There have been a few questions about sharpening in the avian gallery recently, so I thought it would be good to start a thread where members can compare sharpening techniques and try them out. There are at least a few different techniques which can yield good results so I will share mine and I would encourage other members who get good results with their methods to post theirs in this thread.
Ok, here is how I sharpen images for the web. I work in photoshop cs3. I take my master file tiff which I has not been sharpened at all and make a duplicate, then convert the color profile from Adobe rgb to srgb and I change the mode from 16bit to 8bit. I then resize the photo to 1.6 times the size that I will end up posting online. For example if I'm going to post a larger image at 1200 pixels, I will first resize the image to 1920 pixels on the longest side. I then select filter, sharpen, sharpen. Then I resize the image to what will be posted on the web (1200 pixels). Then I select filter, sharpen, smart sharpen. The settings that I use are amount 50-70 and radius 0.15 to 0.20. I then put my copyright on it and save it as a jpeg as close to 500 pixels as I can for posting. For the 720 pixel image I will use the same procedure as above but first resize the image to 1150 pixels and apply the filter, sharpen, sharpen, then resize to 720 pixels and use the smart sharpen settings from above. You can also do a separate layer and just select the bird and perch for sharpening with this technique but I don't generally do this because I find if the shot was taken at a reasonable iso I don't have many problems with noise using this technique. I would rather not spend the extra time working with another layer. To summarize this sharpening technqiue gets me good results with a minimum of time spent.
I should say that I learned this technique from the excellent Italian photographer Juza, (he's an NPN member but hasn't been very active here lately) and Marc Adamus, one of the earth, sea and sky moderators. One difference between their technique and mine is that Juza will hit filter, sharpen, sharpen twice while I only do it once. I found that too much noise and halos became an issue for me when hitting filter, sharpen, sharpen twice and my images were plenty sharp by just using it once. This greatly reduced the halos and noise. Juza uses a second layer to avoid these issues.
This is one of several different sharpening routines for web that can produce good results, so I would encourage other members to share their sharpening techniques in this thread. That way we can direct members who are struggling with sharpening to this thread and they can try different techniques. Thanks!
After making all my adjustments via Layers in a .psd file in PS CS3, I flatten the image and switch to 8 bit and save as a tif.
I crop (if needed) and resize to 1200 px and a second file to 720 px, and save both as tif.
I dupe the tif, make a selection of the main subject, and use Smart Sharpen, adjusting the sliders as needed for each image. I use the fade command to set this to luminosity.
I toggle the sharpened layer on/off to see if I've overdone the sharpening, and if so drop the opacity of the sharpened layer.
Flatten.
Add my signature and flatten.
Save a jpeg.
Bottom line: sharpen only once, after all adjustments have been made. Save as jpeg only once.
I wrote an article on this a couple of years ago, still available here. It's not a lot different than Nate's approach - unsurprising, we both base the approach on Juza's and Marc's techniques - and would need to be modified today for the 1200px size that Jim E. gave us last year.
Two of Richard's points bear emphasizing: (1) sharpen last, unless you are going to use noise reduction; and (2) save as a JPEG only once. Repeated JPEG saves are a bad idea.
I make what ever adjustments are needed, then use Unsharp Mask, resize to 720 or 1200, then Smart Sharpen. I don't have a standard strength for either sharpening, instead watching for halos etc. I'm going to try the fade command next time to see how it changes the effect.
Re: selective eye sharpening of birds -- I was wondering if you select just inside the eye, or just outside? Generally, I only sharpen the eye, and am not sure how to correctly do this?
I adjust the clarity in LR 2.4 (same as ACR) as one of my first actions and saving sharpening as the last before resizing, adding my name, and saving as a jpeg.. In USM in CS4 I set the amount to 500%, the radius to 0.2 pixels, and the threshold to 1 levels. I find if I sharpen more than once or twice I'll start getting halos and artifacts. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an expert with Adobe so this is just my ¢¢.
Re: selective eye sharpening of birds -- I was wondering if you select just inside the eye, or just outside? Generally, I only sharpen the eye, and am not sure how to correctly do this?
- Rebecka
If you do your sharpening on a separate layer using a mask for the selection, then you can adjust the selection edge to whatever you need for that specific image.
1. Complete all other adjustments to the image (color balance, levels, contrast, curves, etc.)
2. flatten the image to a single layer
3. resize the image for the specific output need (like 720px and 1200 px for NPN posting)
4. duplicate the layer
5. select the part of the image you want to sharpen on the duplicate layer, and with the selection active click on the mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make the selection into a mask
6. click on the image icon for the layer to deselect the mask and then apply whatever sharpening you want to the entire duplicate layer
7. fine tune the mask with an appropriately sized brush of an appropriate hardness by painting on the mask with black or white, revealing or concealing parts of the sharpened layer
8. flatten the image and save a jpeg for posting
Posted by Nick Saunders on September 10, 2009 at 3:39 AM
Great article Nate, I actually use a very similar method as you, except if I end up with a halo , I manually remove it with the clone tool, which can be quite painstaking at times, but I'll only resort to that if its really obvious.
