Does anyone know what are the %'s amount, radius, etc for each size in low standard or high. And how is based on image size or what?
I used to print all in cs5 and printing 17x22 I usually sharpened about 500-700 percent but now printing in lightroom at that size, even on high it's no where near correct on may images. I then Have to go in and change my capture sharpening so I get a better print.
Hi Michael,
There are a lot of misconceptions about the proper use of the Capture sharpening dialog in Lightroom, and to a certain extend in how to use the Detail/Sharpening dialog in ACR and other Raw converters.
Capture sharpening is supposed to be a part of the Raw conversion process, but in Lightroom the settings used will be also the basis for other (creative) sharpening activities. That's why people are tempted to combine Capture Sharpening and Creative sharpening into a single operation, which is sub-optimal, as you are experiencing.
Capture sharpening is supposed to be about restoring from Capture losses, which are a given for a certain image and they are the result of the equipment and lens/focus settings used, in fact regardless of subject matter. It is not something that changes with the subject, and not something that changes with the output size requirements. It is supposed to be only about Capture.
I've analyzed Capture Sharpening and found that the required settings are constant. It's always the same when optimally focused, and it' s only dependent on the lens quality (residual aberrations) and aperture used (reduction of some of the lens aberrations and introduced diffraction with narrower apertures) in combination with the sensor used (mostly sensel pitch related). The measurable(!) amount of Capture blur, is only dependent on those factors, not image content, and not output size. And because it is measurable, it can also be reversed to a large extend, with the Capture sharpening dialog or other/better tools.
Once we have optimized the technical qualities of our Captured image, we can optimize it for other, more creative, aspects (noise, color, exposure, local contrast and detail, local retouch, etc.). And after we have done that, we can address the specific requirements for the output modalities for which the image can be repurposed.
So, the answer to your question, about which settings to use in the Detail/Capture sharpening dialog, is; it depends on your image capture quality, and nothing else. Depending on the camera/lens and aperture settings you used, it should be pretty much always the same, every time you used those settings for that lens/camera combination.
Unfortunately, Lightroom lures people into mixing Capture sharpening and Creative sharpening into one operation, which is convenient but sub-optimal, in particular it's sub-optimal for those who produce large format output. For down-sampled output most of the sharpening and detail will be lost anyway, together with the majority of originally captured pixels. And given the supplied presets for subject matter sharpening, which has nothing to do with Capture sharpening, it should be obvious that Lightroom is not designed for convenient production of large format output.
I'm not saying that Lightroom cannot be used for large format output, but that one must take care to not be lured into producing sub-optimal results. For that, you'll have to separate and optimize Capture sharpening, and Creative adjustments like tone-curve, Clarity, and detail enhancement, and finally resampling for output and output sharpening
at that output size, for the specific output medium and viewing conditions used.
The above of course only applies if you want the best output quality.
Cheers,
Bart