Sharpening and color profile

ejg1890 · August 18, 2010

I will probably open a smugmug account in the next week or so. I will get either th pro account or the level just below and will make my photos available for sale. As I prepare photos I have several questions:

1. Any photos that are printed via one of Smugmugs print partners will be sharpened for print. So I don't need to sharpen and post a photo that has been sharpened for printing. Is this correct? It's an assumption I wan to verify.

2. I use LR3 so when I export a print that will be loaded to smugmug should I selection the option "Sharpen for Web/Internet"?

3. I use Pro RGB for my photos on LR3. I sometimes print using color profile CMYK. Either of these are considered a superior color profile to sRGB. However, for web posting I need to use sRGB. What color profile should I use on my photos that I upload to smugmug?

Thanks

Andy · August 18, 2010

ejg1890 wrote: »

I will probably open a smugmug account in the next week or so. I will get either th pro account or the level just below and will make my photos available for sale. As I prepare photos I have several questions:

1. Any photos that are printed via one of Smugmugs print partners will be sharpened for print. So I don't need to sharpen and post a photo that has been sharpened for printing. Is this correct? It's an assumption I wan to verify.

No, only if you choose color correction on at EZPrints. You'll want to apply some sharpening if you'll be using color correction at Bay.

2. I use LR3 so when I export a print that will be loaded to smugmug should I selection the option "Sharpen for Web/Internet"?

No, use the sharpening in the develop module[/quote]

3. I use Pro RGB for my photos on LR3. I sometimes print using color profile CMYK. Either of these are considered a superior color profile to sRGB. However, for web posting I need to use sRGB. What color profile should I use on my photos that I upload to smugmug?

Thanks[/QUOTE]

Just upload sRGB and you'll be fine

DanHonemann · September 25, 2010

we still need a print sharpening option!
Currently, the only way to have sharpened photos printed is to either:

1. allow EZ Prints to color correct our photos (not desirable in the case of most pros);

or

2. proof delay and size and sharpen every print request ourselves.

Neither is a good option. Nor is it a good option to sharpen the original-sized image before uploading, as resizing after sharpening introduces artifacts: sharpening should only be applied after the image has been sized.

For this reason, I've requested a feature to allow for sharpening prints automatically--AFTER they are sized.

http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/1087317-create-a-sharpening-option-for-prints

Vote!

dan

jfriend · September 25, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

Currently, the only way to have sharpened photos printed is to either:

1. allow EZ Prints to color correct our photos (not desirable in the case of most pros);

or

2. proof delay and size and sharpen every print request ourselves.

Neither is a good option. Nor is it a good option to sharpen the original-sized image before uploading, as resizing after sharpening introduces artifacts: sharpening should only be applied after the image has been sized.

For this reason, I've requested a feature to allow for sharpening prints automatically--AFTER they are sized.

http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/1087317-create-a-sharpening-option-for-prints

Vote!

dan

Pros already have an option to control sharpening after resizing right in gallery settings. Are you asking for something different than that?

DanHonemann · September 25, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

Pros already have an option to control sharpening after resizing right in gallery settings. Are you asking for something different than that?

For print orders?

If so, I wasn't aware of it... In any event, I've no longer got a pro account, so if this feature exists now you've just given me a reason to upgrade!

Dan

jfriend · September 25, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

For print orders?

If so, I wasn't aware of it... In any event, I've no longer got a pro account, so if this feature exists now you've just given me a reason to upgrade!

Dan

It's the sharpening that is applied to the resized images shown on the web. You do your own sharpening on the originals for printing before upload. Those originals are not resized by Smugmug. They are sent to the printer software as you supply them.

While this isn't the ideal workflow one might pick, it actually works fine as you control what the print is made from and the downsized web versions look quite good. I've been doing it this way for years and getting very good results.

DanHonemann · September 26, 2010

John,

While your method certainly works, it's also true that it isn't the ideal workflow (as you point out). It would be better to automate the process of print sharpening, just as sizing is automated for prints. Sharpening belongs after sizing in the workflow, and there's no real reason why both couldn't happen without photographer intervention. This is why the original poster asked if sharpening was automatically applied to prints... it's a convenience that would be helpful for those looking for the most efficient workflow.

This automation is already available for color corrected EZPrints (as Andy points out); I'd just like to see it available for non-color corrected prints as well (from either lab).

