I’m looking for instructional vids for workflow technique, from RAW to a tiny little web photo that can be posted on NPN. I am now using CS6 and the RAW processor that comes with it.
I am specifically looking for sharpening info.
I have posted a few pix in the past but have always been unhappy with the fuzzy results, I think due to my lack of sharpening knowledge.
I have read that some folks don’t do any sharpening in the RAW processor, in fact they slide the “Amount” slider, in the sharpening panel all the way to the left, effectively removing any sharpening, then do all sharpening in Photoshop, with varying techniques depending on the final output application.
Now I am reading in the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers CS5, by Martin Evening
“Up until recently most experts (myself included) were suggesting that you disable the sharpening in camera raw and use Photoshop to apply the capture sharpening. Well, all that changed with the camera raw 4.1 update and it now makes sense to carry out the capture sharpening at the camera raw image processing stage before you open your images in Photoshop.”
Basically, I'm confused. I don't even know what is capture sharpening versus output sharpening and I have difficulty learning from books.
I seem to learn best while following video instructional examples.
I would be very grateful if somebody would point me to instructional videos for CS5 or CS6 that handhold me from the raw file to final output for a small web photo.
Thank you in advance for any help.
Posted by David Bostedo on February 14, 2013 at 11:56 PM
Richard - I really liked the Luminous Landscape Camera to Print and Screen tutorials. They aren't the kind of videos you follow along with - they're more a complete guide to what a complete workflow could/should look like, using their own images as examples.
I've also seen a lot of positive things about Lynda.com There are lots of Photoshop videos, with various focuses - not sure if any are specific to sharpening. I haven't used them myself, but have heard that some are very good.
I will say one thing in addition to that though - there are hundreds of ways to do sharpening, and most of them aren't necessarily any better than any others for all cases. So I'd also suggest that if you find some that sound interesting, try them out. The more you look at the results and various methods, the more you'll learn about how Photoshop and ACR work, and the more you can decide for yourself what your workflow should be.
And if you have any particular/specific questions, don't hesitate to ask them here.
And if you're curious, my flow is to do sharpening in ACR first on the RAW file (which would be considered capture sharpening), and then usually, but not always, do additional sharpening before printing (which would be creative, or output sharpening).
And when resizing images (for the web in particular), always do some amount of sharpening, and different methods depending on the image and size.
Posted by John Reed on February 15, 2013 at 7:41 AM
Tim Grey is also an excellent resource for all things digital. Just Google "Tim Grey Digital Photography" or just "Tim Grey" for all his offerings. Also for only $99/year, NAPP is a sound investment for anybody doing any amount of serious digital editing. This annual fee gets you Photoshop User Magazine full of great information but more to the point, access to a HUGE library of videos again on all things digital by experts in the field. It is a sound investment IMHO and I get nothing from them or Tim for this. Good luck.
JR
Posted by Mia McPherson on February 15, 2013 at 5:12 PM
David, thank you for the thoughtful and insightful reply.
I absolutely love Lynda.com. Last year I subscribed for a few months and in a short time learned pretty much all I know about processing in Photoshop. The videos made by Chris Orwig are by far my favorite. Unfortunately it would be illegal for me to actually record these videos for future use, so I quickly forgot most of what I learned, but Lynda.com is still by far my favorite. What I like specifically about Lynda.com as opposed to another site that I signed up for year subscription, is that Lynda.com has an organized /index list of topics one can easily navigate in order to find exactly the information one is after. If I had more time to devote to photography I would sign up indefinitely.
The luminous landscape camera to print and screen tutorials looks very interesting. I really like the fact that once the product is purchased it belongs to the buyer forever. One would be able to reference it at any time without additional cost. I may have to check this out.
If I can ever sit still long enough to learn from a book I may also check out Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop.
Thanks for the additional info and I get the point that I need to simply experiment, experiment, experiment.
John and Mia, thank you too for the useful information. It looks like I have some studying to do.
Posted by Martin Dunn on February 27, 2013 at 8:38 AM
Richard, I had similar issues regarding sharpening.