Posted by Steve Foss on September 10, 2009 at 8:14 AM
When I selectively sharpen a bird (usually BOAS or BIF situations) and halos may be a problem, I'll generally lasso just inside the outline of the bird. It takes some care to get all the bird possible but not go outside the silhouette, but once that's done I'll sharpen the bird with unsharp mask (.7 pixel radius usually, and the percentage varies based on need). Then I'll come back and lasso the eye (and the eye-ring, sometimes), but only if the eye needs additional sharpening. If I've done my job just right at capture, the eye is going to be in the sharpest zone anyway, and lassoing and sharpening the bird will usually do the job.
And not only birds, but any subject isolated from the background lends itself to this technique.
Discussion
11 repliesThere have been a few questions about sharpening in the avian gallery recently, so I thought it would be good to start a thread where members can compare sharpening techniques and try them out. There are at least a few different techniques which can yield good results so I will share mine and I would encourage other members who get good results with their methods to post theirs in this thread.
Ok, here is how I sharpen images for the web. I work in photoshop cs3. I take my master file tiff which I has not been sharpened at all and make a duplicate, then convert the color profile from Adobe rgb to srgb and I change the mode from 16bit to 8bit. I then resize the photo to 1.6 times the size that I will end up posting online. For example if I'm going to post a larger image at 1200 pixels, I will first resize the image to 1920 pixels on the longest side. I then select filter, sharpen, sharpen. Then I resize the image to what will be posted on the web (1200 pixels). Then I select filter, sharpen, smart sharpen. The settings that I use are amount 50-70 and radius 0.15 to 0.20. I then put my copyright on it and save it as a jpeg as close to 500 pixels as I can for posting. For the 720 pixel image I will use the same procedure as above but first resize the image to 1150 pixels and apply the filter, sharpen, sharpen, then resize to 720 pixels and use the smart sharpen settings from above. You can also do a separate layer and just select the bird and perch for sharpening with this technique but I don't generally do this because I find if the shot was taken at a reasonable iso I don't have many problems with noise using this technique. I would rather not spend the extra time working with another layer. To summarize this sharpening technqiue gets me good results with a minimum of time spent.
I should say that I learned this technique from the excellent Italian photographer Juza, (he's an NPN member but hasn't been very active here lately) and Marc Adamus, one of the earth, sea and sky moderators. One difference between their technique and mine is that Juza will hit filter, sharpen, sharpen twice while I only do it once. I found that too much noise and halos became an issue for me when hitting filter, sharpen, sharpen twice and my images were plenty sharp by just using it once. This greatly reduced the halos and noise. Juza uses a second layer to avoid these issues.
This is one of several different sharpening routines for web that can produce good results, so I would encourage other members to share their sharpening techniques in this thread. That way we can direct members who are struggling with sharpening to this thread and they can try different techniques. Thanks!
After making all my adjustments via Layers in a .psd file in PS CS3, I flatten the image and switch to 8 bit and save as a tif.
I crop (if needed) and resize to 1200 px and a second file to 720 px, and save both as tif.
I dupe the tif, make a selection of the main subject, and use Smart Sharpen, adjusting the sliders as needed for each image. I use the fade command to set this to luminosity.
I toggle the sharpened layer on/off to see if I've overdone the sharpening, and if so drop the opacity of the sharpened layer.
Flatten.
Add my signature and flatten.
Save a jpeg.
Bottom line: sharpen only once, after all adjustments have been made. Save as jpeg only once.
Two of Richard's points bear emphasizing: (1) sharpen last, unless you are going to use noise reduction; and (2) save as a JPEG only once. Repeated JPEG saves are a bad idea.
http://actions.home.att.net/dSLR_Fractal_Sharpen.html
If you do your sharpening on a separate layer using a mask for the selection, then you can adjust the selection edge to whatever you need for that specific image.
1. Complete all other adjustments to the image (color balance, levels, contrast, curves, etc.)
2. flatten the image to a single layer
3. resize the image for the specific output need (like 720px and 1200 px for NPN posting)
4. duplicate the layer
5. select the part of the image you want to sharpen on the duplicate layer, and with the selection active click on the mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette to make the selection into a mask
6. click on the image icon for the layer to deselect the mask and then apply whatever sharpening you want to the entire duplicate layer
7. fine tune the mask with an appropriately sized brush of an appropriate hardness by painting on the mask with black or white, revealing or concealing parts of the sharpened layer
8. flatten the image and save a jpeg for posting
And not only birds, but any subject isolated from the background lends itself to this technique.