How do you sharpen your images?

Location
London UK
Name
Andy
I read on another forum how people sharpen their images and a was surprised to see i have been doing it wrong all this time!! I always usually sharpen at the end of my processing THEN re size the image. Most others re size THEN sharpen using Unsharp Mask. I tried sharpening after I had re sized the image and i think it's a much better way to sharpen images.

Also a good thing to do is to sharpen just the in focus areas of an image leaving the bokeh smooth and silky.

Here is an example:
Sharpen_Test2_1024pix.jpg
 
Andy, I'm not sure exactly what you mean about resizing. I convert my RAW files to DNG...do what I want to do and then I sharpen in Lightroom. :popcorm2: I export to Flickr via Lightroom and use the screen sharpening option...for print, which is way too rarely, I call Don.:D
 
For print only... I pre-sharpen in Nik Sharpener Pro. Then I process the image and the last step is sharpen in LR. I find LR sharpener to do a great job without artifacts.
For screen, I sharpen at the last step.
I don't make the best files ever for screen or web stuff like Flickr due to copyright issues.

I made a few 20 x 24" prints from the Nex and a 50 Lux.
Tanya wanted to send some to her family in Russia.
Man, It looked like I did them with a 4x5 Deardorff... Actually better.
Resizing is also an issue. Years ago it was suggested to resize in 10% steps.
I never saw a difference but it's supposed to be the right way...
What do I know?
 
I'd suggest that your resizing method will also have a big influence on the appearance of a reduced image. Try using the different bilinear and bicubic methods and compare the results that each gives.
 
Okay, I'm thoroughly lost now! If I export from LR, resizing to 1024, then surely I would have to import it back to LR from my desktop file to sharpen in LR? Please explain for the dim witted :redface:
 
Okay, I'm thoroughly lost now! If I export from LR, resizing to 1024, then surely I would have to import it back to LR from my desktop file to sharpen in LR? Please explain for the dim witted :redface:

You can set sharpening on export in Lightroom via the export window. This will sharpen your images at 1024 or whatever size you set. So go to File / Export and just below the Image Sizing bit there should be one saying Output Sharpening. Use the one that suites you. I prefer to import into PS Elements as i like the unsharp mask.

Here's an explanation on Unsharp Mask: Unsharp masking - Wikipedia
 
I tried it briefly but sharpening after resizing didn't appear to make any noticable difference compared to sharpening the full size image as I would anyway and then using the bicubic resizing method optimized for reducing image size in Photoshop.
 
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