Is sharping required Twice?? RAW to JPeg

[Ecali1960]

Hello,

A friend told me that I should re-sharpen my photo when saved to JPEG format.

I shoot in RAW format and I convert my photos to JPEG once I have made corrections to the photo. I go through the basic steps of
1. RAW convert.
2. Cropping
3. Levels
4. Color correction
5. Saturation
6. Sharpen

At this point I Save the photo as a JPEG and the PSE format.

Do I have to re-sharpen the JPEG again?

Thank You

[Kitsap Guy]

I am a relative newbie to all this, but I'm reasonably sure that it's all in the eye of the beholder, based on what kind of presentation you want the image to have. I've found that sometimes that the sharpening that takes place in raw doesn't go quite far enough, and sometimes it does. Others here have much more insight and technical knowledge than me, though.

[Codebreaker]

As the previous poster suggest, images are very subjective.:)

As a rule I sharpen twice, but not because I've made a JPEG Image.

I should point out that I use Lightroom rather than Elements.

1. Capture Sharpen - this is applied to my Raw images at the time of import. I have my own import preset that applies Contrast, Clarity, Noise Reduction and Sharpening that appeal to me rather than the Adobe defaults.

All Raw images need some sharpening even if it is just the Raw processor defaults.

2. Print Sharpening - while the Capture Sharpening produces good screen images I find that prints need a little additional sharpening. Through Lightroom this can be done during the printing and only effects the image sent to the printer. The original remains unchanged.

Occaisionally if I take a Raw image and then make some creative edits which result in a TIF or JPEG I may add some additional sharpening to compensate for some of the editing.

If it's a straight TIF or JPEG from the RAW I don't bother with any more sharpening.

Colin

[Not4wood]

Not only do I agree with Colin that its all in the final product, I also noticed that Noise Reduction is not normally in your workflow.

Depending on the shot, and the present noise level the first thing I do before any other correction maybe except crop is noise level. I would do this right after the conversion to psd format, and then again right before sharpening. You don't want to sharpen the noise if there is any.

[Codebreaker]

Mark....

Good advice for Non-Raw images but one of the nice things about processing RAW is that the adjustments aren't accumulative - they are applied all at once as it where. So the processing order in RAW isn't as important.

Colin

[Not4wood]

Mark....

Good advice for Non-Raw images but one of the nice things about processing RAW is that the adjustments aren't accumulative - they are applied all at once as it where. So the processing order in RAW isn't as important.

Colin

Hey Colin,
I was always informed that you remove the Noise before anything else. You don't want to make the noise worse by making them show up more by any editing and adjustments and then first trying to remove them. Keeping the Noise Removal in a Layer that is one of the first things makes your life a whole lot easier later on especially if wish to come back and make more adjustments after learning more skills and wanting to try them out on an older edit to see how they may look.

[Codebreaker]

Mark....

You're absolutely right if you are working on NON-RAW images i.e TIF,PSD JPEG. This is for the reasons you state.

But for RAW this isn't necessary because not only are the processing adjustments non-destructive but they are effectively applied in parallel. Doing noise adjustments first or last doesn't matter.

Colin

[Not4wood]

Mark....

You're absolutely right if you are working on NON-RAW images i.e TIF,PSD JPEG. This is for the reasons you state.

But for RAW this isn't necessary because not only are the processing adjustments non-destructive but they are effectively applied in parallel. Doing noise adjustments first or last doesn't matter.

Colin


Colin,
Now your confusing me??? After capture, I open my Raw image in ACR and get as close I can to what I want. Then I open this image in usually CS2 make some changes here and then save this as a .psd format. So from what your saying, from the above statement because I am then working in the psd format I am OK with what I'm doing with this.

But what I don't understand from your statement why would you work in the original NEF or Raw format when usually some or all of the editing choices in CS2 are greyed out and you can't use that feature and then how or actually what do you save this layered working image in? I wouldn't want to save it as the same image and overwrite the original Raw image. But, after conversion to the psd format and still keeping the 12 bit I can use most features anyway?

[Codebreaker]

Mark....

Sorry for the confusion ;)

As I said a couple of posts back I work 99% in Lightroom. This means I can do everything I need there and seldom need to go into Photoshop. So I only have a RAW file to work with.

On the times when I need to work in Photoshop I export a 16 bit TIF from Lightroom. Often I will make a slide show in which case I'll export a JPEG file.

In both these cases I seldom need to do any further sharpening. Again the subjective choice.

Colin

[ljameso1]

I do use the sharpening features in acr as well as selective and global sharpening in PSE. There is an excellent video in the PET subscriber area about using the sharpening features in acr.

[Ecali1960]

Hello,

It has been a while since I made my original post on sharpening. I would like to thank you all for you helpful advice. I have had a very busy month.

thanks,

PS: I thought Lightroom was just a very expensive organizer. ?? It does not edit correct? It has no layering options. Oh yes it can process RAW images very efficiently. Ok I get it.

[ljameso1]

Lightroom does edit.

[Benny Pedersen]

Hello,

A friend told me that I should re-sharpen my photo when saved to JPEG format.

I shoot in RAW format and I convert my photos to JPEG once I have made corrections to the photo. I go through the basic steps of
1. RAW convert.
2. Cropping
3. Levels
4. Color correction
5. Saturation
6. Sharpen

At this point I Save the photo as a JPEG and the PSE format.

Do I have to re-sharpen the JPEG again?

Thank You

1: Export RAW to 16 bit TIF
2: If you resize the photo before you save the 8 bit JPEG, use the option "bicubic sharper".

Thats it. Do not sharpen or anything. If the photo is unsharp, get a better lens instead.
Ex: http://www.fineraw.com/images/_MG_1018_1413x942q11.jpg

Benny
PS: Since the Abobe Camera profiles is all bad, you sometimes have to adjust the color anyway. Those adjustments is better done in the RAW converting process. You maybe could try the Adobe Picture Style Editor instead, but it is less usefull and is a beta version...