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Web Sharpening in Lightroom 2 Beta
After last weeks post on my five favorite new features in Lightroom 2 Beta, I thought I would spend a little more time on the new web sharpening feature. While this is a small upgrade for the web module - for my workflow it is a huge improvement. The absence of sharpening for the large previews in the Lightroom web module was reason enough for me not to use it. After all I didn't want to send my clients web galleries with slightly fuzzy images. With my current workflow (until Lightroom 2 is released) I use one of the Photoshop web templates which works just fine. But now that Lightroom 2 Beta has integrated sharpening in the web module I can start to use it instead and that is very nice since it means not having to leave Lightroom to upload web galleries for clients.
The sharpening feature only works with the Lightroom web templates at the moment - I am hoping the third party template makers will incorporate the sharpening features into their web templates once Lightroom 2.0 is finalized. Nonetheless it couldn't be simpler to use. Just as in the print module in the Output setting dialog box (in the right hand panel) you'll find the Sharpening controls for your large images.
For my images (created on a 12 MP Nikon D300) I prefer the high setting as that gives the right amount of crispness to my images. As far as I can tell the sharpening is only applied to the large images and how much you'll need to add will depend on the resolution of your camera - i.e. more megapixels will correspond to higher levels of sharpening here.
And as has been said by other posters here on Inside Lightroom, going back to using Lightroom 1.4.1 after testing the new beta feels like parking the Ferrari in the garage and going back to the VW Bug. I am not using the beta for any of my current professional work just because I need to use stable software for productivity and forward compatibility. Here's hoping the finalized version of Lightroom 2.0 comes out soon!
That's it for this session. See you next week.
Adios, Michael Clark
Michael
How do you work sharpening into your workflow when you think you may submit for stock? I am dabbling with stock submissions and have been told that sharpening is an absolute no-no. Yet Lightroom applies some sharpening at the very outset, and all tutorials discuss the importance of pre and post sharpening. I'm trying to work out a system that takes all scenarios into account. And how does Clarity fit into the no sharpening for stock concept?
Thanks
Carol Parker
Carol -
Great question. The sharpening that Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw adds (the default settings) is set up to counteract the anti-aliasing filter in your camera that slightly blurs the image to prevent moire and some other images artifacts inherent with digital. Hence this sharpening (as long as you don't increase it) just brings the image back to where it should be in terms of sharpening.
And most stock agencies have the standard line of don't sharpen your images because they don't want photographers taking finalized tiffs and sharpening them even more than what was added during the raw processing phase. Forget about what they say. Do add the slight amount of sharpening during the raw processing. But don't add anymore after that step. The reason here is that if you process your image (with "capture" sharpening) and then sharpen some more you are degrading the image quality if the end client wants to resize the image.
Clarity isn't sharpening - just a tonal adjustment so there is no problem using that.
So to wrap up - use sharpening in the raw processing phase. Use Clarity. My blog above only relates to sharpening applied to the web gallery images - this is not applied to your image when you go back to process the image.
Another comment - I am talking about capture sharpening in the first paragraph in my last comment. Capture sharpening is the sharpening applied in the develop module...
Michael,
I'm currently using LR 1.4.1 with the LR/Mogrify output plugin as my sharpening tool for web galleries (I don't use LR web templates, I just export the pics to disk and then FTP them to my web gallery).
The problem with this approach is that although I get good results, nothing comes close to the quality of Photoshop "smart sharpen" filter which -- of course -- must be applied manually for each pic and forces me to create copies of each RAW I want to publish on the web.
So, the question is: is this sharpening algorithm the same of PS? How about the quality compared to that?
More generally, I feel that LR needs resolution DEPENDENT non-destructive sharpening, i.e: I just set the amount of sharpen I want AND the mask threshold, and then LR adapts the actual sharpening to the final resolution, using the best algorithm it can.
Am I dreaming? :)
Alessandro -
Well, it is hard to tell exactly how good the sharpening is in the Lightroom web module. I have a feeling it is a smart sharpen type of sharpening but can't really tell. And yes, of course I wish the control was a bit more subtle than just low, medium and high. I have been using smart sharpen in PS as well (with actions) and it is great but just one extra step.
I just wish the folks would come out with useful web gallery templates that actually show some information and look good - not just fancy flash galleries.