Sharpening

[jon72]

When working with RAW images; do any of you use the Canon DPP "in program" sharpening before converting to TIFF? Is there a difference between that method and using unsharpmask in PS? I generally use the unsharp mask myself, however I've never worked with such large files as that of the 1Ds MKII. What is a good threshold, radius and percentage for unsharp mask in PS for 16 mp images?

Thanks,

Jon

[scottbergerphoto]

There are different philosophies on this. Some people sharpen in 3 stages, Raw, in PSCS and just prior to printing. Some people just use USM creatively in PSCS. I use USM and apply it in different amounts selectively in PSCS using Background copies and layer masks. The numbers you select depend on the type of subject,the camera, and even the lens you are using. I find that I use very different numbers for my 1DM2 and 20D.

[hauff]

This is fron a Canon workshop article I was reading this morning.






Apply post-process sharpening effectively:







Canon EOS digital cameras have an anti-aliasing filter installed on the image sensor. This filter improves color rendition and practically eliminates moiré. The liability is a slight reduction of sharpness. To reduce the softening effect of the anti-aliasing filter we recommend applying an unsharp mask to the image in Adobe® Photoshop®. Although there is no such thing as a "best" setting for all applications, we suggest the following as a starting point:



Amount: 300%
Radius: 0.3 pixels
Threshold: 0 pixels

[Hellashot]

I always set the sharpening when I convert RAW images to zero (none) because I can then sharpen the image depending on what I want to do with it - onscreeen viewing, 4x6 printing, 8x10 printing. So that I don't have to sharpen an image that was previously sharpened. I'd rather start with a raw slate every time.

If you start with that 300, 0.3, 0 you wont be able to sharpen very much because you can only go up to 500%. I usually use 400, 1, 0 for sharpening RAW images for 4x6 printing