Sharpening in ACR

[Philip Freedman]

<p>I have just bought CS4 and would like to try using ACR as my raw converter for all my raw images (from my D700 as well as other cameras). I find Capture NX2 rather awkward to use and expect ACR to integrate more easily with Photoshop, and ACR under CS4 now has the local adjustment facility similar to NX2. Can anyone recommend some basic Sharpening settings to use in ACR on my D700 images? In NX2 I have been using (based on Jason Odell's e-book) intensity 40, radius 5, threshold 2, but I am not sure how these equate to the settings in ACR. Can anyone help please?</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>The sharpener in ACR is unlike the sharpener used in Nikon Capture NX2 (I have both as as well). The ACR Sharpener is a mild "capture Sharpener" adapted from the Capture Sharpening module of the Pixel Genius Expert Sharpener plug-in (http://www.pixlegenius.com) , You use it to apply a base level of sharpening to counter act the eeffect of the anti-aliasing filter on a digital camera's sensor. Once you have finished doing post processing work in PsCS4 and are ready to print or web publish at the size and resolution you'll be outputting at you would then do a final sharpening based on the size, resolution, out form and if printing, the media type (glossy or matte paper). You should try Smart Sharpen in PsCS4 for that. Apply that Output Sharpener as a layer so you can adjust the intensity of the effect by loweringthe opacity of that layer if needed.</p>

<p>As for general settings, you should prep a bouquet of presets in ACR. For me these generally fall into two categories: portraits and everything else. If you want to be really super picky you might even consider doing this at different camera ISO settings (200, 800, 1600) and if you want to be really super super picky under both daylight and tungsten lighting at each setting -- but that is overkill for most people.<br>

<br /> For general non portrait settings at ISO 200 try : Amount 70 / Radius 1.0 / Detail 35 / Masking 0 .<br>

<br /> You can start customizing your ACR presets by having magnification at 100% and then holding down the Option /Alt key while moving the different sliders. Start With Amount, then Radius, then Detail and then Masking (Unless it is a portrait I leave Masking at 0) and then double check by checking the Amount setting again.</p>

[ronald_moravec1]

<p>Best you just try to remove the sharpness lost from digital capture and leave final sharpening to later.</p>

<p>Sharpness for my D200 is about 25, The D700 requires less. The secon d"spread" directly under 25.</p>

<p>The real key is to go to 100%. Tap the magnifing glass twice top left as a short cut. Now if you hold down the option or (alt key on pc} and use the detail and masking sliders, you can see what is sharpened on what is not. There is no point in sharpening a sky for instance, so mask it off.</p>

<p>Above is for CS3. not 4. But go from there. Do final sharpening a final size and 100%</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>I dotn sharpen in ACR or in Ligthroom personnaly, even if those new filter are better, i find that you have to fiddle around too much to finally get a good result (when all the test are done the future use is easy of course)</p>

<p>I much prefer doing my sharpen directly in Photoshop with the smart sharpen tool, in 3 pass.</p>

<p>I have wrote a tutorial in english and french for a photo magazine couple month ago, if you want, just write me a email and i will send you the link. You can even have preset made and combine it with a action. I find the smar sharpen to be more fine and precise personnaly..and way easier to get good result fast ( i dont say ACR is not good, just more complicated for a novice)</p>

[Philip Freedman]

<p>Thanks to all of you for your help. Most appreciated<br>

Happy New Year<br>

Philip</p>

[g dan mitchell]

<p>I agree with the suggestion to save "real" sharpening for later work in Photoshop where you still have more sophisticated control over more than one sharpening method, and where you can sharpen different parts of the image separately if necessary.</p>

<p>That said, I do very much like the sharpening (and noise reduction) window in ACR. While I usually only minimally sharpen here, on some images it works very well. For example, on slightly noisy images with large uniform areas you can use the right amount, radius, and detail settings for edges while avoiding any sharpening of the noise in uniform areas by means of careful masking adjustments.</p>

<p>Dan</p>

[matt_whitaker]

<p>One thing I noticed in the new Lightroom is that they have a 'Sharpening' slider under the adjustment brush. There aren't any other adjustments besides that, so it's very basic, but in theory you could do the classic Bruce Fraser sharpening workflow: capture sharpening to compensate for sensor blur, creative sharpening with the adjustment brush in selected areas of the image, and then print sharpening at the desired size and resolution of your final image.</p>

<p>as far as I can tell ACR doesn't have a sharpening option under it's targeted adjustment tool so that feature seems to be limited to Lightroom for now. Hopefully in future updates they will refine this process even further.</p>