Sharpening in DPP and PS

I'd like to get some opinions on the sharpening for pp. I shoot RAW and adjust the WB as usual. However, I've read on some threads that sharpening in DPP (or RAW converter) is not recommended, but do it in PS. Why? I don't mind spending time to sharpen the "formal" portrait shots in PS, but for others, I don't want to spend too much time, so just sharpen in DPP and do the batch processing for multiple pictures to save time.

Any thoughts?

Read a post by Scottes on sharpening and you'll soon figure it out. Use advanced search to find them.

Sharpening in PS gives you a LOT more control, and a LOT more options. DPP (I think) gives you one option - Strength. In PS, USM alone gives you Strength/Amount, Radius to match the sharpening to the detail size, and Threshold to control sharpening of noisy pictures. Plus in PS you get Smart Sharpen, too. And several other sharpening methods which don't have Sharpen in the name. For options, you can Sharpen in LAB, sharpen with masks, use of the History brush, Local Contrast Enhancement, sharpening on a layer, sharpening on an overlay layer to control the amount of sharpening in certain places, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Also, sharpening should be done last, fine-tuned to the output file. It is absolutely detrimental to sharpen once and output files for both web display and 300 DPI prints. The sharpening for each of these is *completely* different. So different that one of the two will look like junk. Sharpen last, specifically for the output.

Amorous. Scottes seems to be the board's sharpening guru, and I certainly respect what he says, but as I understand your post, you want to batch process a bunch of images to a "pretty good" sharpness, and reserve the full treatment in Photoshop for a few special images. That is basically what I do, and see nothing wrong with it. I use C1mainly rather than DPP, but the concept is the same. I set the slider to moderate amount and keep it there for every image. I've found that a good lens in focus is as important as sharpening. You have to be the final judge. If you're satisfied with your workflow, stick with it.

Even in batch mode, it's pretty easy to ship up an PS action with sharpening settings suitable to a series of similar images, then batch that. Yes, it's a bit more work, but the final product will be much better with a little effort.

Thank you all for suggestions. I guess I'll experiment more and find a way that suits me. I don't mind sharpening portraits in PS individually, but not every single picture that I take.

Depending on what I am doing with the print sometimes it is just easier to sharpen in DPP. At least I finally figured out how to get ACR to produce decent raw conversions to work with (turn off ALL defaults in ACR).

When I get done with my current batch of shots, I will be trying out a full PS CS2 workflow again (like I had before I got 1DsMkII). Until I finish though it is DPP for WB, contrast, saturation and a sharpen level 3 (light sharpen) then the shots get converted in batch to jpeg (because it works good enough in batch mode and I am too low on hard-drive space for batch TIFs) and then I run a batch mode action off Bridge to adjust brightness and contrast again a touch followed by Kodak Digital GEM airbrush, sharpen in PS and then output to another folder as steps in the action.

Seems to work pretty well so far for batches. So far DPP is just more efficent for me when doing multiple shots for a set of images then PS CS2, ACR and bridge.

For individual shots, everything is done in PS CS2 via ACR, because then I get even better results, it just takes 4 times longer per image. Not counting the long wait time for bridge to finish its annoying processing before I can actually work on something.

I would try the all PS workflow now, but DPP and PS CS2 don't listen to each other's flagging and I already have the set flagged in DPP.

Sharpening twice might seem counter intuitive, but I found I get better results as the images go through Kodak Digital GEM airbrush processing. Without sharpening it softens the skin too much and starts looking artificial instead of enhanced.

I guess there is "sharpening" and then there is sharpening for another reason. I found this link ( http://www.luminous-landscape.com …/software/must-have.shtml ) has a take that is very useful, whatever you want to do.

David