# Sharpening with LR/ACR in combination to "smart sharpen" in PS?



## Marsu42 (Nov 19, 2013)

I failed to research any conclusive answer to this question, mostly because existing advice I found was before the superior "smart sharpen" in PS CC was introduced ...

The simple question: Do I use some minor/basic sharpening of LR/ACR in *addition* to PS or do I use *only* PS filters for capture sharpening - i.e. are these methods supposed to work in conjuncture or do they interfere with each other?

The advantage of LR/ACR seems to be that the algorithm can see the raw data, so it might be better at adapting to the specific camera and noise pattern - btw I really hope Adobe catches up with DxO's PRIME here. On the other hand, PS sees only the flat image, but their new "smart sharpen" seems to be superior, has quick shadow/highlight controls and is excellent at isolating lens blur while ACR/LR is more dumb and I usually need some local noise reduction with the adjustment brush...


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## Selwin (Nov 19, 2013)

Personally I usually do my sharpening in 3 stages (a. capture sharpening - camera body dependent, b. creative sharpening w/ adjustment brush and c. output sharpening in Export/Print) and I do it all in Lightroom. a and c are done for every image, b is done when I feel that it adds to the image, mostly with studio shoots. 

That I only use LR for sharpening is because I like Lightroom for its quick and efficient batch processing and using CS for each image increases my workflow time. Of course I could skip step c, export all processed images to max quality  TIFFs and apply my PS CS6 sharpening actions on them. Tried it a couple of times, but for what I shoot the final print looks the same: very sharp and very good. If I were my own client I wouldn't do it.

I do see "some" noise in my final print images when checking at 100% so when I need to print larger than A4 size, I switch to CS and do some manual layer sharpening. The fact that the new CC Smart Sharpen feature is doing such a great job is good news for those of us who regularly output large sized prints.

My hunch is that capture sharpening in LR/ACR is better than capture sharpening in CC. Not necessarily because the sharpening is applied on the RAW data (I haven't compared that), but because applying Capture Sharpening works best if applied as a first step, right after lens corrections. And because I do 90+% of basic / color / curves editing in LR, I simply feel I need to apply Capture Sharpening in LR. Another reason is that I work faster doing creative sharpening in LR than in PS. 

Your approach may vary. If you only use LR as a DAM and do all of your edits on all of your images in CS (or now CC) then yes, maybe it's better to do it all in CC. I couldn't find any serious testing on the net after doing a quick Google search. Maybe some other member here?

Like this topic, I am interested.


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## Marsu42 (Nov 19, 2013)

Selwin said:


> My hunch is that capture sharpening in LR/ACR is better than capture sharpening in CC.



For most shots and detailed in focus areas, you can tune LR/ACR sharpening so that it's ok - but the very big advantage of "smart sharpening" in PS is that it's ... well ... smart. It automatically detects bokeh noise that is erroneously sharpened and also can skip sharpening a select amount of shadows/highlights (like after raising shadows in some areas).

With a test shot of mine I just processed (furry animal, thin dof with lots of bokeh and some noisy raised shadows) as a one click solution PS blows LR/ACR sharpening out of the water because LR/ACR is either over- or under-sharpened in some areas, but PS manages to get the perfect combination everywhere. With traditional non-"smart" sharpening you'd have to do this manually using layers or the correction brush in LR, and for both you have to look at each areas carefully and decide what to do.

Also it seems (topic title) that smart sharpening is supposed to work on its own with sharpening in ACR turned off, nr should be done in ACR though - but I am happy to be told otherwise.



Selwin said:


> but because applying Capture Sharpening works best if applied as a first step, right after lens corrections. And because I do 90+% of basic / color / curves editing in LR, I simply feel I need to apply Capture Sharpening in LR. Another reason is that I work faster doing creative sharpening in LR than in PS.



For performance reasons, I always have noise reduction and sharpening turned off when working in LR, so I'm only applying these in the final step anyway... but of course the simplicity of the LR raw workflow is essential for bulk shots, I'm wondering about the very best images that get even better with work in PS.


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## Selwin (Nov 19, 2013)

Good that you tested it for yourself. I suppose you used Smart Sharpen in CC and not CS? You see if I need to use manual layer sharpening for every print A3 or larger, I won't even have to do it once a week. And manual layer sharpening still works very well. Besides that, I don't think registered CS6 users are really jumpy at paying Adobe monthly fees for a software package this expensive.


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