Dan

jfriend · September 26, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

John,

While your method certainly works, it's also true that it isn't the ideal workflow (as you point out). It would be better to automate the process of print sharpening, just as sizing is automated for prints. Sharpening belongs after sizing in the workflow, and there's no real reason why both couldn't happen without photographer intervention. This is why the original poster asked if sharpening was automatically applied to prints... it's a convenience that would be helpful for those looking for the most efficient workflow.

This automation is already available for color corrected EZPrints (as Andy points out); I'd just like to see it available for non-color corrected prints as well (from either lab).

Dan

But, for someone interested in the ideal workflow for printing, there is no such thing as an automated sharpening process that works for every print. Each image is unique in how much sharpening it needs. It's much better for one interested in an ideal workflow to sharpen the images before uploading according to their needs. There is no resizing being done by Smugmug when printing so there is no operation at Smugmug that things need to be sharpened after. Since we're talking about the ideal workflow here, why not just sharpen appropriately before you upload?

If you're not going to tweak every image individually and just going to apply the same sharpening to every image, you can do that automatically in most modern tools now (like Lightroom or Photoshop). For example, when I import my images into Lightroom, the import operation applies a baseline amount of sharpening to every one of my images. I may decide to tweak that on a given image, but if I don't it's ready to go with my default values. I don't see how another sharpening option in Smugmug adds any useful capabilities. Perhaps I'm not understanding the utility of what you're asking for.

DanHonemann · September 26, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

There is no resizing being done by Smugmug when printing so there is no operation at Smugmug that things need to be sharpened after. Since we're talking about the ideal workflow here, why not just sharpen appropriately before you upload?

Smugmug merely sends the original print along to the lab; it is the lab that resizes according to the order (4x6 is obviously not the same size as 16x24, and sharpening needs to happen *after* that up- or down-ressing to avoid artifacts): I'm just wanting an option to tell the lab to apply sharpening after sizing and before printing. This is what EZPrints is already doing when auto-color is selected. I just want the option to ask them to do the sharpening without the color correction.

I suppose I should be making this request to the labs rather than to SmugMug, but as partners, probably SmugMug has more power than I do to make such a request.

Yes, you can sharpen the original before uploading, but then you are only sharpening for the original size: prints made at any other size will not be sharpened properly.

In any event, I am apparently the only voice that cares about this, so I suppose I will content myself with proof delays or sharpening the original and not worrying over any potential artifacts incurred from resizing. I don't know any photo hosting site that offers this feature, though I would have thought it would be one many, if not most, photographers would welcome.

Dan

WinsomeWorks · September 26, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

Smugmug merely sends the original print along to the lab; it is the lab that resizes according to the order (4x6 is obviously not the same size as 16x24, and sharpening needs to happen *after* that up- or down-ressing to avoid artifacts): I'm just wanting an option to tell the lab to apply sharpening after sizing and before printing. This is what EZPrints is already doing when auto-color is selected. I just want the option to ask them to do the sharpening without the color correction.

I suppose I should be making this request to the labs rather than to SmugMug, but as partners, probably SmugMug has more power than I do to make such a request.

Yes, you can sharpen the original before uploading, but then you are only sharpening for the original size: prints made at any other size will not be sharpened properly.

In any event, I am apparently the only voice that cares about this, so I suppose I will content myself with proof delays or sharpening the original and not worrying over any potential artifacts incurred from resizing. I don't know any photo hosting site that offers this feature, though I would have thought it would be one many, if not most, photographers would welcome.

Dan

I believe they're going to make any prints from the original, so that's really the only one you need sharpened, right? Just because you're getting prints in another size doesn't mean they'd use another size to make the prints. They would want to use the highest resolution/highest number of pixels (i.e. original) that you've uploaded.

jfriend · September 26, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

Smugmug merely sends the original print along to the lab; it is the lab that resizes according to the order (4x6 is obviously not the same size as 16x24, and sharpening needs to happen *after* that up- or down-ressing to avoid artifacts): I'm just wanting an option to tell the lab to apply sharpening after sizing and before printing. This is what EZPrints is already doing when auto-color is selected. I just want the option to ask them to do the sharpening without the color correction.

I suppose I should be making this request to the labs rather than to SmugMug, but as partners, probably SmugMug has more power than I do to make such a request.

Yes, you can sharpen the original before uploading, but then you are only sharpening for the original size: prints made at any other size will not be sharpened properly.