I use Nikon Capture NX and it was/is my practice to do some sharpening in Capture before I saved the file as a TIFF or JPEG.
I too was not happy with the sharpness I saw after posting.
I was advised in these forums that I should sharpen in Photoshop once I had sized my image for posting, immediately before 'saving for web'.
It came as a surprise that I should need to sharpen twice but I tried it and it worked.
Discussion
5 repliesI’m looking for instructional vids for workflow technique, from RAW to a tiny little web photo that can be posted on NPN. I am now using CS6 and the RAW processor that comes with it.
I am specifically looking for sharpening info.
I have posted a few pix in the past but have always been unhappy with the fuzzy results, I think due to my lack of sharpening knowledge.
I have read that some folks don’t do any sharpening in the RAW processor, in fact they slide the “Amount” slider, in the sharpening panel all the way to the left, effectively removing any sharpening, then do all sharpening in Photoshop, with varying techniques depending on the final output application.
Now I am reading in the Adobe Photoshop for Photographers CS5, by Martin Evening
“Up until recently most experts (myself included) were suggesting that you disable the sharpening in camera raw and use Photoshop to apply the capture sharpening. Well, all that changed with the camera raw 4.1 update and it now makes sense to carry out the capture sharpening at the camera raw image processing stage before you open your images in Photoshop.”
Basically, I'm confused. I don't even know what is capture sharpening versus output sharpening and I have difficulty learning from books.
I seem to learn best while following video instructional examples.
I would be very grateful if somebody would point me to instructional videos for CS5 or CS6 that handhold me from the raw file to final output for a small web photo.
Thank you in advance for any help.
I've also seen a lot of positive things about Lynda.com There are lots of Photoshop videos, with various focuses - not sure if any are specific to sharpening. I haven't used them myself, but have heard that some are very good.
And if you're really interested in sharpening, the book Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop is typically highly recommended; One of the authors is also in the Luminous Landscape videos.
I will say one thing in addition to that though - there are hundreds of ways to do sharpening, and most of them aren't necessarily any better than any others for all cases. So I'd also suggest that if you find some that sound interesting, try them out. The more you look at the results and various methods, the more you'll learn about how Photoshop and ACR work, and the more you can decide for yourself what your workflow should be.
And if you have any particular/specific questions, don't hesitate to ask them here.
And if you're curious, my flow is to do sharpening in ACR first on the RAW file (which would be considered capture sharpening), and then usually, but not always, do additional sharpening before printing (which would be creative, or output sharpening).
And when resizing images (for the web in particular), always do some amount of sharpening, and different methods depending on the image and size.
JR
Click Selective Sharpening
I absolutely love Lynda.com. Last year I subscribed for a few months and in a short time learned pretty much all I know about processing in Photoshop. The videos made by Chris Orwig are by far my favorite. Unfortunately it would be illegal for me to actually record these videos for future use, so I quickly forgot most of what I learned, but Lynda.com is still by far my favorite. What I like specifically about Lynda.com as opposed to another site that I signed up for year subscription, is that Lynda.com has an organized /index list of topics one can easily navigate in order to find exactly the information one is after. If I had more time to devote to photography I would sign up indefinitely.
The luminous landscape camera to print and screen tutorials looks very interesting. I really like the fact that once the product is purchased it belongs to the buyer forever. One would be able to reference it at any time without additional cost. I may have to check this out.
If I can ever sit still long enough to learn from a book I may also check out Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop.
Thanks for the additional info and I get the point that I need to simply experiment, experiment, experiment.
John and Mia, thank you too for the useful information. It looks like I have some studying to do.
I use Nikon Capture NX and it was/is my practice to do some sharpening in Capture before I saved the file as a TIFF or JPEG.
I too was not happy with the sharpness I saw after posting.
I was advised in these forums that I should sharpen in Photoshop once I had sized my image for posting, immediately before 'saving for web'.
It came as a surprise that I should need to sharpen twice but I tried it and it worked.