Do I need to sharpen twice?

I take shots in RAW then process in DPP which invariably involves sharpening the image further before converting and saving as a jpeg. However when i look at the new jpeg I note that the changes to the sharpening dont appear to be saved as the slider is all the way to the left. Before finally transferring the image to a disc for printing do i need to go back to the jpeg and resharpen it or is the sharpen really there still when it comes to viewing or printing the images on the disc?

DPP applies "capture sharpening"/"input sharpening" to the Raw data the same as the camera would apply if you are shooting jpegs.

Whether or not an image "needs" another sharpening process is largely up to personal preference, with consideration for the specific image and the desired output.

For a lot of shots, ones that I want to make a quick conversion and post to my Web host, I don't typically fuss with going beyond the input sharpening. If it looks good viewing at a "normal" viewing size, I'm content.

But if say I'm preparing a shot to print at a large "framing" size, well, I'll give more thought and effort to sharpening considerations. If, say, I'm preparing an image to print at my typical 12x18 size, I'll look at the image in it's "print size", which will fill my screen (horizontally) and that way I can get a look at what it might need as far as sharpening. If I need to go farther than the Raw, say for resizing and resampling the image to get a resolution of 300ppi, then I'll do that first before "output sharpening".

Another consideration for certain shots is "selective sharpening". For example, if I have a shot of a critter I'll often want a "final output" to have sharpening applied only to the critter, with the background remaining softer. DPP can't do this, but an image editor with layers and masks can make this operation fairly straightforward. Lightroom makes this doable as well.

If I do need to go into an image editor I'd typically convert the image to a tiff for this to avoid repetitive jpeg compression. In DPP you can use the Tools/Transfer to Photoshop if you have Photoshop.

If you don't have an image editor, well, get one -- Photoshop Elements is capable of doing all types of tasks at an affordable price.

For DPP only, you can't do the selective sharpening, but you could Convert and Save as a tiff, you can resize to your intended final use, and then apply sharpening at your intended viewing size. As you've noted, once you have converted from your Raw format, you are limited to your RGB controls and are beyond "input sharpening". The Sharpening control in the RGB tab will add to the effects of the input sharpening in the Raw tab.

Again, your output sharpening should be use/view purposes. Input sharpening is best viewed at a 100% view. It may (or may not) affect the shot viewed at the "normal" size. Again, the normal view is best for output sharpening.

No need to redo the adjustments; all of the adjustments you made to the raw file are included in the jpeg conversion.

Think of the adjustments made in dpp as a reciepe for creating a jpeg.

Sorry about the multiple posts; iPhone w a bad signal.

Thanks very much, as i am doing processing on several hundred pics from a wedding i need to keep it in DPP, I really dont like photoshop and want to keep things as efficient as possible.

I avoid using DPP for sharpening as I have a better third party photoshop plug-in.

But even so I use a 3 stage approach, with a gentle "capture" sharpen immediately, then whatever "creative" sharpening I feel the image might need before a final "pre-print" sharpen based on the ppi number of the print. This 3 stage system would stay in place even if I allowed DPP to do the first sharpen.

Good as DPP is as a RAW converter, it does not give me the flexibility I need, for this I much prefer Photoshop.

If time is tight, this can be automated into one or more actions provided your images are similar.

If you want to know about sharpening search for Bruce Frasier. He and several others have done extensive research and, based on that research developed a Photoshop Sharpening Plug-in call PhotoKit Sharpener. The company is Pixel Genius.

The algorithms they developed for input and output sharpening have been licensed by Adobe and included in Lightroom 3 and 4. Essentially its a three step process, input sharpening to overcome the inherent softness the anti-aliesing filter causes, creative sharpening and then output sharpening based on image size, paper type or if for computer use.

dmward wrote in post #14863288
If you want to know about sharpening search for Bruce Frasier. He and several others have done extensive research and, based on that research developed a Photoshop Sharpening Plug-in call PhotoKit Sharpener. The company is Pixel Genius.

The algorithms they developed for input and output sharpening have been licensed by Adobe and included in Lightroom 3 and 4. Essentially its a three step process, input sharpening to overcome the inherent softness the anti-aliesing filter causes, creative sharpening and then output sharpening based on image size, paper type or if for computer use.

And thats my "third party plug-in". It really is an excellent piece of kit.