In any event, I am apparently the only voice that cares about this, so I suppose I will content myself with proof delays or sharpening the original and not worrying over any potential artifacts incurred from resizing. I don't know any photo hosting site that offers this feature, though I would have thought it would be one many, if not most, photographers would welcome.

Dan

Sharpening for a particular rasterizer in a printer is a process that is very specific to a particular printer. If the image is resized to match the needs of the rasterizer, it would be normal for the printer/rasterizer firmware to apply some sharpening to that resized image. But, it would not be normal (at least that I know of) for any commercial printer to offer you control over that operation. That's particular to their printer and the sharpening they apply has a goal to maintain the sharpness that you supply on your original. Thus, your responsibility is to make the original how you want it.

Do you know of any commercial printers that offer you sharpening options after the printer rasterizer resizes your image for a particular printer?

What EZPrints is doing (or Smugmug in combination with delivery to EZPrints - I'm not sure who is doing what) is blindly resharpening your original before they feed it into whatever print rasterizer it's going to (whether it actually needs more sharpening or not). This is because lots of consumer prints are undersharpened when they get to the printer. If your original was properly sharpened before you uploaded it to Smugmug, the EZPrints sharpening would NOT be improving your image. In fact, it might be making it worse.

My recommendation is to sharpen your own originals and turn off autofix options to take control of the look of your own images.

DanHonemann · September 27, 2010

"Output sharpening should always be applied after the photo has been resized to final output size because the amount of sharpening you apply is influenced by how large the image is. Also, upsampling a file can introduce anti-aliasing, which can soften any sharpening that’s applied prior to resizing."

SOURCE: http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-output-sharpening.html

See for yourself: take an original-sized image and apply sharpening to it (by whatever means you use to sharpen, in LR, Photoshop, whatever). Assuming the image is natively larger than 4x6 inches at 300 dpi, resize it to that size (if it is already that size, try upsizing it to 16x24 inches... or experiment at whatever different-than-original size you like). Save it as "sharpen-before-sizing."

Now bring up the original-sized image again, and this time size it to 4x6" at 300 dpi (or whatever size you chose in the first experiment). Now apply sharpening to it. Save it as "sharpen-after-sizing."

Bring up both versions of your sharpened 4x6 (or whatever) sized image. You will see the difference for yourself. The sharpening you are getting whenever someone orders a 4x6 (or whatever) sized print from your originally sharpened print is what you see in "sharpen-before-sizing;" the sharpening you would get if you sharpened after sizing your image for a 4x6 (or whatever) sized print is what you see in "sharpen-after-sizing."

For the same image shot with my Canon 20D (natively about 8x12 @ 300dpi) and resized to 4x6 inches, there is no contest: the image that is sharpened after sizing is much sharper than the image that is sharpened and then sized.

This has nothing to do with a particular printer's rasterizer. It is merely the basics of sharpening. Sharpening applied to a 4x6 inch image will look better (sharper, less artifacts) than sharpening applied to an 8x12 inch image that is then resized to 4x6 inches for printing.

As it stands now, unless you choose to proof delay your print orders and then resize and sharpen according to the order, what you are getting by uploading a sharpened original-sized image and letting the lab size it for you (the current SmugMug approach) is the "sharpen-before-sizing" image quality. I'm asking for an option to give us the "sharpen-after-sizing" image quality. The lab could do it, or SmugMug could do it... either way is better than my having to do it!

Dan

ps- I would hope that EZPrints is running i2e sharpening AFTER sizing the image to the requested print size, but you may be right: they may be running it on the original and then sizing afterwards--if so, that would also be the wrong sequence. It simply doesn't make sense to sharpen a, say, 16x24 inch image and then downsize it to make a 4x6 inch print. The downsizing needs to happen first, then the sharpening.

jfriend · September 27, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

"Output sharpening should always be applied after the photo has been resized to final output size because the amount of sharpening you apply is influenced by how large the image is. Also, upsampling a file can introduce anti-aliasing, which can soften any sharpening that’s applied prior to resizing."

SOURCE: http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-output-sharpening.html

See for yourself: take an original-sized image and apply sharpening to it (by whatever means you use to sharpen, in LR, Photoshop, whatever). Assuming the image is natively larger than 4x6 inches at 300 dpi, resize it to that size (if it is already that size, try upsizing it to 16x24 inches... or experiment at whatever different-than-original size you like). Save it as "sharpen-before-sizing."

