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Mineral PhotographySharpening photos
22nd Jun 2011 07:26 UTCHarjo Neutkens Manager
Many people do, the only problem is that most sharpening tools do not deliver very good results, the other problems being the fact that you often loose a considerable amount of resolution (for instance; sharpen a pic of 2.8Mb, with some sharpening tools you end up with only 1.5Mb) or end up with a very grainy photograph.
For anyone wanting to sharpen their pics there is an alternative way, where you don't have to use the obvious sharpening software, but will render very good results.
What you do is very simple: you stack (for instance with CombineZ) two frames of exactly the same photograph (the one that you want to sharpen). The result will be much sharper then the two identical initial frames. Afterwards crop the photo to get rid of the edges produced by the stacking sequence.
It beats most, if not all, sharpening tools.
Of course, a good photographer using the proper gear doesn't need to do any sharpening, but I'm afraid I do......
Cheers,
Harjo
22nd Jun 2011 09:57 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder
First of all, always shoot images from your camera in RAW format, otherwise sharpening is just going to emphasise the jpeg compression artefacts.
Using photoshop raw converter to load and process your raw images is a good idea. Read up online about the best settings for your raw images - this will depend on your camera.
This is also one area where the free 'gimp' software simply is no match for photoshop.
Jolyon
22nd Jun 2011 10:55 UTCVolker Betz 🌟 Expert
I confess that I always check how shapening can improve my pictures. I use Helicon filter after stacking with Helicon Focus or Zerene stacker. Zerene stacker is an alternative with difficult stacks in pyramid modus but slow with 40 or so layers while Helicon focus is very fast now, with Version 5.2.4. Pro. I stack mostly with method B with JPG files. Stacks of 40 pics in raw .... ?.
Because I am used to it, I finish my pictures (resize and label) with Irfan View 4.2.8. I check sharpening if I have resized to my personal Website resolution (722 pixel hight) but it is mostly no improvement if I have used sharpening in Helicon Filter.
Cheers
Volker
22nd Jun 2011 14:37 UTCJeff Weissman Expert
4th Oct 2011 07:11 UTCJamey Swisher
Also, by sharpening an image you would NOT drop in image size. If you are dropping in image size you are resizing not just sharpening. Graininess is because you are either over sharpening or using the improper method of sharpening. Most often a curves adjustment is more useful then sharpening is.
10th Feb 2012 13:19 UTCZbynek Burival Expert
With unsharp mask is very wise to set treshold to 1, otherwise you "sharpen" also noise. If there is excessive noise better first denoise, then use brutal sharpening and downsize and sharpen again.
For resizing is good to use bicubic or bicubic sharper methods to keep maximum sharpness. And of course save as high quality JPEG, or you will loose details with compression.
RAW is great but most P&S cameras do not have it and even most enthusiast folks with DSLR do not use it. If you can use it, it helps a lot. But mostly with exposure, white balance and such things.
10th Feb 2012 15:54 UTCHarald Schillhammer Expert
Nowadays I solely use USM (radius 0.5, threshhold 0) on two separate layers (one set to "darken", the other to "lighten" with different opacities). I have recorded this as a PS action with a Stop to adjust the USM setting (because this depends on the image size). So, no time loss at all.
cheers
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Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2024, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: April 24, 2024 12:07:07