learned that if I do a contrast adjustment first, the amount of sharpening needed is greatly reduced. Obvious now that I have tried it on images but something that I seldom see mentioned in anyone's workflow.

Recently I took an image and took a 900x900 section and used 4 of the most popular third party noise reduction applications, and also used the NR provided with CS5. I found that CS5 on an individual image did as good or often a better job of preserving overall tonality but for batch processing Neat Image did by far the best job.

[Rhossydd]

That is not a good process if you wish to maximize image quality in the finished product......................I only sharpen after I have downsized the image to what it will be in the album. Big difference between the amount of sharpening needed for a 16x20 print, 10x20 album spread, 10x10 page image, or a 5x7 image on a page layout.

I think you haven't paid enough attention or misunderstood a step here. The OP resizes the images to the correct size for use in the book, then uses PKS on the images at that size. PKS applies the correct amount of sharpening for that particular size and the set reproduction method.
It's not completely perfect, you could resize and sharpen each image individually, but the time taken is huge when working with very big projects as the OP is working on. More importantly the batch resizing and PKS sharpening is so good that the differences between that workflow and the "perfect" approach is so small with most publishers, like Blurb etc, that even fastidious, experienced photographers are unlikely to see any improvement in actual output.
I've done a fair amount of testing in conjunction with Blurb on this very subject, so this isn't just supposition on my part, it's based on many trialled workflows and finished books in hand here.

Paul

[Lightsmith]

I would never dream of sharpening an image until it is at the final resolution. I need different levels for a 300x300, 500x500, 1000x1000, 1500x1500, and larger images. The smaller the image the more sharpening is needed and what would be appropriate for a 2400 x 3000 image is not going to be sufficient for a smaller image.

I reduce the images to the size needed for the layouts, sharpen, and save as JPEGs and then bring them into the page layouts. I know in advance the sizes I want to use for each image based on its value in the layout. The higher the value the larger the image and the less the sharpening that is applied.

I work the layouts around the subsets of images. One set may have 3 small vertical images and a large horizontal and the next spread may have 2 large verticals, and so forth. I create the layouts based on these sets of images. I realize it is a different approach that is not common for nature photography but it is very effective nonetheless.

[digitaldog]

I would never dream of sharpening an image until it is at the final resolution.

For output sharpening that would be true indeed. For capture sharpening not so.