Now bring up the original-sized image again, and this time size it to 4x6" at 300 dpi (or whatever size you chose in the first experiment). Now apply sharpening to it. Save it as "sharpen-after-sizing."

Bring up both versions of your sharpened 4x6 (or whatever) sized image. You will see the difference for yourself. The sharpening you are getting whenever someone orders a 4x6 (or whatever) sized print from your originally sharpened print is what you see in "sharpen-before-sizing;" the sharpening you would get if you sharpened after sizing your image for a 4x6 (or whatever) sized print is what you see in "sharpen-after-sizing."

For the same image shot with my Canon 20D (natively about 8x12 @ 300dpi) and resized to 4x6 inches, there is no contest: the image that is sharpened after sizing is much sharper than the image that is sharpened and then sized.

This has nothing to do with a particular printer's rasterizer. It is merely the basics of sharpening. Sharpening applied to a 4x6 inch image will look better (sharper, less artifacts) than sharpening applied to an 8x12 inch image that is then resized to 4x6 inches for printing.

As it stands now, unless you choose to proof delay your print orders and then resize and sharpen according to the order, what you are getting by uploading a sharpened original-sized image and letting the lab size it for you (the current SmugMug approach) is the "sharpen-before-sizing" image quality. I'm asking for an option to give us the "sharpen-after-sizing" image quality. The lab could do it, or SmugMug could do it... either way is better than my having to do it!

Dan

ps- I would hope that EZPrints is running i2e sharpening AFTER sizing the image to the requested print size, but you may be right: they may be running it on the original and then sizing afterwards--if so, that would also be the wrong sequence. It simply doesn't make sense to sharpen a, say, 16x24 inch image and then downsize it to make a 4x6 inch print. The downsizing needs to happen first, then the sharpening.

Do you know any consumer lab that offers what you are asking for to the general public? I don't.

You'd have to know exactly what printer and resolution you were printing on for every size print and you'd have to resize your image to that exact resolution and then sharpen. I don't even print that way when I'm printing enlargements here at home on my own Epson 3800. I let the printer firmware take care of the final resize for it's print engine because I'm not sure that I can hit what it wants exactly and having an extra resize if I don't hit it exactly is probably worse off than me not resizing before printing.

You also seem to be ignoring the fact that when they do resize the image to match the printers exact resolution, they are applying appropriate sharpening after that resize operation. They are doing that to maintain the sharpening that you have supplied on the original. This is not output sharpening. This is resize sharpening to maintain whatever sharpening you supplied on the original.

Your comments that it has nothing to do with the printer's rasterizer make me think that you don't understand how printers work. In order to resize an image for a particular print, you have to know EXACTLY what output resolution the printer uses. If you don't know that, you will just be guessing and, if you miss, the print rasterizing software will have to resize your image AGAIN which is a bad thing.

Try this test. Take a high resolution image, say a 12MP image and make a copy of it. Sharpen it for printing at native resolution. Print that as a 4x6 (the printer software will probably have to downsize it). Now do whatever manifestations you want to to resize it for the 4x6 print and then sharpen that. Print the 4x6. Can you tell a difference? I will doubt you can.

DanHonemann · September 27, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

Try this test. Take a high resolution image, say a 12MP image and make a copy of it. Sharpen it for printing at native resolution. Print that as a 4x6 (the printer software will probably have to downsize it). Now do whatever manifestations you want to to resize it for the 4x6 print and then sharpen that. Print the 4x6. Can you tell a difference? I will doubt you can.

John,

That sounds like a good test and I will give it a try.

I admit that I don't know anything about printer rasterization (hadn't even heard the term before you mentioned it). I'm honestly hoping you are right about this and that the printing lab takes care of the proper sharpening on their end when printing whatever size from the supplied image.

I typically have been using Qimage to size and sharpen before turning over my images to whcc to print... so if I'm ordering, say, 12x18" prints, I size to that (at 300 dpi as whcc requests) and let Qimage use it's smart sharpening routines to print sharpen... and then I upload *those* images to whcc. I was just hoping (I know it is a tall order, I really do) that smugmug could find an innovative way of doing the same with their labs. But probably you are right and it is simply unnecessary. I will test and see for myself. (At least at 4x6. Maybe at 16x24 it is a different story... but that test gets more expensive to conduct.)

Thanks,
Dan

DanHonemann · September 27, 2010

I uploaded my original (plus sharpening) and resized 4x6 (plus sharpening after the resize) images here:

http://julieeisel.smugmug.com/Other/dantest/13953213_WcsJK#1025138653_jPsik

(my wife and I share this gallery)

... and ordered 4x6 prints of each with color correction turned off. I'll let you know what I find. It is interesting to notice the difference in sharpness of the two images in the viewing gallery. Hopefully, both 4x6's will look equally sharp and this issue is moot.

Thanks again for your feedback and suggestions,
Dan

ps- should mention I applied the same sharpening to both images... just used Photoshop's smart sharpening at 80%, radius 0.3. both look sharp at 100% on the screen in their respective resolutions.

jfriend · September 27, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

I uploaded my original (plus sharpening) and resized 4x6 (plus sharpening after the resize) images here:

http://julieeisel.smugmug.com/Other/dantest/13953213_WcsJK#1025138653_jPsik

(my wife and I share this gallery)

... and ordered 4x6 prints of each with color correction turned off. I'll let you know what I find. It is interesting to notice the difference in sharpness of the two images in the viewing gallery. Hopefully, both 4x6's will look equally sharp and this issue is moot.

Thanks again for your feedback and suggestions,
Dan

ps- should mention I applied the same sharpening to both images... just used Photoshop's smart sharpening at 80%, radius 0.3. both look sharp at 100% on the screen in their respective resolutions.

The original plus sharpening looks way undersharpened to me at all sizes. How did you decide how much sharpening to give the original, unresized version?

DanHonemann · September 27, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

The original plus sharpening looks way undersharpened to me at all sizes. How did you decide how much sharpening to give the original, unresized version?

John,

I used Photoshop CS3's smart sharpen and gave the original image an 80% amount at a radius of 0.3 pixels (remove: lens blur; more accurate checked) as this is my usual, admittedly conservative setting. I also sharpened the original resized to 4x6 image using the same settings (80% at .3 pixels radius). At 100% resolution, they both look sharper than the original, but you are right that the 4x6 appears to be a bit sharper at 100% than the native size copy (though it is hard to compare in PS as the higher res image appears twice as big on the screen at 100% as the 4x6 res). I suppose I should have used more aggressive parameters for the larger than the smaller size? I thought I was doing the right thing test-wise by applying the same sharpening amount using smart sharpen to both sizes.

At this point, having already ordered the 4x6's, and having devoted too much of my time and energy to this experiment already, I don't feel inclined to redo the test using different sharpening amounts. I am more than happy to email you (or anyone) the original image if you'd like to, however.

In any event, I am convinced by my experiment that downsizing a sharpened original does not look as sharp on the screen as sharpening a downsized image (again, using the same sharpening settings).

I believe that smugmug applies its own sharpening to the viewable copies of our uploaded images that appear in our galleries--beyond whatever sharpening we have given them--to ensure they look their best at each viewable size.

I am hoping (at least at 4x6) that both prints will look identical or at least close enough to each other that the issue is moot for all practical purposes. If not, then I would at least hope that the original-sized image 4x6 print looks as sharp as it does on the screen in the gallery (i.e., matches the minimal sharpening that smugmug applies to the viewable image).

If the original 4x6 is neither as sharp as the resized 4x6 nor the gallery photo as it appears on the screen, then that would imply to me that the lab is not applying any sharpening at all on their end. So even if the experiment is flawed by not having as sharp an original as we might like, it will at least tell us this much, no?

Dan

jfriend · September 27, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

John,

I used Photoshop CS3's smart sharpen and gave the original image an 80% amount at a radius of 0.3 pixels (remove: lens blur; more accurate checked) as this is my usual, admittedly conservative setting. I also sharpened the original resized to 4x6 image using the same settings (80% at .3 pixels radius). At 100% resolution, they both look sharper than the original, but you are right that the 4x6 appears to be a bit sharper at 100% than the native size copy (though it is hard to compare in PS as the higher res image appears twice as big on the screen at 100% as the 4x6 res). I suppose I should have used more aggressive parameters for the larger than the smaller size? I thought I was doing the right thing test-wise by applying the same sharpening amount using smart sharpen to both sizes.

At this point, having already ordered the 4x6's, and having devoted too much of my time and energy to this experiment already, I don't feel inclined to redo the test using different sharpening amounts. I am more than happy to email you (or anyone) the original image if you'd like to, however.

In any event, I am convinced by my experiment that downsizing a sharpened original does not look as sharp on the screen as sharpening a downsized image (again, using the same sharpening settings).

