Sharpening in lightroom

Just curious what most people are using for settings when sharpening in lightroom.

I start with bumping one notch, but that doesn't work every time.

Not sure what you mean... there are at least three ways to sharpen in Lightroom and each serves a different purpose.

What do you generally set the slider to in the develop module under sharpening.
I am on my phone right now, and I cant remember the name under the slider.
I usually bump to around 70.
But I saw a post somebody had put up a screenshot and they had it at 120.
I thought that was kind of high.
So I thought I would ask what people are setting them to.
I know each photo can be different, just a general concensus.
As to what people are doing.
I hope you understand better now.
Thank you

General sharpening is the moving up one notch. This is done on almost every image. If the eyes are not sharp after that then I will go into the and sometimes I can max out the sharpen slider and it will have just a slight effect. I can do this a couple times without it being too harsh, but there is a limit.

The Detail panel sharpening has four parameters (four sliders) and they are interrelated, so a simple answer (like moving up a notch - how much is a notch?) which relates only to the first slider would be inadequate and misleading. Increasing Radius, for instance, might necessitate decreasing Amount. Increasing the Mask will almost always need a higher Amount. Not only that, but you also need to consider that NR strongly affects sharpness and so does Clarity to a certain extent. Of course you could just use the two sharpening presets supplied by Adobe - one for landscapes and one for portraits - but without understanding what each slider does and why those presets are the way they are, your sharpening will be very limited and pretty much "hit or miss". I suggest you read/watch some tutorials. These two might be a good place to start:
http://kelbytv.com …ng-workflow-in-lightroom/
http://laurashoe.com …w-and-capture-sharpening/
http://www.cambridgein​colour.com/tutorials/s​harpness.htm

I rarely ever go above 40 using Sharpening in the Details panel. You have to realize that the panel is primarily intended for Capture Sharpening, to correct for softness introduced by your camera's anti-aliasing filter. That also means that the Sharpening slider is used in conjunction with the Masking and Details slider to "dampen" or control the amount of sharpening applied to edge details.

Lightroom comes with two general sharpening presets for portraits and landscapes. They should be a good starting point to understanding how sharpening works. Also, this tutorial is a bit outdated but the general principles still apply: Martin Evening - Lightroom Sharpening

If more sharpening is needed you can use the Adjustment brush set to Sharpen for Creative Sharpening (i.e. areas specifically targeted for sharpening), and set Output Sharpening after determining whether the image is destined for print or Web Disply in the Export Dialog box.

Sgt. wrote in post #15891359
What do you generally set the slider to in the develop module under sharpening.
I am on my phone right now, and I cant remember the name under the slider.
I usually bump to around 70.
But I saw a post somebody had put up a screenshot and they had it at 120.
I thought that was kind of high.
So I thought I would ask what people are setting them to.
I know each photo can be different, just a general concensus.
As to what people are doing.
I hope you understand better now.
Thank you

This youtube video was very useful in understanding how to do sharpening, especially the functioning of the masking slider.

http://www.youtube.com …TA5E_Am26x8dl4t​RRK1xjoAuf

I have a default setting I use on every image, which seems to work pretty good.

Noise Reduction Luminance: 25
Noise Reduction Colour: 25

Sharpening Amount: 50
Radius: 1
Detail: 25
Masking: 50

Amount and Masking are very important, as when you sharpen an image that has NR applied to it, the sharpening pretty much makes the NR redundant. This is where Masking comes into play, it will not apply the sharpening to open areas of colour, mainly edges. I generally match the Amount and Masking, seems to work quit ewell.

It really depends on the subject matter and the pixel density of your sensor along with the degree of ISO noise in the image. The radius relates to the sensor density, on big sensors like a 5DIII you can get away with 1.2-1.3, for a 1D4 1-1.1. Amount I go as high as 45 for architectural stuff, low to mid 20's for people or busy backgrounds. The masking slider will put the sharpening on edges more than midtones and you want to bump it up for high ISO noise, mid 80-mid 90s for ISOs 6400. Hold down alt-shift while adjusting masking to see the effect. Details slider will bring up detal via micro contrast, but does it at the expense of also magnifying ISO noise. I don't use it very often unless it is for low iso architectural stuff. There is no one value, it all depends on the camera, subject matter, and ISO noise.

I don't think I've ever sharpened anything in Lightroom. I sharpen at standard/normal when outputting to jpeg. And I'll sharpen before printing at home. Maybe I should try.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #15891598
This youtube video was very useful in understanding how to do sharpening, especially the functioning of the masking slider.

http://www.youtube.com …TA5E_Am26x8dl4t​RRK1xjoAuf

Thank you. That is very useful.

