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Archive 2013 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings

  
 
Hendrik
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


There doesn't seem good topics on the Internet that discusses the optimal (capture) sharpening settings for portraiture. I hope this will start an discussion. The settings are based upon some experimentation, but it's still open for improvement. Please reply with some motivation behind your settings.

These are my settings (this moment): (Amount/Radius/Detail/Masking)

Landscape (lots of detail/high frequency): 60/0.7/40/10

Portraiture/fashion (medium distance/full body): 60/1.0/30/65

Portraiture (close distance/low frequency): 60/1.0/25/70



Apr 27, 2013 at 06:11 AM
james.d53
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


I am so glad that someone has gone here! My sharpening is consistent with yours. I'm more in the low to high 60's. I usually leave radius alone. I usually take detail to 0 on women. I struggle with masking. I usually go higher on people, but am more in the 40's range.

I would love to hear more on this!

Thanks Hendrik!



Apr 27, 2013 at 11:52 AM
tomrock
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


I don't think you can have a "standard" for masking because it varies so much photo to photo.

I hold down the alt/option key to see what's being masked.



Apr 27, 2013 at 03:33 PM
ADCOLE
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


I found this to be helpful: http://photographylife.com/how-to-properly-sharpen-images-in-lightroom


Apr 27, 2013 at 04:04 PM
roman.johnston
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Do yourself a favor and pick up the NIK tools.

Roman



Apr 27, 2013 at 05:26 PM
johnbirch
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


I also don't see how canned settings work with different photos. Lightroom sharpening is very powerful. It's extremely dry, but check out the luminous landscape videos on Lightroom 4 with Jeff Schewe. They teach sharpening such that you won't have to worry about canned settings when you understand it.


Apr 27, 2013 at 05:45 PM
Hendrik
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Differences are very subtle sometimes and if you shoot hundreds of images, you don't have the time to set all those images to the most optimal setting.

What I'm talking about is "capture" sharpening. I think using specific canned settings are not a strange option. Settings for low, mid and high frequency is a valid option.

For the information, I know how to sharpen images. I have the Bruce Fraser book and I have read many websites. What I don't know is if the D800 needs a different treatment.



Apr 28, 2013 at 06:20 AM
ariel777
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


I've read and/or watched more tutorials/guides etc on LR4 capture sharpening than I care to remember but have found this 10 minute Utube video to be the most informative.

The presenter will never be asked to host the Jay Leno show, but the information is understandable and hits the spot...for me, at least.



Apr 28, 2013 at 02:35 PM
ucphotog
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


@ariel777: Thanks for that link. Very good description of LR sharpening in a very reasonable amount of time.


Apr 28, 2013 at 11:10 PM
NikonGuyIsHere
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Cool


Apr 28, 2013 at 11:13 PM
Frogfish
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


ADCOLE wrote:
I found this to be helpful: http://photographylife.com/how-to-properly-sharpen-images-in-lightroom


For someone new to LR (after using A3 since launch) this is a very good link, thanks !



Apr 28, 2013 at 11:39 PM
Fred Miranda
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Hendrik,
Your settings make a lot of sense to me and are very close to the ones I use. I agree that when working on an image, tweaks must be made, however they are great starting points.
Fred



Apr 29, 2013 at 12:51 AM
Hendrik
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Thank you Fred!


Apr 29, 2013 at 03:26 PM
liamtoh1
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


ariel777 wrote:
Utube video to be the most informative.



Thanks for the link. I am learning LR4 (never used LR or full PS before) and this link was very helpful.



Apr 30, 2013 at 05:03 PM
Alan321
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


For landscape work I find that cranking the detail setting up to 70 is usually better for bringing out the fine details. The masking starts low but may need to be cranked up as far as 30 or 40 to smooth skies and smooth surfaces, particularly if the shot was taken at higher ISO. However, applying some noise reduction allows the masking to be reduced.

It actually surprised me that the D800E images can tolerate so much sharpening. I guess it is because the settings are relative to pixel size and therefore not greatly affected by the extra resolution of the sensor.


As a side note, I used to apply default sharpening settings in Lr for each camera/ISO combination by setting up presets but then I found out that using sharpening and NR tends to slow down Lr 4 quite a bit and so I now leave the sharpening and NR until as late as possible in my work flow. It hardly matters when working on or browsing through a few images but it becomes significant when working quickly through a lot of images.

- Alan



May 01, 2013 at 11:55 AM
viczig
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Tag


May 04, 2013 at 06:45 AM
CAlbertson
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Hendrik wrote:
There doesn't seem good topics on the Internet that discusses the optimal (capture) sharpening settings for portraiture. I hope this will start an discussion. The settings are based upon some experimentation, but it's still open for improvement. Please reply with some motivation behind your settings.
...



Sharpening has to depend on two things the output media. Are you making a print or is this for display on screen? What is the size of the screen or print? What is the pixel density (pixels per inch) and wht is the expected viewing distance.

The reason al this matters is because the sharpening setting are all expresed in units of pixels but the eye sees in units of "degrees of arc"

You need to sharpen each image as the last step (certainly after cropping) and befor printing or resizing for display. and YES you will always have to re-size before display because most screen have at most maybe 2 megapixels and I bet the image has more. It does no good to sharpen an image then then down size it as the down size resample algorithm will blur the image when it does the pixel interpolation.


So what you care about when setting those parameters (like "radius") is the number of pixels the eye can see which is different in the 400 DPI print then on an 80 DPI monitor



May 05, 2013 at 11:09 AM
lukeb
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


roman.johnston wrote:
Do yourself a favor and pick up the NIK tools.

Roman


+100



May 05, 2013 at 11:17 AM
Kerry Pierce
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Interesting thread, thanks for starting it. I own LR, but have never installed it. I use CS for my editing, ATM, but I want to install LR and make the effort to learn how to properly use it. Some of the tips and links here are really great.

I do have an off topic question that I hope you don't mind my interjecting it. I've read that LR "imports" all of the photos and I'm not exactly sure what that means. Does it physically move or copy the full images, meaning that you've effectively doubled your storage requirements? If so, is there a setting that will prevent LR from doing that?

thanks
Kerry




May 05, 2013 at 02:04 PM
BigIronCruiser
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · D800 Lightroom sharpening settings


Storage space is not doubled, as LR gives you the option of (1) copying images from location a to location b, or (2) simply adding them to the LR Catalog from their existing location. Some people allow LR to do the copying from memory cards to HDD, while others execute their own copy operation, and then simply add them to the LR catalog. Generally speaking, the LR Catalog keeps track of where the images are located, as well as all the edits/changes that have been made to each image.


May 05, 2013 at 02:11 PM
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