Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Digital Image Processing => Topic started by: Bill Koenig on November 25, 2008, 01:25:18 pm

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: Bill Koenig on November 25, 2008, 01:25:18 pm

I can't find a answer to this question. Also, if anyone has a link to any soft proofing tutorials that would be great.

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: Bill Koenig on November 25, 2008, 04:45:21 pm

Is possible that it doesn't matter if you soft proof before, or after sharpening?

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: walter.sk on November 25, 2008, 07:20:12 pm

Since sharpening affects the contrast at the edges, it is possible that something would be pushed out of gamut.  If you have resized your image for printing and do the output sharpening, why not wait until the sharpening is applied before soft proofing?

I use Qimage to resize my files on the fly, and I use Qimage's very smart output sharpening, so I softproof my files before uprezzing and sharpening.

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: madmanchan on November 25, 2008, 08:11:05 pm

I would recommend soft proofing adjustments to be done first.

Output sharpening should be the very last step.

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: Jack Flesher on November 25, 2008, 08:23:17 pm

Workflow is a personalized process, but FWIW this is a good starting point:

Capture sharpening and basic image adjustments done in RAW converter -- IOW get it looking as good as possible at this step;
Spotting/cleaning done in image editor like CS or RAW processor if adequate (like LR2);
Localized adjustments done in image editor or RAW converter;
Optional detail enhancement done in image editor;
Optional image fine tuning done in image editor -- typically, this is where I'd do the soft-proof so I could make any needed image tweaks to correct the image to its output;
Output sharpening done as last step in image editor OR by RIP or printing program as it is dedicated to printer, output size and media chosen.

Oversimplified to be sure, but hopefully gives you a decent starting point

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: johnchoy on November 27, 2008, 10:03:11 am

That's also a question to me.

I'm sharpening with soft proofing on.  I found additional creative sharpening or selective sharpening did boost contrast especially on matt media in which tone curve adjustment alone just can't be satisfied.

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: ddk on November 27, 2008, 10:08:43 am

Quote from: Bill Koenig

I can't find a answer to this question. Also, if anyone has a link to any soft proofing tutorials that would be great.

Since sharpening does effect the final product I don't see why would you soft proof without it.

david
www.pbase.com/ddk

Title: Soft proof, before or after sharpening?
Post by: button on November 27, 2008, 12:30:55 pm

Quote from: Bill Koenig

I can't find a answer to this question. Also, if anyone has a link to any soft proofing tutorials that would be great.

If you don't mind spending the $30 or so, I'd recommend the LuLa "From Camera to Print" tutorial.  I know this will sound like a commercial, but that really was the best $30 I spent to improve my printing skills.  I routinely return to the "softproofing" section for refreshment.  Of course, your skills may far exceed mine, so obviously YMMV.

John