Is there such thing as too sharp??

[SherryJane]

Hi all-
Is there such thing as too sharp? Seems some of my photos look great on the PC but after getting them printed they look way tool sharp. Then I end up editing them with a soft mask and they look a bit fuzzy. Is there something on the cam I should change? Or.. is it the fact they are being printed at WALMART then sent into mpix.

Thanks
Sherry

[Chris Hawkins]

Hi all-
Is there such thing as too sharp? Seems some of my photos look great on the PC but after getting them printed they look way tool sharp. Then I end up editing them with a soft mask and they look a bit fuzzy. Is there something on the cam I should change? Or.. is it the fact they are being printed at WALMART then sent into mpix.

Thanks
Sherry

Yes, but in my experience it's the other way around - you have to sharpen more for a print.

Any one else?

[David Worthington]

yes i think one of the "faults" with digi and p/shop etc is that the effects can be over cooked and this INCLUDES sharpening...... when we were on film the only sharpening was down to the lens and processing care, and enlarger quality... but now we have a slider which can be slid to the right to increase and then further increase sharpening...... and then we can give it a bit more after that....and it looks so false.

these days i hardly sharpen at all !!!! i shoot in raw and only sharpen 25% in the conversion; and thats it ... I havent used USM for well over a year now and never had a comment about softness/lack of sharpness.. even from the eagle (nearly said sharp then !!! ) eyes of those togs in here.

I dont know what camera etc( in fact some cameras can produce such clarity its not realistic/appropiate in some instances) you are using ... but to answer your question... yes there can be too much sharpening IMHO

look at the the range of hi definition tvs about ...way to sharp unless you are 3 miles away !!!!

[tonymidd]

Yes you can sharpen too much. It's a case of getting to know what your lab requires, may be a problem with Walmart:grin::grin:

I use a very gentle sharpening that I can apply more than once if needs be...
second one down on here...
http://www.creativephoto.org.uk/my%20way%20of%20working/sharpening.htm

and it's the last step before printing. All my files are saves as unsharpened tiffs.

[David Worthington]

this digi milarkie.. as we progress through the years with digi we are pioneers and as such, things which once were "law" now seem out of date and obsolete

sharpening is one... I sharpen as the raw file leaves the converter(25%) and thats it done !!!.. i know that sharpening is "supposed" to be done last of all.. but thats seems uneccesary to me................. as did Tiffs being the only way to save an image... as did file size..... dpi etc etc

for instance:offtopic:

when i was on dial-up i need to send an image to the lab for a fast turn-around.. to keep the file size small i sent a low quality jpeg at less than 900kb .. the resulting 10x8 was indistinguishabel from a 15mb tiff !!!! ... i mistakenly sent 200dpi jpegs to Graphi for an album order and the resulting album was just like any other i have had at 300dpi tiff !!!!!...and yes i do open and rework the jpegs..... can i see a difference???? errr nope !!!!

[Kevin Wilson]

It might be a good idea to remove the in camera sharpening.
Personally, I think oversharpened photographs ruin many entries into print competitions.
Kevin

[lostmysnorkel]

Yup, would agree with Mr Wilson above. I turn off ALL automatic sharpening, in-camera & in post-process.

I will only apply USM if I feel it's needed and only just before sending it to the lab.

There is a difference these digital-days....'Focus' and 'Sharpen' are two different things these days.

Digital sharpening alters the contrast between adjacent pixels to boost the edges within an image.....it won't focus an out-of-focus shot!

If the image is perfectly in focus - I wouldn't go near it with a sharpening tool.