Sharpening and Lightroom Plugin

Ferguson

This is complicated, at least in my head, so sorry in advance.

In Lightroom under Detail I can sharpen a photo.

In Lightroom's export process (and publish to disk and I think some others) you can set sharpening for output sharpening, e.g. screen (high/low/medium), print (paper type), etc.

In the LR Plugin module there's settings for a GALLERY's sharpening. I think (emphasis on think) this only applies to displayed, downsized copies. If you display an original, or for all print and download, I think it does NOT apply -- is that correct?

So I THINK that if I export to JPG, and then upload manually to Smugmug, I'm getting a level of output sharpening done (that I can choose).

But if I publish to Smugmug with the plugin, I THINK that I am not getting any output sharpening done, and so downloads or original displays or prints will not have that sharpening done.

And if I did some one way, and some the other, I'm getting inconsistent levels of sharpening on Smugmug, depending on which way?

Put perhaps another way, to use the plugin, I need to add some level of additional sharpening in the lightroom develop module?

Am I over-complicating this?

Ferguson

By way of example (and to show this is a subtle difference), here is four variations on one image. My suggestion is open one each in a browser tab, and click back and forth at different sizes. These are original resolution so there are a bit big (for you who are on dialup):

Export, Print, glossy

Export, screen high

Export, screen low

Publish

The differences are subtle, but if you look at the flying dirt in particular in the original resolution, I see quite a bit of difference in the glossy paper output sharpening, and a bit of difference in the screen set to high, but the publish and low both look the same.

This would SEEM to say if I wanted to print from Smugmug, I won't get the benefit of output sharpening with the plugin? And maybe I should be over-sharpening a bit in Lightroom since there's no export/output sharpening at all?

On a related note -- when you put a link to a specific size photo, e.g. to embed in a web site, and it is downsized -- is it sharpened with the gallery settings? Or only when displayed on Smugmug's website? I'm GUESSING that the sharpening is done when downsized and cached, so it is always there?

mrneutron

The original image on SmugMug is not sharpened, only the display copies. Or recommendation is to leave the export settings alone and sharpen your original as needed in LR.
You can set sharpening to 0 in the gallery settings and your display copies won't get sharpened. The original file is what get's sent to the lab.

Ferguson

mrneutron wrote: »

The original image on SmugMug is not sharpened, only the display copies. Or recommendation is to leave the export settings alone and sharpen your original as needed in LR.
You can set sharpening to 0 in the gallery settings and your display copies won't get sharpened. The original file is what get's sent to the lab.

So is my supposition correct that the publish plugin does no sharpening on export to smugmug?

I no longer know what the default was in lightroom (that was years ago, and it appears to just propagate the last used as the next default), I take it that lightroom's default is also to not sharpen? Not that it matters per se, just checking on "leave the export settings alone".

devbobo

Linwood,

I never saw the benefit in output sharpening, perhaps that's my own naivety.

Here's what the defaults are for any published collection...


Cheers,

David

Ferguson

devbobo wrote: »

Linwood,

I never saw the benefit in output sharpening, perhaps that's my own naivety.

Here's what the defaults are for any published collection...

Thanks, David. I am not confident I understand all the complexities, but as I understand it, there should be different sharpening applied for different output devices, media, etc., with one basic level of underlying sharpening. I've never understood well, since it sounds a bit like "resize twice by 70% to end up at 50%, which is not a good solution as it introduces the resize artifacts twice. But it seems to be what consensus says is the "right" way.

However, the key to all this for me appears to be that publish applies none, and display-original and print applies none, and I can deal from there.

Thank you.