Sgt. wrote in post #15891095
Just curious what most people are using for settings when sharpening in lightroom.

When it comes to sharpening, I normally start off with predefined Sharpen presets either for landscapes or portrait. Then I adjust the amount slider, usually between 40 to 50. I rarely go above 50. That's pretty much it. I never touch other sliders (Radius, Detail, Masking) in sharpening panel simply because I don't know what they do. Now that I've watched the above video, I'm going to try adjusting them.

Thanks for the replies.

bsmotril wrote in post #15892441
It really depends on the subject matter and the pixel density of your sensor along with the degree of ISO noise in the image. The radius relates to the sensor density, on big sensors like a 5DIII you can get away with 1.2-1.3, for a 1D4 1-1.1.

Sensor density has nothing to do with sensor size. The 5D2 has exactly the same sensel density as the 30D, despite the fact that the sensor is larger - 2.56 times the area of the 30D crop sensor. The 5D3 has slightly higher density, roughly in the middle between the 30D and the 40D. Moreover, "density" means the number of sensels to a spatial unit, an inch. But digital images have no inches and no density; they acquire physical size only in a display medium. When viewing a monitor you are seeing screen pixels and their density. Only at 100% zoom does one screen pixel portray one image pixel, but that does not change the fact that what you see is a physical lcd pixel with a fixed size and a density that is usually 100 pixel per inch.

But sensel density or its corollary, sensel size, has nothing to do with the choice of sharpening radius, which in the simplified explanation is said to determine the width of the area on either side of an edge that is affected by having its tonality changed. The reality is a bit more complex than the simple version. How can we select a radius of 0.5 or 1.5? Only whole pixels can be lightened or darkened. The answer is that the algorithm takes into account the original tones of a wider area than just one pixel on either side of the edge when deciding how much to change the tones and then weights its calculations according to the radius setting. If 0.5 is the setting, the tones of pixels beyond the first one will have little weight in the calculation and the tone change will be confined to that first pixel. At 1.0 the tone of the second pixel will contribute but its contribution will be small and it (the second pixel) will be only slightly changed. At 1.5 the second pixel's contribution will be larger although less than the first pixel's and its tone will change proportionately. At 2.0 the third pixel out will already be contributing. but the change will be primarily in pixels 1 and 2 although 3 will be affected slightly. In other words, as radius increases the increased contrast across the edge is less abrupt and more feathered. For this reason, a small radius enhances fine detail and a large one spreads the edge contrast increase and therefore has less effect on small details. On a portrait a small radius will make the hair look like steel wires and bring out every pore and blemish, so we use the softer sharpening of a higher radius. But on a landscape detail enhancement is desirable and a small radius (I favor 0.7) is appropriate.

Edges and midtones are not opposites. There can be strong edges that are within the middle tone range. Masking decreases or even eliminates the sharpening on low frequency edges (edges with a small degree of tonal difference from one side of the edge to the other) while retaining it on high frequency edges.

Addition: Reconsidering what I wrote above, I will add this. Sensel density is a major factor in the manufacturer's decision of what strength anti-aliasing filter to put in front of the sensor and this will influence the Capture Sharpening needed to counter its effect. But the choice of AA filter is unrelated to sensor size. For instance, the D800 and the D800E have identical sensors but the E has no AA filter and will need much less sharpening. OTOH, the 30D and the 60D have different AA filters because of the 60D's much higher sensel density and although they have the same sensor size the sharpening will be different.

I watched that video twice because I was quite surprised at the amount of misinformation presented as fact. The presenter several claims that are demonstrably false:

1. Camera Raw and Lightroom sharpening features are more powerful than those in Photoshop.

No where close to correct; the sharpening features in Photoshop are significantly more powerful.

2. The details slider controls how much smaller edges, patterns and fine details are affected by sharpening.

3.Moving the Details slider to the left or right indicates how much of the "details" are sharpened.

True but not entirely accurate; the Details slider controls halo supression and determines whether deconvolution sharpening is applied. If anyone is interested in a bit of the technical details they should read this thread: http://forums.adobe.co​m/message/4496924

I strongly urge anyone interested in tutorials to avoid the misinformation and stick to those from Adobe or from people associated with Adobe like Deke McClelland, Martin Evening, etc.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #15891598
This youtube video was very useful in understanding how to do sharpening, especially the functioning of the masking slider.

http://www.youtube.com …TA5E_Am26x8dl4t​RRK1xjoAuf