Sharpening for magazines

heatherfeather

I have been published several times, and always wonder when I submit my images: What is the correct way to sharpen for magazines? Thus far, the photos have looked fairly acceptable in the mags, but they do seem to loose a bit of luster in press print. And since my presence in magazines seems to be increasing, I would love that difference in quality to be less.

I would love a pointer in LR export sharpening for press print since that is usually my last step before submitting.

Or whatever else you have to offer. :lust

basflt

my humble opinion as amateur .
check the image after exporting from LR but before submitting
often some additional sharpening on the output image can make a different , especially if it is sized down

BradfordBenn

Yes, I shoot avocationally and I am by no means an expert, but I have a few of my images published in trade magazines. When I asked for recommended USM settings I could hear the blank stare through the phone. What I have found works best is to get the settings that are recommended for preparing an advertisement, that is typically readily available in the Media Kit for the magazine. Within that will usually be information about their printing process such as "Method and Paper: Web offset, coated text and cover, perfect bound." I typically will still need to call or e-mail to find out the lines per inch they are running. The reason I ask that is I then use NikSoftware Sharpener Pro and enter the appropriate values in and let it do the work for me.

Often they often have statements such as "If a color proof is not supplied, we cannot be responsible for color reproduction quality" so I will get a Bay Photo print (with their color correction as well) to send along.

Sorry I don't have a better answer but what I have learned is that each magazine's process and as a result USM settings are different.

heatherfeather

Thanks Brad & Bas,
So far I have been setting the maximum sharpening on export and set it for Matte print. I have no clue if that is correct. I guess we'll see!

jhefti

The first few shots I sold to magazines I asked many of the same questions. Some questions I thought they would have a ready answer for: color space, resolution, crop, etc. But there was that long silence on the other end of the line, so I tried a different approach. I just took a look at other shots in the magazine, and did my best to season my shots accordingly. In my experience, some mags like over-sharpened shots (IMHO) and exaggerated colors; other mags look down on this. Part of being a good merchant (whatever it is your selling) is to give the customer what he/she wants without asking a lot of questions or putting them on the spot. The best way to do this is to see what they have already purchased.