I am about to pull my hair out over this sharpening issue. I am having trouble getting jpeg files sharp. I have a D200 and shoot in raw and use Capture NX for adjustments. The raw files look quite good to me anyway. My trouble is when I reduce file size for the web and save as a jpeg things begin to loose sharpness. Does the sharpening have to be done on the jpeg instead of the raw file or do I just need to apply more sharpening to the raw file?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have posted several images to the NPN photo critique forum so that you can see some examples.
I think you will find that we all add additional sharpening to our images after resizing for the web. I shoot in RAW; my work flow is as follows:
1. process the Raw file in ACR
2. process as desired in PS including sharpening
3. Save as Tiff
4. convert to sRGB
5. Resize to meet maximum pixel dimensions for NPN - 720 pixels on longest side
6. Resharpen for web - if you use USM about 50-100 amount with radius about 0.5 and threshold 0
7. go to file/save for web and adjust slider to just under 200 K. this will automatically save your Tiff file as a JPEG - be sure to name it for post so you can easily find it when you need it.
8. use this converted file for uploading to NPN
9 receive rave reviews from the best photographers for the sharpness of your images
Posted by David Bostedo on August 20, 2007 at 9:23 AM
This technique is also used by a lot of people here. I find it works very well.
In effect I'm a "generalist" about web sharpening. I have to convert to jpeg, resize and sharpen lots of images for the web, whether as email submissions to clients or for use on web sites. I've tried lots of techniques, but have finally settled on the simplest workflow possible and one principal sharpening method. If that sharpening method doesn't produce satisfactory results I'll try another, but something over 90% of the time it produces results that keep the paychecks rolling in.
Process image normally ---> Resize ---> Sharpen using USM @ 500/0.2/0 ---> Save as jpeg.
The nice thing about that workflow is that I can open any previously processed large image in my files and rather quickly produce a sized and sharpened jpeg for the web without altering the original file in any way (using "Save As" and specifying jpeg file format produces a new file of the same original file name, but tagged as a jpeg, while not altering the original).
Discussion
3 repliesAny help would be greatly appreciated. I have posted several images to the NPN photo critique forum so that you can see some examples.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Rodney Johnson
1. process the Raw file in ACR
2. process as desired in PS including sharpening
3. Save as Tiff
4. convert to sRGB
5. Resize to meet maximum pixel dimensions for NPN - 720 pixels on longest side
6. Resharpen for web - if you use USM about 50-100 amount with radius about 0.5 and threshold 0
7. go to file/save for web and adjust slider to just under 200 K. this will automatically save your Tiff file as a JPEG - be sure to name it for post so you can easily find it when you need it.
8. use this converted file for uploading to NPN
9 receive rave reviews from the best photographers for the sharpness of your images
Process image normally ---> Resize ---> Sharpen using USM @ 500/0.2/0 ---> Save as jpeg.
The nice thing about that workflow is that I can open any previously processed large image in my files and rather quickly produce a sized and sharpened jpeg for the web without altering the original file in any way (using "Save As" and specifying jpeg file format produces a new file of the same original file name, but tagged as a jpeg, while not altering the original).