Is post production sharpening necessary with D800E?

I generally apply some sharpening, but its a fine line with the 800E-- the files are almost "brittle"-- a tiny bump too far and it is VERY apparent.

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A minimal very low radius pre-sharpning (capture sharpning) is in order if you prefer it. Output sharpening as usual.

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Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

One of the many loveable qualities of the "e" is that it needs no output sharpening.  The days of agonizing over high pass, etc. too little/too much have been banned for good and all, and good riddance.  The detail is there in quantity, ruined by artifacts if you try to push it.

If you have sharpening turned down to zero at capture, you will definitely need to sharpen at the time of post processing. Many photographers do that to better handle the artifacts.

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Yes, I should have added that.  The input in ACR wants to be somewhere around 25-50.  I have seen people recommend 70. which is way too high, imo.  Peep and adjust to taste, I guess.   Radius seems to make little difference, I set mine at .05, Detail 25 (default.)  CNX2 I cannot get get to be unartifacted no matter what I do, so I no longer use it.

This is like asking 'how long is rope?'

Reilly I always use NX2 to process my NEF files and haven't noticed any artifacts.  After NX2 I finish with CS6.  Here is one example having used both programs with slight sharpening applied in NX2.  Dave

This is a multi frame pano so the sharpening was applied to the finished stitch.  It was shot with a D800E and 24 70 2.8 @70mm.

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View of Yosemite Valley, Bridalveil fall 4 frame vertical pano taken from the tunnel parking lot.
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I'm not saying that good results aren't possible with CNX2. especially when fed the sterling output of the D800e, but that better is available. I think Nik was too busy counting their Google money to pay much attention to the specific raw conversion that would have really made the fine details look as perfect as possible for that one unique body. I strongly suspect no additional work was done once the D800 plain was arrived at.

Adobe got it exactly right for my taste, but probably by accident, as this is certainly the reverse of the previous two Nikon bodies I've owned.

Here is what I'm talking about, the "fir needle" test. Got a lot of pics with conifer needles in them around these parts :^) Check for haloes, they're quite easy to find:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51747496@N08/sets/72157631912532602/

Be advised, I have little or no interest in print output, only what I can see on my monitor.

At no point whatsoever, not using Jason Odell's or Jack Hogan's or my own settings in CNX2 for the D800e, including everything all the way off could I lose the haloes and achieve the natural results of the simple defaults of ACR. I remain open to suggestion. If anyone is interested, I'll post a dropbox of the NEF for anyone who wishes to try to better the fine detail rendition using whatever program, keeping an eye out for crunchiness.

Reilly I would like to play with that NEF file.  Dave

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View of Yosemite Valley, Bridalveil fall 4 frame vertical pano taken from the tunnel parking lot.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/0kpk0fdd93sflyo/Camp%20Diefenbach.nef?m

This is saved as original NEF from Lightroom, I didn't keep the straight off camera NEF I used for the CNX2 conversion.

All images from digital sensors need sharpening if ultimate quality is to be gotten. The amount of sharpening is dependent on the final use of the image. If very little magnification is intended and if the images are destined only for the computer screen, sharpening is often completely unnecessary.

I have very little interest in processing for the monitor, other than as a reasonable representation of my prints, which are often 20" x 30" and larger.

While D800e files need less aggressive sharpening than any other files I have worked with, they need their specific handling and the "before" and "after" versions are easily distinguished. I don't apply any sharpening in camera and use a combination of high-pass methods which vary by image content and print size.

D800 and D800e files have so much detail and are so sharp before any processing is applied that final images, while incredibly sharp, have a much more "relaxed" quality (don't know any other way to put it) when compared to other DSLR sensors and with attempts to wring ultimate detail from such smaller files.

Not asked, but worth mentioning is that the difference in sharpness between properly processed (sharpened) D800 vs D800e images is small but easily seen.

Rich

Yes, it just doesn't need much if you've nailed focus. I don't use ANY usm-based sharpening on the D800E files; I use a a light touch of deconvolution based sharpening plug-in from focusmagic (unfortunately only compatible with 32bit versions of PS - grumble - I wish these guys would upgrade their freaking software - as it's really nice stuff - VASTLY superior to that Topaz stuff, but I digress) for my capture sharpening and that's it most of the time.

ACR/Lightroom users can use the (excellent) sharpening in there, particularly with the settings swung more over to the deconvolution end of the sharpening settings, but done gently. I'd avoid doing any sharpening of any sort within Capture NX2 if that's your converter.

-m

LumoLabs: Nikon D800 AA filter vs. D800E

I apply sharpening to my D800E RAW files - and there's no question that the images benefit from it. In fact, I just played around with the sharpening slider in Lightroom on several different D800E images and they all benefited from it to varying degrees. LR's sharpening is supposed to be based upon the Unsharp mask in Photoshop and I'm seeing the same benefits for preliminary (ACR) and final sharpening there too.

I did not look at any D800 JPEGS, which may be a different story for the D800E.

Output to print:

The logic of applying sharpening when outputting to a printer is based upon the edge-softening tendency of the print process, and not some capability of a camera.

Since the print process itself generally softens an image slightly, some output (to printer) final sharpening is in order. In LR, I've been setting it to Standard for my D800E shots and the prints come out looking good. I've tried this setting at High, and the final print (13X19) looked a little over-sharpened and LOW or None yielded slightly less crisp prints.

And you say you don't print?

That's where output sharpening is needed the most. Also for web images if you downsize. I can't see any need to post full sized D800E images on the web unless you want to show sensor/lens performance.

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Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

"I have used my D800E to shoot everything from travel to fashion. I have always found the images to be very sharp but was wondering if I should still apply sharpening in post production?"

My Optical Simulator is about to take a major step up in utility, and will provide a vehicle for addressing many questions such as this.  Watch for my upcoming thread "Virtual Camera:  The Raw-conversion Challenge," later this week.

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Qualities possessed by God in infinite proportion: Love, Grace, Power, Righteousness, Wisdom, . . .
Qualities possessed by humans in infinite proportion: Ignorance.
- Marianne

I have my doubts as to whether the artifacts plainly visible to me on my 1080p monitor woulldn't be faithfully reproduced in print.  But I don't print much, so it's of no consequence to me.  I'm pretty sure my tiffs would print just fine with my preferred settings, not needing extra crispy.  My preferred delivery system will most likely be a 60" 4K flat panel within the next year or two, which should be socko with input from the D800e.  And there's no doubt whatever that artifacts would be plain as day on one of those.

Yes, that is the best article on differences between D800 and D800E files. Marianne's modeling of the differences is also interesting.

Note however that Lumos Labs deals only with presharpening (capture sharpening) and that Lightroom does not allow a sharpening radius below 0.5, which would be needed for a properly pre-sharpened D800E.

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Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

I have no idea of what artifacts you are writing about.

Please clarify, or show an example.

Ink spread is a fact of printing and the main reason for output sharpening for print (proper out put sharpening depends on printer, paper and print size, as well as subject matter).

36 good MP is a waste on any monitor, even a 60" 4k one, a large print is much more accurate.

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Kind regards
Kaj
http://www.pbase.com/kaj_e
WSSA member #13
It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt