STICKY:  Sharpening Tips & Tricks, Tutorials, and FAQ

kitacanon wrote in post #11166898
Another free software is Raw Therapee....and free DPP will allow you to convert RAW files for free too....and the latest version now has Unsharpen Mask too.

I will try out RAW Therapee ..... DPP came with my Canon EOS 500D its a nice program. Thanks
James

p.s. Just discovered DPP has a Sharpening feature

James_T wrote in post #11166945
I will try out RAW Therapee ..... DPP came with my Canon EOS 500D its a nice program. Thanks
James

p.s. Just discovered DPP has a Sharpening feature

James - have you latest version of DPP?

http://software.canon-europe.com/software/00​39356.asp

The sharpening is much improved - it includes unsharp mask under the RAW tab.

Glenn

Hi Glenn NK
No I have 3.8.1.0 version on my laptop. I will install 3.9.2 ..... I see Canon has also updated the EOS utlity as well
Many thanks for pointing out update!
James

I would like to give my point of you regarding the sharpening for portraits.
After having applied USM, Sharpening etc to my pictures I have reached this conclusion: the best way to achieve a very sharpen picture is to apply Selective sharpening as explained here: http://meetthegimp.org …e-6-selective-sharpening/.

This is the original photo as obtained by my Canon 400D without particular PP:

I use The GIMP 2.6 thanks for links. I have installed the high pass script.
Rgds James

I don't like the result of this filter for sharpening: there someone wrote "it's fantastic", bah.

I joined this forum speficially to defend High Pass sharpening

dinifra wrote in post #11210485
I don't like the result of this filter for sharpening: there someone wrote "it's fantastic", bah.

If you're referring to High Pass.. well, it *is* excellent if used properly. One of the reasons it is superior to USM is that it doesn't create noise, especially on blacks. Since discovering it, I use High Pass almost exclusively for my sharpening.

It looks like you oversharpened the image above. Step it down. You're using an overlay layer, right? Tweak the opacity to acheive an appropriate level of sharpening. And, depending on the image, I sometimes find myself using different blending modes -- though 98.5% of the time it's an Overlay.

I retried applyingHP Filter and I put 50% opacity overaly:

I'm not blind. I wish I could see enough difference to understand.

on pg. 14 I did a few comparisons in sharpening....here are a couple of shots that show differences more clearly I think...the sharpening is Unsharpen Mask (USM) @ 200/.3/0...the difference is clearer at 100% crop though once you can see it at 100%, you know how to see it on full frame images...

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

*Subscribed*

I've learned so much already just from reading the first few pages. I can't wait to try applying some of these techniques to my photos. I've always felt sharpness was a major issue of mine, and hopefully this will help me greatly. Thank you all!

Great thread, thanks to all who have contributed. I'm just now starting to shoot in RAW and this thread will really help me get started. I mainly take pictures of my sons.

Perry Ge wrote in post #5075028
Edit: I've learned a ton from this thread since I started it. I still do my capture sharpening in ACR, but I use the masking and detail sliders now by holding down the option/alt key - you get an amazing amount of control in ACR alone. I've also switched to smart sharpen on a separate layer (so I can make layer masks or reduce opacity) as my preferred output sharpening method over the high pass method. I no longer touch USM unless I'm using it for defogging.

Great thread just starting to go through it now.

Perry is there any guide lines on how much to adjust the sliders in ACR , ie depending on what your subject is a portrait or a landscape.

You also use smart sharpen on a seperate layer, so is that a duplicate layer ?

I found the High pass is better than USM as you have more control but the selective sharpening (edge layer mask) as in this link works even better with no noise added to background colors .

I use Gimp an use FX foundry plugin which has a lot of good scripts for photo's .
But I did first do it manually like in this link above

http://meetthegimp.org …e-6-selective-sharpening/

To add to the compliments....Great Thread!!!! I would always see other photos and think about how I could get sharper images. I can't wait to try out some of the techniques suggested here. For the longest I thought it was my camera, I even increased the sharpness to 6 to try and achieve sharper images. Does this help to improve anything in a photo???