Sharpening for print size?

jsinon

Of all the things I'm finding it hard to get my head around, the biggest is how does smugmug handles sharpening for the various print sizes offered? All the images on my site are full resolution, level 9-10 jpgs with minimal capture sharpening applied using Nik RAW Pre-Sharpener. It has always been my understanding that with regards to sharpening that, 1. Do it last, 2. Images for print will look a bit over sharpened, and 3. Sharpen for print size and viewing distance. I get all that, and all the prints I get back from the lab look wonderful if I send them a file sized and sharpened to the final print size.

With proof delay set, the only change I want to make to the file is to sharpen for the desired print size ordered, the color etc is what the customer ordered, so that is what they will get. But the Hero's tell me to just upload a file that will be sharpened good enough for all print sizes, and there is no need to have different files for each size print on my hard drive. Which goes against everything I've been told or read online.

How do you handle the sharpening of the images you upload to SM? Do you just apply sharpening to the full res file and let the lab, Bay in this case handle the rest?

FYI, I shoot nature, landscape and wildlife, do virtually all my pp in LR3 with the aid of several Nik plug-ins. My only desire is to ensure that a buyer gets a quality print regardless of size. I know the short easy answer would be to just order random print sizes from the smallest to the largest I offer and see how they look, but my severely limited budget just won't allow that.

Please help shed some light on this for me, and thanks in advance,

Jeff

arodney

I can’t answer your questions about how SM handles this. I can tell you how to ideally deal with output sharpening. Target the sharpening based on the final size (pixels on both axis at the recommended PPI) and for the output device. IOW, a 2000x3000 pixel image, output to a contone device where you expect an 8x10 would require a different amount of sharpening than a 1000x2000 for a 4x5 at the same output rez or to a different kind of printer. This might help explain the relationship with capture sharpening and the idea of targeting sharpening based on output resolution and print size: http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html

Sam

Trying to produce the best of the best on a tight budget is, to put it mildly, not possible.

If you want the best landscapes, you / we would look towards large format and or very high end 60 MP medium format cameras.

You would also want to buy your own printer and invest a lot of time and money learning that skill.

So the real task is to produce the best images your budget will allow.

One way to see how well your prints will look at different print sizes with out the expense is to pick a size say 8X10 or if that's too much 4X6. Then on your computer increase the size of your image to say 16X24 and / or 24X36 without increasing resolution. After that crop a section out of the larger image and print at the smaller size.

Not sure the above is perfect, but should give you some idea of how your images will look at the larger print sizes.

You can also call and chat with Bay Photo and ask them how they deal with this issue.

Sam

jsinon

arodney wrote: »

I can’t answer your questions about how SM handles this. I can tell you how to ideally deal with output sharpening. Target the sharpening based on the final size (pixels on both axis at the recommended PPI) and for the output device. IOW, a 2000x3000 pixel image, output to a contone device where you expect an 8x10 would require a different amount of sharpening than a 1000x2000 for a 4x5 at the same output rez or to a different kind of printer. This might help explain the relationship with capture sharpening and the idea of targeting sharpening based on output resolution and print size: http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html

This part I get, and it is what I do when I send a file to the lab myself. The problem I'm having is getting an answer that my feeble mind can understand regarding sharpening files I upload to me site. This latest response from an SM Hero.

"And there's no need to prepare specifically sharpened versions for each print size. The idea behind our ordering system is that you upload your photo in the best quality and largest size. Our lab will take care of printing your original as best as possible for the different print sizes."

I know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to post processing, but it just doesn't make any sense to me. I cant see sharpening one file and having it work for all print sizes

arodney

jsinon wrote: »

"And there's no need to prepare specifically sharpened versions for each print size. The idea behind our ordering system is that you upload your photo in the best quality and largest size. Our lab will take care of printing your original as best as possible for the different print sizes."

Assuming they sample for size and output sharpen for that size, true. But I’d ask if they specifically do this (I have my doubts).