Sharpening question

Zeffer

Zeffer

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Name
Justin
Edit My Images
Yes
I love digital but have not been processing images at all. Don't even own the software (yet) to do it although I am IT literate.

Reading on the Ken Rockwell site that he sets his sharpening to 6 on Nikon cameras. Is this recommended or should I be leaving things as they are and sharpening using software?

I am thinking of my damselflies mainly but also take lots of family photos.

Thank you
 
Very good question, do you shoot RAW or Jpeg?

I personally sharpen in PP using Photoshop CS5, you have full control then not, so if you adopt the in-camera option ( well not as much shall we say) :D

Les :thumbs:
 
I'm struggling to remember what I used to set mine on when I used a D200... I think it was quite a low setting then if I needed additional sharpening, I could add it later rather than it being written into the original image as such.

Why not do a few tests of the same subject at different levels? JPEG sharpening can be very good but there's a tipping point where it starts to look too much and it's that tipping point you need to watch out for.

I was happy with what my D200 produced in JPEG once I'd set it but it took a bit of trial and error to get it there combined with the in-camera contrast and saturation settings.
 
If you don't own software try using pixlr. Its a free web based program. If your shooting jpegs duplicate the image files rename the edit or something and play around knowing you still have the original. Most images benefit from some post processing so its a good idea to learn the basics. Nothing crazy just levels, curves, correcting horizons, cropping and finally sharpening, which i recommend you do with software rather than in camera. The same goes for B&W images, to this in post.
 
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I think sharpening comes down to personal taste. Most people seem to like a fair bit of sharpening but I'm not so keen on it myself so tend to set it to "zero" in the picture control menu.

As long as you shoot raw you can change it later in Capture NX2 or View NX2 (this is free). If you use a non Nikon editor like Lightroom then it does not matter what sharpening you set in the camera as it will not read the in camera settings.

If you shoot jpeg then you are pretty much stuck with what you set in the camera, so RAW is the best option for that reason.
 
I shoot Jpegs in camera with the sharpening set to zero to minimise noise and I then sharpen outside the camera.

I usually sharpen twice - once in the full size image and once again in the final reduced and finished image.

Probably not everyone's idea but it suits the way I work.

.
 
Basically ignore Ken Rockwell and his sharpening its a load of tosh.
Every lens is different you can get very good copies and average versions of the same lens.
If you really want to "tune in" a lens I use

Link
http://spyder.datacolor.com/portfolio-view/spyderlenscal/

dsc6961a800x600.jpg

By bazza104 at 2012-01-13

First of all I don't recall being able to save lens settings on the D200 but I may be wrong as I now use the D300.
However be careful of using any other "home made devices" the angles may be wrong. Typical one is using a ruler and a camera at 90% and checking for front/back focus, my advice is to avoid at all costs.

Ok so how to use the Spyderlenscal
Obviously youtube has demos but there are things not mentioned so here goes

First of all set your camera up on a tripod and the SpyderlensCalc on another making sure the camera and target are level. Next work out distance you want to shoot at most often with each lens and put camera SpyderlensCal somewhere around that distance and take a shotat the target area. Go onto a computer and see how sharp the photo is. You can then check back/front focus on the scale Which ever is out you can then compensat with the camera menu sharpness and when correct save on the lens menu if the camera has one. Ok it will take time so allow plenty depending on how many lenses you have.

Oh in that photo the scale isn't in its "working position just flat to store.



Working position as it would be set up on a tripod were they both level. As you can see from 6 on the scale both ends are correct, if one was out it would be out of focus. The squares are the target area to focus on first then you read off the scale

Zeffer as your near me don't go buying one borrow mine and save £60 odd quid and try it out here, I have tripods etc

I am just north of Walsall

Realspeed
 
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In fact ignore Ken Rockwell for most things ;)
 
With regard to lens calibration. The accepted wisdom is that the the target and camera are aligned in both directions. Some have a set up which indicates when it is aligned. But you dont need to buy a lens cal to get good set up on lenses. A little bit of thought and a home made set up will provide just as good results. You are setting the accuracy of focus and depth of field check. The cal charts can be quite difficult to interpret when you get down to the extremely shallow depths of field that some lenses have.
 
Adrian

Yes and no is the answer

Just because a lens may have been professionally calibrated that doesn't mean the camera focus is spot on

Sharpening with editing might be needed because of camera shake causing blur
Calibrating should really be done together with the camera its going to be used on

Thats about the best answer I can give
 
realspeed said:
<snip>
Sharpening with editing might be needed because of camera shake causing blur
<snip>
Click to expand...

Sharpening does not correct any blur caused by poor focus or camera shake. Sharpening, either in-camera or in post-processing, is to overcome the degrading of the image caused by the Bayer filter in front of the sensor.
 
Ken Rockwell is a somewhat controversial person, a lot of what he says is done tongue in cheek, that said most digital images need some sharpening.
Most cameras have a filter over the sensor that actually softens the image slightly, this loss of sharpness needs to be addressed in whats called capture sharpening, this simply compensates for the AA filter over the sensor.
Whether you dial up the in-camera sharpening a bit (don't go to far) or add a bit of sharpening in photoshop or whatever is up to you, personally I'd do it post process as you can control it image by image, depending on subject.
 
Good point on KR, Wayne. He tends to be a contrarian and posts stuff to increase traffic to his site. Witness the "pros only shoot jpegs" and "P-mode stands for Pro-mode" BS.

Doesn't stop me reading his stuff, mind. Some of it is useful. You just have to know which bits.
 
Wow! Thank you all so much for the responses. I need to re-read a few times but will try to take the advice, I want to improve. Should be able to put up an example image in the next few days once my new monitor arrives.

I currently shoot jpeg and always large fine images but sounds like raw is a better option so I can make changes on the pc.

Realspeed, thank you for the kind offer, I will try to be in touch soon (changing jobs on Monday so need to settle first).
 
Much better to sharpen images yourself using Photoshop, There are lots more options like unsharp mask and high pass filter.
 
Personally even if I was only shooting jpegs I would not sharpen in camera, as already mentioned if you so you are stuch with that level of sharpening and you might only want to sharpen some areas of the picture but not everything so I would not have any in camera sharpening applied personally.
 
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