Amount of USM

[Simon Wantling]

Hi, I'm sure this has been discussed a number of times but I'd be very interested to know what level of USM sharpening you generally apply to your images. I know a lot depends on the starting file but when does it become over sharpened. For example, I tend to do a couple of passes of USM at about 125/0.2/0 on the resized tiff file ready for saving for web display. After a recent post I've also started looking at a USM of 15/60/0 initially following by some finer USM.

Anyway, it would be great to know what a typical level you apply.

Thanks a lot

Simon

[Jerry van Dijk]

HI Simon, as you say, it depends on the image. Specifically, I look at how well my pre-sharpening on the RAW file in ACR turned out, and how noisy the image is. I try to balance sharpness and increased noise with the amount of USM (%) by just playing around. Usually, I end up somewhere around 100%, unless I have a supersharp image. Then sharpening in ACR is usually sufficient, or I add around 30-40% USM in CS.
Radius I adapt depending on the image content. Most of the time I leave it at 1.0, but when I have a lot of fine details in a landscape image, I lower it to 0.9 or 0.8.
I leave the threshold on the standard setting, which is 30 if I remember correctly.
I'm generally happy with the results, but haven't tried any other approaches, so I'm curious what others do.

[Arthur Morris]

For my 1024 JPEGs I have been using Unsharp Mask at 140/.3/0. Have never had a single over-sharpening complaint with those settings.

And BTW, you should never ever be sharpening your master files. Ever. No matter who tells you differently. Again, I refer you to Digital Basics.....

[Don Lacy]

I stopped using USM years ago and now prefer the smart sharpen filter the amount and radius depends on the subject for birds a good starting point is amount 50-80 and radius .3 to .5, I have also started playing around with the high pass method of sharpening not sure yet if I am going to integrate that into my work flow.

[Simon Wantling]

Thanks for the comments. I'm always unsure about how much sharpening and have started to wonder whether I've been slightly over sharpening. On some of my images that are pin sharp, when viewed at 100% the detail looks great. Its just how to keep that detail on the resized tiff or jpg.

simon

[Diane Miller]

I've read several places that the default first choice in Smart Sharpen (not at the computer now and don't want to rely on memory for what it is called) is the same as USM. But the second choice (I think it's Lens Blur) is said to be an improved algorithm, and I find it much better.

For me, Structure, found in Nik Viveza, is often a better way to "sharpen."

[Diane Miller]

And I absolutely agree with Artie -- never sharpen the master file, at least not beyond the default in raw conversion, which in LR/ACR is done on the L channel in LAB mode behind the scenes and is not noticeably causing harm. It compensates for the slight softness introduced by the antialiasing filter over the sensor on most cameras.

"Sharpening" is done by the introduction of artifacts and doesn't really make up for soft focus, although it might give that impression in a small JPEG.

[Dan Brown]

For my 1024 JPEGs I have been using Unsharp Mask at 140/.3/0. Have never had a single over-sharpening complaint with those settings.

And BTW, you should never ever be sharpening your master files. Ever. No matter who tells you differently. Again, I refer you to Digital Basics.....

So, Artie, I am dazed and confused about this sharpening stuff as usual! So, many techniques. I have Digital Basics (not been updated for a while, my version has 1024 jpeg settings at 125/.3/0, I think? can one get an update or does one have to re-purchase?). The part that I am confused about is never sharpening the master file. I know that there are two camps on this, ok, good. Lets say that your camp (Artie) is right. What is the "master file"? not the raw, so I assume that it is the layered version that you've done all the QM, selective NR, cropping stuff, right? So, where in the workflow do you selectively sharpen? I have gotten accustom the making a layer for the BG, doing NR on it and then sharpening the subject as needed on it's own layer, above the BG layer. assuming that you are doing something similar, do you first resize the whole "master" then apply the sharpening to the subject layer, flatten, convert to jpeg, save this and then just not save the resized, sharpened "master"? Or, am I totally out in left field? I could be!!!! Please help!

[BobbyPerkins]

"assuming that you are doing something similar, do you first resize the whole "master" then apply the sharpening to the subject layer, flatten, convert to jpeg, save this and then just not save the resized, sharpened "master"?"

That's it, You Sharpen for Output Only, and not save the resized sharpened Master. Alot of folks run an action for this once the Master file is created and saved. They then do the steps you just assumed, that resizes the file for web (or whatever output size desired), and sharpen (unless you choose to selectively sharpen), flatten, convert to 8 bit jpeg mode.

Sharpening a Master file is destructive (unless you save all layers and not flatten the TIFF), I myself do both the noise removal & sharpening for output only. A Master file is the optimized file like you said that can be opened up for output without doing all the same optimizing over. For me the RAW file is most important and always untouched & kept, I could care less about the "master files" because there the modified versions (that make output much easier). As I continue to grow in post-processing I always find myself going back to those RAW's and starting over for an improved Master file. I'm no PS Guru but just like my bird photography it's all about constant and never-ending improvement to me. Hope this helps some.

Also Digital Basics is always updated for Free.

[Dan Brown]

Thanks, Bobby! I will have to upgrade Digital Basics!