Sharpening in ACR and PS5

I have a 7D. I use PS5 for processing. Is it better to sharpen in camera raw or wait until I am in bridge? Sometimes I do both, sharpen in camera raw, move into bridge, finish the rest of processing than check sharpen again in bridge. Wondering if there is some technical reason for doing one or the other.

First off, do you mean that you are in Photoshop CS5? There's a big difference between "PS5" and PS CS5!

Second, you mention Camera Raw -- do you shoot Raw or are you asking about jpegs? It makes a difference -- with Raw the camera does not apply sharpening to the Raw data and typically it's good to at least do some "input sharpening" in Camera Raw. In fact, from what I've heard the 7D with its strong "anti aliasing" filter really needs it.

Anyway, get back with the two answers so we can give informed help -- CS5? Shooting Raw?

Assuming you're talking about CS5 since you mention Camera Raw & Bridge. There is no sharpening capability in Bridge. I do apply some capture sharpening in ACR and then in PS I sharpen as a last step. Usually in ACR, I set the amount to 30-50, radius to .6-.8, detail to 50-60, and masking to 80-95. Settings depend on portrait or landscape and the image itself. If the image goes in PS, then after all other work is finished, I'll flatten and do a final sharpen.

I'd love to hear this one too. I have the same setup. I wasn't able to use ACR until recently when some great POTN member helped me find a workaround.
On the sharpening there are some defaults that I don't quite get. The sharpening defaults to 25 (the max is 150 on ACR but 300 on PS CS5). The radius defaults to 1, detail 25 and masking 0. Noise reduction color is 25, color detail 50.

Are these the same defaults for everyone when it starts or are they camera specific? Are there preferred settings for the 7D to get the sharpest image possible with as little damage to the image as is possible? (assuming 100 ISO RAW if that matters). And although I can see the effect of the "detail" slider, what exactly does it do? Is it the same as the "clarity" on DPP? Is there a recommended setting here as well?

As far as I know, those settings are default settings.

I think this works the same in ACR as it does in Lightroom: Hold down the ALT key as you adjust your sliders and you'll see the effect of each more clearly. Especially the Mask slider.

You are also free to change the default settings if you wish.

To me the defaults do no harm, in fact a bit of color noise correction I find is a good thing, but no luminance NR. And, I don't see Sharpening at 25 to hurt anything, but I wouldn't want it higher, since I do a lot of higher ISO shooting.

Sharpening and NR in ACR works the same as in LR.
https://photography-on-the.net …showthread.php?​p=11019573

Luminosity NR at 25 is a bit high IMO: Mine is at 0 unless manually set.
I typically leave chroma NR at about 15 unless higher is needed.
Sharpening: I generally set amount about 70, radius small (0.7 or lower), low detail and high masking.

All of these settings for shots around ISO 1600 / 3200 on a 1D3…

Your question is somewhat unclear... presumably you're referring to Adobe Camera Raw, which is a plug-in that can be hosted and run from either Adobe Bridge or Photoshop; and Photoshop CS5 since Photoshop 5 (or PS5) would not have Raw handling capabilities.

As an aside, its preferable to run ACR from Adobe Bridge rather than from the default location in Photoshop. The principal reason is that there's a 200 file limit when opening files in ACR when it is hosted by Photoshop. If you switch ACR to run under Adobe Bridge, the only constraint would be the amount of memory in your system. In other words you can then open and process any number of Raw files.

To host Adobe Camera Raw in Bridge, first open Bridge and go to Edit > Preferences. In the General tab select the option that reads "Double-click edits Camera Raw settings in Bridge" and click the OK button. Now when you double-click any Raw file in Bridge it will directly open ACR instead of first opening Photoshop then ACR (which is the default process).

As for image sharpening, entire books have been written on the subject but it is generally recommended to use a two- or three-step process for Raw files. See this article by the late Bruce Fraser: Out of Gamut: Thoughts on a Sharpening Workflow. The sharpening routines in Adobe Camera Raw (and Lightroom) are based on the research of Bruce Fraser and his partners at PixelGenius and the capture and output sharpener portions of their Photokit Sharpener product were licensed by Adobe for use in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw.

So at the minimum you should use ACR/Lightroom for capture sharpening ... creative and output sharpening can be done later in either ACR/Lightroom or Photoshop depending on your preferred workflow.

In ACR/Lightroom, creative sharpening is done by using the Adjustment Brush set to Sharpness, and output sharpening is performed when saving or exporting a file in Adobe Camera Raw (see the ACR Workflow Options for output sharpening settings), or when exporting or printing a file in Lightroom (see the appropriate dialog boxes).

Adobe suggests these initial settings for capture sharpening in Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom:

Narrow Edges - Scenic
Amount - 40
Radius - 0.8
Detail - 35
Masking - 0

Wide Edges - Faces
Amount - 35
Radius - 1.4
Detail - 15
Masking - 60


Finally, my personal capture sharpening process is as follows:

1. In either ACR or Lightroom, zoom the image to 100 percent. Hold down the ALT key (important) and do the following....
   
2. Increase the Amount slider to 100
   
3. Increase the Masking slider so that only the edges I want sharpened are visible. Typically this ranges from between 65 to 90.
   
4. Adjust Radius as appropriate; a finer radius for landscapes/scenics and between 1.2 and 1.4 for portraits (depending on the dimensions of the file).
   
5. Adjust the Details slider to dampen the effects of the Amount slider.
   
6. Once the other three sliders are set, reduce the Amount slider while carefully watching the image. The final Amount setting tends to range between 30 and 50 but sometimes differs according to the particular image. Avoid being aggressive with capture sharpening, especially if creative and output sharpening will be done later. You just want to restore edge sharpness.

DVW wrote in post #13570852
I have a 7D. I use PS5 for processing. Is it better to sharpen in camera raw or wait until I am in bridge? Sometimes I do both, sharpen in camera raw, move into bridge, finish the rest of processing than check sharpen again in bridge. Wondering if there is some technical reason for doing one or the other.

Thanks for your replies. I wasn't clear on my process. Yes, I shoot in raw. I open PS5. Use bridge to get to my photo files, which puts me in ACR. I then sharpen, white balance if needed and noise reduction if needed. I then open image which puts me into PS where I do some of the other finishing, and then sharpen again as needed. I'll be checking out the links provided for sure.

LR/ACR sharpening is a blend of two processes, USM and deconvolution (Smart) sharpening. The blend proportions are controlled by the Detail slider; 0 is only USM and 100 is only deconvolution. USM is smoother and has a tendency to create haloes on high contrast edges. Deconvolution has no haloes and extracts the maximum fine detail, but so much detail is not always desirable - e.g. in a portrait or when noise is increased together with the detail. Thus the best setting for Detail is dependent on subject matter and ISO.

So the detail slider at 50 is a 50/50 mixture of deconvolution and USM? Thank you for clearing that up. I can see how it changes a photo, but it really helps to understand what the software is actually doing.