Photokit-sharpener compatible presets for sharpening

[Robert-Peter Westphal]

Hallo,

as far as I know, Lightroom 3 is using the engine of Photokit Sharpener for capture sharpening. So I'm wondering if it would be possible to create presets for Lightroom sharpening which are simmiliar to the effects which can be used from the Photokit Sharpener.

I saw in 'From camera to print' that Photokit Sharpener comes with  10 or 15 presets for several sources where the images come from and 4 or 5 effects for the actual sharpening.

What do you mean - is there a way to do such ?

[digitaldog]

The engine is really quite different actually. You can of course create some presets (mostly in Develop) for your capture sharpening needs. Trying to get them to perfectly match what you’d get in Photoshop seems if not impossible, damn difficult so I’d use one or the other.

As for output sharpening, in LR its basically for ink jet output (or web if you are not using the Print module).

[Schewe]

as far as I know, Lightroom 3 is using the engine of Photokit Sharpener for capture sharpening.

No actually...while the capture sharpening is based on the PhotoKit Sharpening workflow concepts, the sharpening in the Develop module is not the same as in PKS. The output sharpening in Lightroom's Print module (and export options) is based on PhotoKit Sharpener's Output Sharpening and works very well.

In terms of creating presets for LR 3's capture sharpening, LR 3 comes with two sharpening preset examples; Sharpening-Narrow Edges (for highly detailed texture and scenics) and Sharpening-Wide Edges (for faces or other low detail images).

The object of Lightroom's capture sharpening is to arrive at settings that optimize the image detail when viewed at 1:1 (100% zoom). This will depend on the source and content of the images...it should be possible for you to arrive at settings that work well for your image types and use those as presets that can then be adjusted image by image.

Check out the built in presets for sharpening and see how they work...they adjust all 4 parameters. Also note that for optimal image detail, you'll also need to blend in the proper amount of noise reduction as well as the image sharpening...they are interconnected and often seem counter in their application because, well, they are opposite sides of the same coin.

[Robert-Peter Westphal]

Hello,

thanks for all the very interesting answers !

@Jeff : Yes, this is my problem - in my opinion sharpening is one of the most critical things in lr and the process I struggle with most. Surely I tried the two presets which came with Lr, but in most cases the amount was much too low for my images. I usually photograph nature and animals. So I think with animals having feathers or coat and fur, there are many high frequency details in the image which need to be sharpended with a high amount and a small radius. This is all clear to me, but then I struggle with the details-slider. Even when the animal is only 25% or less of the picture.

And when, like you proposed in both your posting and the Lr 3 videos, sharpening comes into play, it is more and more difficult.

I hope that the new workflow-videos coming in the middle of the year will make this clearer when seeing more examples.

Best wishes

Robert

[sniper]

If you have photoshop invest in PK sharpner, it really is worth the money, it's pretty much all I use, I much prefere it to PS native sharpening.  With LR I use lr for the capture sharpen (and output for the bulk) but for the "serious" images I make the round trip to PS and PKS for the creative sharpening.