Another Capture Sharpening Question

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Just add to that capture sharpening in ACR does a lot of good stuff which may not be easy to achieve in Photoshop.

1) Sharpening based on luminance channel
2) Halo protection (Not easily done in PS)
3) Contour masking

There may also be some advantage to doing demosaic, presharpening and noise reduction early in the process. Another advantage is that it is very fast as it is just a single tool. Most of the effect could probably be achieved using PS, but it will take much more time and there will be no immediate feedback.

Best regards
Erik

Ben,

Most photographers have multiple uses for their images. They may end up as a fine art print, a web gallery image, prepared for commercial press printing in a book, and more.

Since all of these will require the same input sharpening and different output sharpening, why not do the input sharpening once, up front? Do it on a layer if you wish, but why do it over and over each time?

Michael

[Wayne Fox]

Who said I didn't do capture sharpening? Of course I do it, just at the end of editing not the beginning as I said so that if I change my mind I can do it again rather than having to start from scratch as you people will have to. Finish image, apply capture sharpening, after that local sharpening if needed and save. Output sharpening after resize and relative to output media. I don't and never have denied Capture Sharpening, just still waiting for a single good reason for doing it as the first stage of a process which by definition means that if you screwed up it's irreversible.

The main function of capture sharpening is really just cleaning up the data, especially from dSLR's which make you shoot through a soft focus filter.  It functions much better if done in the RAW pipeline, and refines the pixels for manipulation in photoshop (if photoshop is even used).

If you do it correctly, it doesn't need to be reversible.  Of course, you can always open your file as a smart layer, so you can easily reopen it in ACR and redo it.

I don't actually camera sharpen "to taste".  I have some standard settings in presets that are based more on camera/lens  combinations, and rarely even pixel peep to check them ... they just work.