Novice Corner - Image Sharing Guidelines

Diff · April 11, 2008

This topic started over in the Pop Tutorial – New & Improved. My last post was most important and I’ve not received any feedback, so I'm reposting it here.

I’m new to CS3 and finally in a position to take what I’ve learned from 2 work books & now ready to share a new image to get some feedback.

I do have a few questions before posting an image:

1) Posting Images - I've created a new category in my Smugmug area just for PS, “before” & “after” images. With this, I can post those images here from this new category, right? Anything I need to do/know before I proceed?

2) Sharpening - Suggestions? In the last few days I’ve been reviewing a number of articles (Bill Frazier stuff was very informative.) on sharpening. I know there's a difference between posting an image on the web vs for printing. From what I've read, "Lab Color" process appears to be the "best?" For this forum, what are the recommendations for sharpening posted images?

3) When I post an image for post processing review is there some specific information I ought to note?

~ Much Thanks ~

BinaryFx · April 12, 2008

Diff, I will help with answers where I can, with luck others fill in the blanks and add further views etc.

1. Can't help here, I am sure a mod will answer this one! Is this for the Whipping Post area of the site?

2. Sharpening for monitor viewing - CRT will look softer than LCD (or LCD looks sharper, depending on your viewpoint). Sharpening will add to JPEG file size, but this should not be a major concern. I would just make things look acceptable on your monitor, you will never be able to control how others view your image (hardware quality and age, calibration and characterisation, colour management etc). Sharpening will depend on the image content variables.

3. Depends on the feeback that you are after. Some info is good so that others know what you are looking for in feedback, if you are open to general feedback then ask for that too. Posting both the original and the processed version will let those resonding see whether an particular issue is with the original file or the edits done in PP.

Hope this helps,

Stephen Marsh
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~binaryfx/

pathfinder · April 12, 2008

Diff wrote:

This topic started over in the Pop Tutorial – New & Improved. My last post was most important and I’ve not received any feedback, so I'm reposting it here.

I’m new to CS3 and finally in a position to take what I’ve learned from 2 work books & now ready to share a new image to get some feedback.

I do have a few questions before posting an image:

1) Posting Images - I've created a new category in my Smugmug area just for PS, “before” & “after” images. With this, I can post those images here from this new category, right? Anything I need to do/know before I proceed?

You can post images in the Finishing thread for comments or help with post processing. You can either link them from your Smugmug account or "attach" them with the attach files button below where you type text into the posting box. You can simply include an image in your post by typing the following phrase --- [img*]http://Pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/264411693_EYkMB-L.jpg[/img*] but omitting the asterisks that I typed in the phrase so that you can see it. If I type the very same phrase as above and omit the asterisks (*), you will see the following

You can get the url for the image in your Smugmug gallery by typing the Share Photo button on the upper right, and then the appropriate CopyLink button based on the size you choose. You can then paste the link in with command-V or control-V ( mac or windows)

2) Sharpening - Suggestions? In the last few days I’ve been reviewing a number of articles (Bill Frazier stuff was very informative.) on sharpening. I know there's a difference between posting an image on the web vs for printing. From what I've read, "Lab Color" process appears to be the "best?" For this forum, what are the recommendations for sharpening posted images?

3) When I post an image for post processing review is there some specific information I ought to note?

~ Much Thanks ~

A discussion of Sharpening can be rather lengthy - Bruce Frazier wrote a whole book about it, and almost every Photoshop guru has a book with at least one, if not more than one, chapter on the subject.

Sharpen to taste, but not to crunchy like some gurus advocate for printing. - I do not adjust the parameters that Smugmug adds to my thumbnails, I let them do that. They do not add any sharpening to your original file. And I have lovely images at 20 x 30 inches from EZ Prints from Smuggy, so they do a good job in that department.

I do my 'capture sharpening' in RAW as I have discussed here previously.

The need for going to LAB to sharpen properly, will be argued with a great deal of fury. There are those that believe this, on an quasi-religious basis, and there are those that are convinced this is a total waste of time. Needless to say, I do not have the final answer to this, but I anticipate further discussion of this topic over the coming months here in Finishing School. I tend to be a member of the 'good enough' school of thought about sharpening and a lot of things:D

Novice Corner - Image Sharing Guidelines

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