Beginner Sharpness or Unsharp Mask?!

captures.in.time · 23 May 2018

Hi all!

Im not a photographer who enjoys PP very much! I think its because i started with film and just prefer feel the image should be captured in the camera! However for me it is a necessary evil!

I use canons DPP mostly... and I have just purchased apples affinity photo which is prob going to fill my winter evenings!

Well that is the background... but basically all i do little but crop, sharpness and a bit of tweeking!

Recently well in the latest version of DPP it seems to default to unsharp mask in the sharpness section... i guess my question is... why should i use that rather than just the straight sharpness slider.... which you can select to use! It just seems like DPP is set that you would use... be more normal to use... the unsharpness mask sliders. But without pixel peeping which i try not to do i cant really seethe difference in final effect!

Please help!!!

ancient_mariner · 23 May 2018

As a film photographer before moving to digital, can I encourage you to embrace the ability to do darkroom work without the hassle it used to involve, since it was highly unusual for an image to be perfect straight from the camera in those days too.

Regarding sharpness, what do you use the images for? If they are only stored electronically & used at reduced size on social media etc then if you can't see a difference without pixel peeping it almost certainly doesn't matter which you use. If you do print, especially in larger sizes, then it's always worth viewing the image at the print size, just to check it really is OK - something you would have wanted to do with film too, albeit on the baseboard on an enlarger.

captures.in.time · 23 May 2018

ancient_mariner said:
As a film photographer before moving to digital, can I encourage you to embrace the ability to do darkroom work without the hassle it used to involve, since it was highly unusual for an image to be perfect straight from the camera in those days too.

Regarding sharpness, what do you use the images for? If they are only stored electronically & used at reduced size on social media etc then if you can't see a difference without pixel peeping it almost certainly doesn't matter which you use. If you do print, especially in larger sizes, then it's always worth viewing the image at the print size, just to check it really is OK - something you would have wanted to do with film too, albeit on the baseboard on an enlarger.

Thanks! I never really done much darkroom work! I dabbled and printed a few bnw shots... but my processing involved getting my prints from castle cameras and using a paper cutter to crop them... put them in an album and put the album on a shelf! I am embracing it... i do it and its not so bad when uvonly a few images but iv a huge backlog... some from 2010! [emoji85] im finding the delete key in moderation helps!

I guess ill generally use for flickr and instagram... two accounts iv not actually started populating at the moment! I want to get my backlog sorted first! Before starting new adventures on those platforms!

So based on that ill prob just stick with the straight sharpness bar! What is the diff however???

ancient_mariner · 23 May 2018

This explains unsharp masking better than I ever could: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking

Conventional sharpening usually just involves increasing the edge contrast between areas of different contrast - overuse can lead to haloing and artifacts, and an image can look very 'hard' & crunchy.

ianp5a · 24 May 2018

captures.in.time said:
I think its because i started with film and just prefer feel the image should be captured in the camera! However for me it is a necessary evil!

It too started with film. But I spent a lot of time in the darkroom and retouching. So digital editing came naturally. But it's not for everyone. Good luck with finding your preferred workflow.

PhilH04 · 24 May 2018

captures.in.time said:
So based on that ill prob just stick with the straight sharpness bar! What is the diff however???

In simple terms, the sharpness is a crude adjustment and maybe needs a bit of finesse when applying.
Unsharp Mask (USM) is more adjustable and refined and will give a better result but needs to be used with a bit of skill and practice.

Personally I would continue doing what you do now but practice and learn about USM with a few to using it in future.

Alescruz · 27 May 2018

It is very helpful advice from PhilH04

captures.in.time · 27 May 2018

PhilH04 said:
In simple terms, the sharpness is a crude adjustment and maybe needs a bit of finesse when applying.
Unsharp Mask (USM) is more adjustable and refined and will give a better result but needs to be used with a bit of skill and practice.

Personally I would continue doing what you do now but practice and learn about USM with a few to using it in future.

You clearly understand USM! [emoji106] could you very simply explain the use of the three sliders then?! I know i could find it on the net... but i find someone who uses and understands it usually more useful than a textbook answer

Mag1cp2x · 27 May 2018

Try setting the sliders to 20 60 0, see the outcome and go from there.

PhilH04 · 28 May 2018

Mag1cp2x said:
Try setting the sliders to 20 60 0, see the outcome and go from there.

Not very good for sharpening but for local contrast those settings will be OK, Clarity is better for local contrast...

captures.in.time said:
You clearly understand USM!

could you very simply explain the use of the three sliders then?! I know i could find it on the net... but i find someone who uses and understands it usually more useful than a textbook answer

I could try to explain the relationship between each slider and what each does... however Jullienne Kost does a much better job than me and this video will give you a good intro as to how USM works and how to use it...

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/a...arp-mask.html?origref=https://www.google.com/

Good luck