Lightroom Sharpening defaults

maninsuitcase

maninsuitcase

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Chris
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I was reading about sharpening as I felt it was something I wasn't doing and could be of great benefit to my images. I'm still not sure I really understand it all but I get some of it. It will come I am sure. :thinking:

But as I felt the Adobe standards where certainly lacking I Googled what a good starting point was to help me get started.

As a result I changed away from the adobe defaults to amount 60, radius 1.1, detail 50 and masking 15. I forget where I saw these but the source seemed to know what they where one about.

While these to seem to work well on the few images I have taken since I don't know if these are extreme or average as a start point. Obviously I can/will change these on the merits of the image.
 
You'll probably need more than one preset - e.g. portraits will need quite different sharpening to a landscape.

What you have looks to me a reasonable starting point for a landscape or other detailed shot. I'd probably nudge the detail a little higher.

For portraits you'd probably want a lot more masking - maybe around 80%. This reduces the sharpening on the smoother areas of skin which makes the eyes etc slightly sharper. It won't make a huge difference but it's a help.

For mono shots I tend to have the radius larger than for colour shots (as fringing etc is less evident).

I don't have Lightroom on this computer so can't be more specific about the settings I use.
 
No I realise there's no 1 size fits all but was wondering if I had gone from too little too too much in general terms. Before I did this I rarely even touched the sharpen panel.

The shots where of a bird in the garden so the lack of masking wasn't a huge deal as it brought out the feather detail.

I will bear this in mind next time I edit and create a preset to up the masking. So a preset to "default" and a "high mask" preset to get going.

If there's lots of bokeh (as in the bird images I tested on) would a higher masking value be beneficial? I guess this would stop it trying to sharpen the bokeh (and the noise within it).
 
maninsuitcase said:
If there's lots of bokeh (as in the bird images I tested on) would a higher masking value be beneficial? I guess this would stop it trying to sharpen the bokeh (and the noise within it).
Click to expand...

I've never really thought about the issue of bokeh - I think I'd do the sharpening based on the subject of the photo rather than the background.

I should add that I'm no expert!
 
You could use the local adjustment brush to add or reduce sharpening. It's not as sophisticated as the sharpening panel, but you could use it to reduce the sharpening in the background to soften it. You can also use the clarity slider with the local adjustment brush as well to reduce the sharpness of the background.

I would use the sharpening panel to get the main subject to the sharpness you need, then use the Local adjustment brush to reduce the effect on the backgound
 
That's largely the approach I take - I find I use clarity rather than sharpening as the sharpening local adjustment is a little too subtle for a quick workflow.
 
markrichardson said:
That's largely the approach I take - I find I use clarity rather than sharpening as the sharpening local adjustment is a little too subtle for a quick workflow.
Click to expand...

Same here.

The other thing to consider is how the sharpening radius relate to the image dimensions. The radius is in pixels, so the effect appears smaller as the dimensions of the images increase if you leave the radius the same.
 
This is just the thread i've been looking for. :thumbs:

I've been questioning my kit for "not being sharp", but it looks like it could be Lightroom all along.

I too am currently using the default settings 25, 1.0, 25, 0 and I feel the majority of my photos are on the soft side.

There is obviously nothing better than treating each image to some individual treatment based on the content, but it would be nice to get some idea of what people's defaults are.
 
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I hardly ever use the sharpening in Lightroom, I boost the clarity a bit and sharpen on export.
 
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