LightRoom Help

mattchewone

mattchewone

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Name
Matt
Edit My Images
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Hi Guys,

I am wondering whats the best way to sharpen in LR before exporting? I currently tweek the clarity but not sure how else to tweek. I did see that there is a sharpening tool down the toolbar but am not too sure exactly what each setting actually does and how best to adjust it.

Any tips? As I know its best to sharpen before exporting or printing.

Thanks
 
Firstly zoom in to 100% or you won't see the changes

As for the sliders ...

Amount – adjusts the level of sharpening

Radius – sharpens the parts of your picture it thinks are edges. This slider defines how wide an area must be for LR to recognize it as an edge. I don’t usually change this one. More is sharpened with an edge is as the radius increases.

Detail – This slider helps control halos that sometimes appear around parts of your image when sharpening. But if you go too low, no sharpening at all will happen.

Masking – This slider is especially great for faces. It protects non-edge areas from sharpening. The higher the number the more is masked, and so less is sharpened.

If you have a PC, hold the alt key down whilst dragging the sliders - the image goes to grayscale and makes the effect of the sharpening much easier to see/gauge. Option key on a mac will do the same.

Watch this for more gen - http://kelbytv.com/lightroomkillertips/2009/08/19/video-my-sharpening-workflow-in-lightroom/
 
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Is that the only and best way to sharpen?

When I go down to the sharpening toolbar it is already set to does this mean it will sharpen automatically when the image is opened?
 
It's the only way to sharpen in LR's develop module, there is other specific sharpening options in the Print ad Web modules ... and if you export the image to PS you can do other sharpening in there.

LR will apply a small amount of default sharpening when you open an image but you will almost always still need to move the sliders around to get a desired result, which will vary form image to image. The only one I never move is the radius slider.

Open an image, zoom to 100%, hold down 'alt' and have a play around with them to see what they do.. it's the easiest way to learn :)
 
Are you exporting to go to print, or just online gallery? If it's the latter, I just use the sharpen feature in the export dialogue box. I only do any serious sharpening on images for print, but tend to do that in PS. However LR is perfectly capable, just preference.
 
If you do sharpening with the sharpening tool or even more sharpening in PS (I watched the video and saw he did some in LR then extra in PS) would the export or print sharpening be done on top?

I mainly sharpen for screen, but when I have exported I usually leave it on screen even though some people I give discs will print some. Would it be better to set it say glossy standard?
 
Ffoeg said:
Firstly zoom in to 100% or you won't see the changes

As for the sliders ...

Amount – adjusts the level of sharpening

Radius – sharpens the parts of your picture it thinks are edges. This slider defines how wide an area must be for LR to recognize it as an edge. I don’t usually change this one. More is sharpened with an edge is as the radius increases.

Detail – This slider helps control halos that sometimes appear around parts of your image when sharpening. But if you go too low, no sharpening at all will happen.

Masking – This slider is especially great for faces. It protects non-edge areas from sharpening. The higher the number the more is masked, and so less is sharpened.

If you have a PC, hold the alt key down whilst dragging the sliders - the image goes to grayscale and makes the effect of the sharpening much easier to see/gauge. Option key on a mac will do the same.

Watch this for more gen - http://kelbytv.com/lightroomkillertips/2009/08/19/video-my-sharpening-workflow-in-lightroom/
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I have always struggled with Lightrooms sharpening tool apertures is so much more intuitive imo.

The link was handy as well.

Cheers

Steve
 
Ffoeg said:
If you have a PC, hold the alt key down whilst dragging the sliders - the image goes to grayscale and makes the effect of the sharpening much easier to see/gauge. Option key on a mac will do the same.
Click to expand...

thanks for the tip Geoff
 
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Ffoeg said:
If you have a PC, hold the alt key down whilst dragging the sliders - the image goes to grayscale and makes the effect of the sharpening much easier to see/gauge. Option key on a mac will do the same.
Click to expand...

Another thanks from me too! Killer tip that one. :thumbs:
 
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