Posted by Mike Sellers on September 16, 2007 at 7:15 AM
Is it best to do some sharpening at the time of capture or none at all and do the sharpening later in photoshop?
Posted by Steve Foss on September 16, 2007 at 8:46 AM
I don't do any in-camera sharpening. While most (OK, maybe all) digital images need some sharpening, some need less than others and I often sharpen selectively using the lasso feature. Why let a camera make a blanket decision on sharpening, which may be the wrong decision for that particular image, when I can evaluate the image on the screen and apply sharpening specific to the situation?
I shoot in RAW anyway, almost all the time, and the in-camera sharpness, saturation, contrast, etc., settings don't apply to RAW images, only jpegs.
It's a convenience when you're faced with lots of images to process in a short time span, but by no means a tool that I'd use universally. In our business, it depends on the subject matter and how the photos will be used. For portraits our lab recommended a low level of in-camera sharpening, specific to the camera model, and no sharpening in post. As a rule of thumb I do none on "nature" images, whether shot for my own uses or for clients, preferring to make adjustments on "the big screen." Most clients wanting jpegs for ad in a wide range of mediums want full sharpening, whether I do it in-camera or in post. Photos for print ad use are generally shot as tiffs, with sharpening done in post. Sharpening is one of the questions in my pre-shoot interviews with clients, but if I was shooting on spec for the broadest possible application, I wouldn't do any in-camera.
Posted by Steve Foss on September 17, 2007 at 12:05 PM
That's a good point, Hank. I was speaking only about my nature photography in my original post. For some wedding and portrait applications when I'm shooting jpeg, I apply a small amount of in-camera sharpening.
Discussion
3 repliesI shoot in RAW anyway, almost all the time, and the in-camera sharpness, saturation, contrast, etc., settings don't apply to RAW images, only jpegs.