# Capture sharpening



## camner (Sep 19, 2014)

I've been reading about sharpening, and came across this quote from Michael Clark:
_I have been told by the Adobe engineers that the default sharpening settings here in the Detail panel represent the best amount of capture sharpening for each camera. Hence, even though the slider numbers may be the same they actually represent a different amount of sharpening for each raw file depending on which camera the image was shot with. These numbers introduce a very slight sharpening affect that is conservative. Hence, the thing to remember here is just to leave these sharpening sliders at the default settings to add capture sharpening to your image. The Adobe engineers have already done all the work for us. Any additional sharpening that needs to be done on the image can be done in the output sharpening. _(http://www.pictureline.com/blog/workflow-friday-lightroom-sharpening/)

This is very different than what I've read elsewhere, which more often talks about the benefit/need to do capture sharpening on an individual image basis instead of "leave it to the Adobe designers to handle this."

I'm wondering what people's experiences are...I certainly feel that many shots, particularly landscapes, benefit from individually tailored capture sharpening beyond what LR does by default.


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## Tony Jay (Sep 19, 2014)

The thing about sharpening is that it is individual to an image.
I am not sure, based on the quote, whether this reference is to one slider (sharpening) or also includes the radius, detail, and masking sliders.
ISO and noise also affects how one approaches sharpening and in fact the nose reduction slider is often termed the 5th sharpening slider.

The detail in an image also plays a role. High frequency detail requires a completely different approach to an image with low frequency detail.
Capture sharpening is only the first part of the sharpening process and is necessary to reverse the slight blurring introduced by anti-aliasing filters and the demosaicing process that produces a normalised raw file.

Creative sharpening is sharpening applied on a regional basis to areas that may require more sharpening that other parts of the image. Lightroom allows one to do regional edits including sharpening.

Output sharpening is specific to the mode of output. Sharpening for the web is different to sharpening for prints.
Sharpening for a large print is different to sharpening for a small print of the same image.
Again Lightroom applies a sharpening protocol to every output whether it is obvious or not.
The print module has the most choices bit they are still simple choices.
Under the hood a very complicated protocol is applied depending on the choices made as well as the resolution of the image and whether it is being uprezzed or downrezzed. It is based on Photokit Sharpener 2 from PixelGenius.
How aggressive one gets with the output sharpening depends in part on how aggressive or conservative one is capture sharpening.

No less a light than Jeff Schewe recommends individualising sharpening and particularly capture sharpening.

Tony Jay


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## camner (Sep 20, 2014)

Jeff Schewe is about as much of a LR guru as there is!

Thanks for the info.


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