Sharpening in ACR 6.2

I'm trying to get a handle on sharpening in ACR. It just doesn't seem to have the range you get when sharpening in PS or even DPP.

Is it more designed for capture sharpening only ?

Well, LR has several controls that control sharpening interactively. The Details slide can have a pretty potent affect if you play with it.

DPP, on the other hand has the one Sharpening on the Raw tab that can have a strong effect if you set it to, say, 5 (the slider in the RGB tab seems to be about the same). So, as in other things, LR gives you more controls with various effects, DPP gives fewer with quicker results. Some prefer the simplicity of DPP some the advanced control of LR -- it's really up to you to learn to work with them and decide what works best for you.

As to whether LR is only for "capture sharpening", well, I'd say that depends on your preferred approach and desired results. Remember, though, that LR has two major features: first, it has "selective sharpening" via the local adjustment brush that can have a powerful impact on things like portraits and wildlife images that up until LR2 one had to bring an image into Photoshop with layers to get anything of this sort. Second, LR features "output sharpening" as well, for things like the Web as well as printing.

So, take your time and learn the stuff and in time you should get a feel of how to get the best results and which approach you prefer.

You have to be a 100% to see it work.

Keep in mind, if you are looking at an 18 mpixel image... sharpening with even the maximum radius of 3 in ACR is not going to have a dramatic effect. You don't have to look at it at 100%. The effect is there at all magnifications. Try it with a 1 mpixel image and a radius of 3 to see a much more pronounced affect.

In Photoshop you can go much higher with the radius etc.

I just played with the sliders a little more and I'm still not really liking what I'm seeing but I'll keep trying. I do see a little more difference at 1mp though. I forgot all about using the adjustment brush for sharpening so I'll have to sharpen up up that.

I send most of my photos into PS to finish up but I occasionally like to do quick edits on them and ACR really gives you allot of control but it does come at the expense of more time as compared to DPP.

One thing I do want to clear up, because this comes up in a lot of discussions comparing DPP and Lightroom:

In Lightroom when we refer to "sharp" we are strictly speaking referring to the sharpening of fine detail, which is why we suggest viewing the image at 100% because this way you actually see the fine detail and the exact affects that sharpening has on it. The same thing applies to DPP and Photoshop -- you may see the effects of sharpening at "shrunken" sizes, but at the same time fine detail is being done away with so you aren't seeing the full effects.

But, I've become aware of the fact that when many people talk about "sharpness", they are not talking about that fine detail, but rather the overall contrast that gives the image the "look" of being "sharp", even if it has nothing to do with fine detail or the sharpening slider but may benefit more from various applictations of the contrast and clarity sliders. And remember, DPP has applied Contrast effects and likely some sharpening to an image when you open it via the Picture Style which can affect that "sharp" look even though if your view the image at 100% you may well find that it still needs a dose of that sharpening slider to get the fine details in shape.

So, sorry that I didn't ask about this earlier, but when you say "sharp" do you mean the fine details are crisply/precisely rendered, or that the overall image has a "sharp" look (which is better viewed at a smaller image size)?

I'm pretty much referring to overall sharpness. I was working on some planes from an air show and was looking for an overall clean look. I do have a few BIF photos I just took as well so I'll have to see what I can do with the detail in those using ACR only.

Thanks for the insight

Well, try messing with the Contrast, Clarity and maybe a touch of the Vibrance slider (it does a "controlled" type of saturation).

They did a study of the new and redesigned features of CS5 and ACR 6.x
NAPP had it worked out to 73, .8 and 0 for the best sharpening results in ACR when working with a RAW image.

I've been using the formula with good results. After importing and resizing in CS5, I use USM at 43, 1.1 and 0. When converted to Jpeg it looks great for web output.

I wonder how they could give one recommendation for all, considering that every model starts at a different place because of the variations between anti-aliasing/anti-moire filters. Moreover, what about subject matter? A portrait and a landscape need entirely different sharpening. And ISO/noise, that really effects sharpening. Nope, I don't buy the magic bullet method.

tzalman wrote in post #10828188
I wonder how they could give one recommendation for all, considering that every model starts at a different place because of the variations between anti-aliasing/anti-moire filters. Moreover, what about subject matter? A portrait and a landscape need entirely different sharpening. And ISO/noise, that really effects sharpening. Nope, I don't buy the magic bullet method.

It's a "GENERAL SETTING" that works good for average users importing into CS5 from ACR. Pixel Peepers will always find flaws
No ONE ever said it worked for everything or was a "MAGIC BULLET" Well, maybe you did, but that's another story.