Capture Sharpening

[WSLam]

I have been playing with the Capture Sharpening on images from my 20D and 1Ds without much success. I have tried all combination (diff edges), play with the opacity of the layer etc, but I either get a very flat image (the inherent haze with digital images) or I get very 'crunchy' pixels.

I seem to have much better luck with a simple Lab Mode USM of 400, 0.3, 0 and 25, 30, 10 (local contrast)... This method is also much faster then the PKCS approach.

Am I missing something? Can anyone give me a general guideline to capture sharpen 1Ds/20D images?

Once I resize, I then use the Output sharpner set and it works much better.

I do work on individual images if needed, but I mostly use an action to batch all the photos first.

[Bruce Fraser]

It seems counterintuitive that you can get either a very flat image or very crunchy pixels with nothing inbetween?

On both of the cameras you mention, we recommend Digital High-Res Sharpen for anything shot slower than ISO 800, Digital High-Res Sharpen and Smooth for high-ISO images that really need more noise reduction than the raw converter can apply, with an edge width tailored to the image content. We recommend turning off any sharpening applied by the raw converter.

Other than what we say in the 30-odd pages of the manual, I don't really know what to tell you. I use DHR Capture Sharpen on all my 20D images with good results. I use Adobe Camera Raw, with ACR Sharpening set to Preview only. It works well for me.

[WSLam]

Dear Bruce, Thank you so much for replying.
I find the 30+ pages manual very very useful, but in my case, I am still having problem with just the Capture Sharpening.
I wonder if you could capture sharpened the attached file for me. It is a 100% crop of a photo from the 20D, unsharpened. During RAW conversion, sharpening was disabled.
Perhaps I am not expecting the right thing from Capture Sharpening? I tried using the high rez narrow, medium and wide options on images like this, and I ended up with either rather flat images or 'fuzzy' edges when I crank up the layer's opacity.
On the other hand, a straight forward Lab mode usm yields sharp and contrasty results, not to mention it is a LOT faster (another problem I have with PKS). The speed is just too slow using PKS... in fact in my complete action, an image would take 60 secs to process (using PKS CS) vs 15secs using Lab Mode USM.

100% Unsharpened Image here (http://www.lam.ws/temp/033-UnSharpened.jpg)

Thank you!

[Jeff Schewe]

First off, it's a -REAL BAD IDEA- to convert from RGB to Lab merely to sharpen an image. . .you get color quantization errors going from RGB to Lab. It?s not lossless. I think I remember Bruce saying it was equivalent to doing 6-8 RGB>RGB conversions. If you wish to sharpen the luminance data, duplicate the layer and set it to Luminosity blend mode then sharpen.

The other comment is that I downloaded your image and ran Digital High Rez Medium and Wide (it was a tossup). Even viewing the image at 100% the sharpening was pretty good for capture sharpening.

Just how are you evaluating your images on screen? You realize that looking at the image zoomed in will NOT give you any useful information regarding the amount of sharpening needed, right?

And the capture stage is NOT where you are supposed to work to get local sharpening effects such as trying to bring something out of focus into focus. The plane of focus is very narrow with only the guy?s hands in critical focus. . .your metadata doesn?t indicate either the lens of the F stop.

Bottom line, you really need to go through the entire workflow and then make a print in the size you intend the image to be printed, then how does it look?

Seriously, you really shouldn't be converting to Lab just for sharpening. . .

[WSLam]

Thank you Jeff for pointing that out. I will avoid doing the Lab mode USM then.
I do not know all the theoretical stuff regarding sharpening but I certainly want to learn more. Perhaps I am not expecting what I should for Capture Sharpening. (btw, I only look at it at 100%, never smaller (zoom out) or bigger).
I will keep on exploring PKSCS.

[WSLam]

ok, this is sharpened with all PKS.
any comments (for 1024px web viewing)...too sharp? not sharp enough?
btw, the 'man' is my 94 yr old Grandfather.

Thanks.

http://www.lam.ws/temp/033-1024px.jpg

ws

[WSLam]

btw, this is a photo taken with the 20D, 24-70L and 580 EX, just casually from a lunch at a restauraunt.

[Jeff Schewe]

I'm posting this for Bruce who's trying to figure out how to post images inline with messages :-)

Bruce says: "The image you just posted looks pretty good to me (as does your granddad!)

Here's what the Digital High-Res Medium Edge did-it looks about right to me for capture sharpening. Remember that we need to leave headroom for the output and, optionally, creative sharpeners, so capture sharpening is designed to be quite gentle."

[Jeff Schewe]

And here's a closer crop that has been capture sharpened with digital high rez medium edge, a bit of medium edge creative sharpening plus final web output sharpening. . .

[WSLam]

Thank you Jeff.
Ok, to me, that looks 'crunchy', that's why I was wondering what I should expect from Capture Sharpening.
Also, I just tried using Luminance Sharpening 2 from the original Photokit as Capture Sharpening (first pass sharpening) and the results imo, are BETTER then using PKS Capture Sharpening...if I am not mistaken, Luminance Sharpening from Photokit is also intended first pass sharpening, right?

ws