I need something sharper!

PictureThis!

I don't know if I'm posting this in the right section or not, but I need some help with my pictures. I've noticed that a lot of my portraits don't seem to be coming out sharp. I use the unsharpen tool in PS, but they're not as sharp as I'd like for them to be. Any suggestions on some reading material? Or suggestions from some pros?

ShepsMom

I don't use in camera sharpening tool, i use PS unsharpen mask in my PP work. Show us some pictures with EXIF data, may be your settings aren't correct while shooting.

ShepsMom

Ok, double take, i just looked at your galleries, i don't know what exactly you're not liking?? Your shots look pretty decent to me. May be bigger versions will help?

JBHotShots

What settings are you using in your camera and what about your sharpening technique in PS? By all means I'm no pro, but I do have books....lol

PictureThis!

PictureThis!

Exposure for above picture: 1/50
Aperture: 5.6
ISO: 200
48mm
No flash
White Balance: auto

I basically had my camera on auto.

In PS I did auto for highlights/shadows. An used the USM. I don't recall my setting for USM.

I may be seeming picky, but my husband said something about this gallery and I freaked. Sharpening is a must in my photo land ().

PictureThis!

I found a great USM tutorial from Digital Grin. I think that I just found a setting that worked from one picture and I've been using that setting for everything. I will play with the USM with a little more detail. Thanks guys!

JBHotShots

Ok, once again I can honestly say I'm no pro. But I do know where to find things when I really want to. I do own a book by Scott Kelby, actually a few, but one in particular that may help you. It's The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers. In the section Sharp-Dressed Man, he addresses some basic unsharp mask settings for certain situations. He also goes into professional sharpening methods using lab color sharpening. I have found that this is some of the most important information I have ever read about reguarding photography. There again I want to stress I am not a professional. What I like and what pro might like probably is something different.

If I have your attention, reply and I'll post the settings and techniques he uses in this book.

Sorry for rambling on.

PictureThis!

Jamie, I love Scott Kelby and have a couple of his books (and a couple on my wish list). I don't have that one since I have PSE 5.0 and not CS. What does he suggest?

And thanks for your input. I'm stuck between am/pro with a lot of learning to go!:D

digismile

Remember that your sharpening is for the exact size that you output. For example, this means that if you are uploading a 3000 x 2000 original, it is going to look sharpest for that specific display size, not 800 x 533, etc. This also means that you would end up sharpening differently for printed output vs. screen output.

Smugmug basically does a good job for the resizing (and I believe some sharpening) of the small/medium/large versions, but if optimum display is needed, I always resize and sharpen in photoshop at the size that I intend to display at. I then will link to the original (-O) size when displaying in a forum.

JBHotShots

You and me both. I'm going to quote him verbatum so there is no confusion.

First thing is going to be his technique then to the settings.

And I quote:

"Open the photo you want to sharpen using Lab Sharpening.

Go to the channels palette and yuou can see that your RGB photo is made up of three channels-a Red, a Green, and a Blue channel. Combining the data on these three channels creates a full-color RGB image.

Go underthe Image menu, under Mode, and choose Lab Color. Now look in the Channels palette and you see that although your photo still looks the same onscreen, the channels it compromises have changed. There are still three channels but now they'rea Lightness channel, an "a" channel, and a "b" channel, which hold color data.

By switching to the Lab color, you've separated the detail (Lightness channel) from the color info (the a and b channels), so click on the Lightness channel to select it. Now you'll apply the Unsharp Mask Filter to just this black-and-white Lightness channel, thereby avoiding the color halos, because you're not sharpening the color."

Here are the settings he supplies for situations.

Soft subjects: Amount 150%, Radius 1, Thresehold10
e.g. flowers, puppies, people, ranbows, ect.

Portraits: Amount 75%, Radius 2, Threshold 3

Moderate Sharpening: Amount 225%, Radius 0.5, Threshold 0
works nicely on product shots, photos of home interiors and exteriors and landscapes.

Maximum Sharpening: Amount 65%, Radius 4, Threshold 3
I, Scott Kelby, only use this in two situations: (1) The photo is visibly out of focus and itneeds a heavy application of sharpening to try and bring it back into focus. (2) The photo cotains lots of well-defined edges (e.g. buildings, coins, cars, machinery, ect.)

All-purpose Sharpening: Amount 85%, Radius 1, Threshold 4
all-around sharpening method

Web Sharpening: Amount 400%, Radius 0.3, Threshold 0
for web graphics that look blurry.

He goes on to say to experiment with these settings.

Now to continue with Lab Sharpening.

"Once you sharpen the Lightness channel (and again, you may be able to apply the filter twice here), go under the Image menu, under Mode, and choose RGB Color and switch your photo back to RGB. Now should you apply this brand of sharpening to every digital-camera photoyou take? I would. In fact, I do...."

He goes on to explain how to create an action using Lab Sharpening.

I hope this is of as much help to you and/or anyone else that may read this as it was to me.

SloYerRoll

Scott Helpme is nice.
But if you want to really get into sharpening:
Bruce Fraser (TRUE Photoshop Genius) has a book out called "Real world photoshop sharpening for Adobe Photoshop CS2" availlable through Peachpit press ISBN 0-321-44991-6. (I'm sure the CS3 version is on the presses now)

PictureThis!

LouDoggsRuca wrote:

"Open the photo you want to sharpen using Lab Sharpening.

PSE doesn't have this option. Or at least I can't find it where the tutorial shows it for PS CS. Does anyone know if Elements has this?

JBHotShots

PictureThis! wrote:

PSE doesn't have this option. Or at least I can't find it where the tutorial shows it for PS CS. Does anyone know if Elements has this?

It's under Mode, where RGB, Greyscale and so forth are.