How do You sharpen an image?

Not really a "How Does One" more what do you do on a consistent basis for your pictures. I try to do all of my processing in Lightroom, for my work flow. Lightroom has the Detail section which is just capture sharpness. Then in Exporting you can set output sharpening as low, standard, high. And this is usually all I do. Play with the detail tab a little then let it auto sharpen at Standard for Screen.

Every now and then I'll grab a brush (still in LR) and paint some "sharpness" on to a specific element.

I have in the past for one offs taken the image to gimp, edge>desaturate>invert>overlay. but for normal things that's just over kill.

What is your process?

Depends on the image and the set. Honestly, I usually don't worry about it too much.

If I used my 70-200 f/4L, I'll usually just pick one of the Lightroom sharpening presets. That lens is sharp enough without a bunch of extra hassle.

I also have a high-iso preset for shooting stage shows, which are usually between 6400 and 12800ISO. That preset includes specific sharpening/NR settings that look like crap at 100% but look great when the final image is resized down to web size, which is all those images are generally used for.

I tend to play it be ear (or should that be sight) and just adjust sharpness in LR to what looks right for each image without really taking any notice of discreet values and settings - do we really need specific settings that are applied consistently and universally to a set of images ?

I don't do any sharpening in LR5, I tend to do something similar to you but in CC. I go Duplicate Layer > Desaturate > Filter > Other > High Pass filter.

I usually use either Overlay or Soft light, I prefer soft light for portrait and overlay for everything else. I also use a layer mask to brush the areas I want sharp.

Dlee13 wrote in post #17022881
I don't do any sharpening in LR5, I tend to do something similar to you but in CC. I go Duplicate Layer > Desaturate > Filter > Other > High Pass filter.

I usually use either Overlay or Soft light, I prefer soft light for portrait and overlay for everything else. I also use a layer mask to brush the areas I want sharp.

What percent of shots do you think you go through those steps on?

Other than some capture sharpening in a raw converter, I do it all in Photoshop.
I'll make a new layer and create an edge mask, run noise reduction if needed then invert and use unsharp mask (USM) on the edge details. This is pretty much 90% of the time. In addition I'll also run a high pass sharpening layer as above about 40% of the time.

This process is outlined step by step in the PS tutorial list.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #17022919
Other than some capture sharpening in a raw converter, I do it all in Photoshop.

Agreed. I decided quite awhile ago that I preferred the results when sharpening in Photoshop rather than Lightroom. The method that Jake mentioned is fast, easy, gives great results, and is quite powerful in that you can edit a layer mask to control what gets sharpened and what doesn't.

I myself only use the Lightroom tools...but that's because my "photographic needs" in recent years have not extended to a need for Photoshop.

But, hey, I'm open!

travisvwright wrote in post #17022899
What percent of shots do you think you go through those steps on?

90-95% of shots. Anything that I post online I would sharpen, sometimes even if I delete the photo straight after I will still fully edit the image just for practice.

I used to use the Clarity slider in LR5 as my form of sharpening but after discovering the High Pass Filter I'm much more happy with that and I feel it does a much better job.

I'll either use the High Pass filter method as Dlee13 mentioned or NIK Effects sharpener Pro which gives great results. When I resize for web (anything under 1000px) I'll usually run it through unsharp mask.

Dlee13 wrote in post #17023763
90-95% of shots. Anything that I post online I would sharpen, sometimes even if I delete the photo straight after I will still fully edit the image just for practice.

I used to use the Clarity slider in LR5 as my form of sharpening but after discovering the High Pass Filter I'm much more happy with that and I feel it does a much better job.

gep01 wrote in post #17023768
I'll either use the High Pass filter method as Dlee13 mentioned or NIK Effects sharpener Pro which gives great results. When I resize for web (anything under 1000px) I'll usually run it through unsharp mask.

For those of you who have in the past used either Lightroom or ACR for sharpening and not have gone back to Photoshop can you post comparison shots, that is, doing your best in Lightroom and then improvements with Photoshop?

Not much sharpening is needed with the 5D3 + magic drainpipe combo. I usually just do standard LR sharpening (usually 25) and that's it. All my clients have been happy so far.

Tony I used to use Bridge/ACR/PS (CS3) as my workflow and always used either USM or High Pass. Usually this involved making an edge mask to limit the effects to edges only. This would be for every image.

Now my workflow is LR (V 4.4) centric with only about 5% of my processed images receiving some (or a lot) of work in PS. I mostly just use the sharpening tools in LR for the necessary sharpening. I do though generally use very high values for the masking slider 85% or more normally. I then also boost the amount to somewhere between 50-100 depending on the actual image. I also bring the detail slider back to between 0-5. I find that this combined with the OP sharpening from LR produces excellent results, results generally better than I got with my old workflow.

For the images that go to PS then I often will give them a small run of High Pass, but again limit it with an edge filter, and possibly even limiting it to only the areas that have had other processing applied. My usual method is to use a radius of 5 in the HP filter and then adjust the global effect of the sharpening using the opacity slider. I used to use Overlay, but recently after using Soft Light for some other effects I have been using that blend mode. It makes a big difference in the amount that needs to be applied. With Overlay I'm usually in the 20-35% region. With Soft Light it's more like 60-80%. These images go back to LR and are then exported with the same LR O/P sharpening.

Alan

High Pass filter in Photoshop
http://www.photoshopes​sentials.com …diting/sharpen-high-pass/

You can sharpen an image using the Unsharp mask.