Sharpening pictures

[wlcling]

Do we recommend sharpening pictures? Time to time, i find myself applying an unsharp mask (recently trying Smart sharpen) < without really knowing the difference between both of these

In photoshop it looks fine, but after saving it as jpg, compression "8", the end-result doesn't look as sharp as viewed in photoshop... is it due to the sharpening or rather the lower quality selected when i saved the image.... (i.e, 800*536 or so then results in about 130kb)

 

[Override2Zion]

Do we recommend sharpening pictures? Time to time, i find myself applying an unsharp mask (recently trying Smart sharpen) < without really knowing the difference between both of these

In photoshop it looks fine, but after saving it as jpg, compression "8", the end-result doesn't look as sharp as viewed in photoshop... is it due to the sharpening or rather the lower quality selected when i saved the image.... (i.e, 800*536 or so then results in about 130kb)

Guess its the low JPEG quality option that degrades the picture. You would probably wanna do some sharpening after downsizing the picture. Then save it in better JPEG quality.

 

[Redsun]

ya leave the USM till the last part before saving

 

[wlcling]

should i use USM or Smart Sharpen... Technically i can't really see the difference tho

 

[zac08]

should i use USM or Smart Sharpen... Technically i can't really see the difference tho

USM gives you more control over the sharpening levels. Sometimes, you may oversharpen if you're using Smart Sharpen, in such cases, USM can give you a better effect. Try it out slwoly and see.

 

[espion]

Do we recommend sharpening pictures?

Depends on the picture. For pictures with very fine details, for example, sometimes it makes the image popped with sharpening. Sometimes it is better not to sharpen. As with all processing, sharpening introduced artefacts, which you must know how to control to make it work for you.

Smart sharpening allows you to control the amount of sharpening to be applied to highlights and shadows. usually sharpening works best for highlights. Try this with water surfaces.