I need advice on sharpening with elements 9

Zet

Hi,

I just got my vacation pictures back and they look "grainy". I think it is from sharpening...??? I sharpened them because I wanted them to look "crisp". Do you have any advice on when I should sharpen photos and when not to?

Here is one that looks very bad. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Zet

hhhmmmm....it doesn't look as bad on the computer as it does in print. Maybe it is a problem at CVS.

Peano

Zet wrote: »

hhhmmmm....it doesn't look as bad on the computer as it does in print. Maybe it is a problem at CVS.

If you're printing at CVS (or Walgreens or anything of the sort), you've found your first problem. Get thee to a pro lab -- White House Custom Color or ProDPI.

Zet

I've usually had pretty good luck at CVS. For special photos I go to a professional lab. That is expensive for a bunch of photos from vacation. I'm going to re-print some of the ones that look bad and ask CVS for my money back if it is a problem on their side.

So, advice on sharpening? Ok to sharpen all photos?

colourbox

Zet wrote: »

So, advice on sharpening? Ok to sharpen all photos?

In a sense, all photos need to be sharpened, so that's not the question. The real question is how much, and using what technique. You can look around the web or on this forum for articles on how to use the Unsharp Mask or Smart Sharpen features in Photoshop, adjusting for the type of content. When you get good at it you'll gain an understanding of how there is not one-size-fits-all in terms of settings, but to know when certain sliders need to be turned up or down. You'd need to use a different approach for a landscape than for a woman's face, for example.

Ohiohiker

Couple of things that might help. Sharpen for the size you are printing. If you are printing for a 4x6 at 300dpi, resize the image to 1200x1800 and then sharpen. If you try to sharpen at the wrong size and the lab has to resize after you sharpen you can get oversharpened results. When sharpening zoom into an area with high contrast and adjust your sharpening till halos appear and the back off a little bit. This will help keep your images from appearing oversharpened.

Hope this helps.

KnoxvilleRob

I always have fun taking a look at how some pics look with a small tweak from the High Pass filter. I usually do about 3.0 to 4.5 on some to see if that makes em sparkle. Then I run some actions on them to see what works best.

pathfinder

Here is a good place to start - http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1104535

And here http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9541