I believe that smugmug applies its own sharpening to the viewable copies of our uploaded images that appear in our galleries--beyond whatever sharpening we have given them--to ensure they look their best at each viewable size.

I am hoping (at least at 4x6) that both prints will look identical or at least close enough to each other that the issue is moot for all practical purposes. If not, then I would at least hope that the original-sized image 4x6 print looks as sharp as it does on the screen in the gallery (i.e., matches the minimal sharpening that smugmug applies to the viewable image).

If the original 4x6 is neither as sharp as the resized 4x6 nor the gallery photo as it appears on the screen, then that would imply to me that the lab is not applying any sharpening at all on their end. So even if the experiment is flawed by not having as sharp an original as we might like, it will at least tell us this much, no?

Dan

You can't apply the same sharpening settings to two different resolution images and expect the same results. Based on what you sent to the printer, I'd expect the image that looks sharper to produce a sharper print.

My supposition was that if you sharpened the two images to look similarly before submitting them to the printer that you would not be able to tell the difference in the prints even though the printer might do different resizing operations on the two. I understand that you're done devoting time to the test today, but the test you did won't really work for a test of what I suggested. I think you're going to see that "less sharp in" results in "less sharp out".

WinsomeWorks · September 27, 2010

Dan, SmugMug applies sharpening to the viewable images if you want it to (it's on by default) but you can always turn it off or change the amount if you want in your gallery settings.

DanHonemann · September 27, 2010

jfriend wrote: »

You can't apply the same sharpening settings to two different resolution images and expect the same results. Based on what you sent to the printer, I'd expect the image that looks sharper to produce a sharper print.

Yeah, I would too, of course.

I'm sure I've read from multiple sources that sharpening has to happen after sizing for output, whether the output is for web viewing or for printing. I'd have liked to see for myself but I guess I blew this experiment. I just tried sharpening the original using more aggressive parameters (150% at 1.5px radius) and of course it does look sharper, and when resized to 4x6 looks as sharp as the sharpen-after-resizing 4x6 (using the 80% at 0.3px radius settings) without any artifacts (that I can notice, anyway).

So I'm hopelessly confused at this point and figuring that I read wrong about the sharpening after sizing business and that if it really made a difference the fine folks at smugmug would have already addressed the issue.

Enough said. I'm sure you're right. Please consider my feature request retracted.

Dan

jfriend · September 27, 2010

DanHonemann wrote: »

Yeah, I would too, of course.

I'm sure I've read from multiple sources that sharpening has to happen after sizing for output, whether the output is for web viewing or for printing. I'd have liked to see for myself but I guess I blew this experiment. I just tried sharpening the original using more aggressive parameters (150% at 1.5px radius) and of course it does look sharper, and when resized to 4x6 looks as sharp as the sharpen-after-resizing 4x6 (using the 80% at 0.3px radius settings) without any artifacts (that I can notice, anyway).

So I'm hopelessly confused at this point and figuring that I read wrong about the sharpening after sizing business and that if it really made a difference the fine folks at smugmug would have already addressed the issue.

Enough said. I'm sure you're right. Please consider my feature request retracted.

Dan

What you've read is theoretically correct. It gives you the most control over the final result. But practically speaking, you have to know the EXACT dot pitch of the exact printer that will actually print your image in order to do this optimally. When ordering different print sizes from a 3rd party lab, that info is not generally known and may not even remain constant over time (they may get new printers).

Since most people don't have this information or this level of control, it has been found that sharpening a high res version of your image appropriately and then letting Smugmug send it off to a good lab that will resize it to match the printer exactly, can and does still produce very good results.

Furthermore, you upload to Smugmug a single general purpose version of your image. That single image will be used for creating web viewable sizes and as the original source image for any size print that might be ordered. Practically speaking, you can't use one image for all these different purposes and optimize it individually for each different purpose. There's just no practical solution to that. If you want to optimize an image exactly for one print size and one destination printer, then you should work directly with a print lab that allows you to do so. That is simply not how Smugmug works and probably never will be given their overall business objectives and all the other things they're trying to offer.

What I was suggesting is that for most images and for the level of scrutiny that most viewers will apply, the difference between using an appropriately sharpened high resolution, general purpose image being sent to a good lab and the method you read where you resize it to the EXACT print resolution before apply any output sharpening is quite small, if even discernible.

Sharpening and color profile

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