# LR5 sharpening presets



## robertomendo (Aug 28, 2014)

Hi, could someone recommend default settings for sharpening,radius,detail, and masking in Lightroom 5 for applying to the raw previews upon import?  I am hoping to have my previews looking better on import and then further post processing if necessary.
                 Thanks, Robert.


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## clee01l (Aug 28, 2014)

I find this very much camera dependent. When I had Pentax, Both the K10D and the K20D required lots of effort to get a decent image out of LR  Of course this was several LR versions back. My D800 required minor tweaking in import in LR4  The D800E needed nothing beyond the standard defaults in LR5 and then the same could also be said for the D800 in LR5 when I revisited those earlier LR4 generated images.  I'm still trying to find a happy set point for the D810.


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## Tony Jay (Aug 28, 2014)

In the presets panel in the Develop module is a subset called: Lightroom General Presets.
In there are two sharpening presets:
1. Sharpen - Faces; and
2. Sharpen - Scenic.

Try applying these presets sequentially to the same image at 1:1 and then L-click on the sharpening slider indicator in the Sharpening panel on each occasion so that you can see the effect each of the presets give. (the reason why it is important to watch the effects in monochrome is that sharpening only affects tone and not chroma directly - sharpening accentuates the differences in tonal values of adjacent pixels)
Remember the settings of each slider and play with slider in turn noting the effects before returning the slider to its position and then trying another one.

The sharpening slider directly impacts the degree of tonal separation of adjacent pixels, the radius slider determines over how many pixels on either side of an apparent edge are affected by the sharpening slider, the detail slider is a bit more complex with different effects being applied at different slider settings but the overall effect is that detail appears to be accentuated the higher the slider is set. Finally, the masking slider is very complex in the details of how it works but essentially it acts to protect non-edge detail from being sharpened, the effects become more apparent the higher the slider is set. A very useful ally to have when you have a very noisy image and you don't want the detail to be sharpened and become more noticeable.

In general you will note that the scenic preset has high sharpening, low radius, moderately high detail, and low masking, while the faces preset will have lower sharpening, higher radius, lower detail, and higher masking.

The reason for the changes is very simple: 
Scenic images like landscapes generally have a lot of high-frequency information that when sharpened appropriately gives the image an apparently high accutance (visually apparent detail).
Faces on the other hand are different, Apart from the eyes one generally wants the skin to be softened a bit (or even quite a lot) compared to landscape images. Think about it - your teenage daughter will not thank you for accentuating all her facial skin blemishes.

Also, think of the noise sliders (the Luminance noise slider specifically) as being part of the sharpening setup. The degree of noise reduction impacts directly on sharpening since applying noise reduction is akin to smearing the fine detail.

Those presets I mentioned, as they are, are almost certainly not optimised for your camera/lens combinations, however they provide a useful starting point and a very useful educational insight into the art and science of sharpening.

Sharpening is actually conceptually broken down into three stages:
1. Capture sharpening: this is what we are discussing now. When a RAW image is demosaiced to produce a visible image - what we see on our monitors before any edits are done the demosaicing process results in a slightly soft appearance. Capture sharpening is a global application to counter the softening produced by the demosaicing.
2. Creative sharpening: A good example of creative sharpening is in portrait photography when one wants to selectively sharpen up the eyes and perhaps the eyelashes while leaving most of the face relatively untouched or even actively "desharpened" say using the clarity slider. Another possible application is in a landscape image where creative sharpening is selectively applied to lighter parts of an image with good detail (and no noise) while leaving the shadows (with more noise) relatively untouched.
3. Output sharpening: All the output modules offer output sharpening (even when it isn't obvious - say with the  Slideshow module). A lot of the work has already been done under the hood with the sharpening protocol taking into account the kind of output (print or electronic display), apparent resolution etc.
It is an exact application of Photokit Sharpener.
Even in the Print module the only choices to make are yes or no, i.e. tick the box, and, once the box is ticked, then 'low', 'standard', or 'high' can be chosen.
If your capture sharpening has been a bit aggressive then select low or standard; if the opposite applies choose standard or high.

Cletus is completely correct when he says that capture sharpening is camera dependent. It is also somewhat user dependent.
However, the general rule is when evaluating sharpening go until the image starts to look a bit crunchy (the haloes created by your sharpening become too visually evident) and then back up until just go away.
You will need to experiment to see what works for different cameras and different types of images.
Once you got it sorted - make your presets.

Tony Jay


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## MarkNicholas (Aug 28, 2014)

Nice detailed explanation Tony
Now I just need to get it sorted !


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## robertomendo (Aug 28, 2014)

Ditto what Mark said Tony. Thank you. Lots for me to try now.


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## bigal1000 (Aug 29, 2014)

Very nice explanation of sharpening,very help full ,good work............


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