Is it best to sharpen in the RAW editor?

I've been using USM in the Photoshop editor but I realized I'm sharpening twixe since the RAW ediitor has a default sharpness setting. Should I just be doing my sharpening in RAW and bumping it up a tad there if I need to?
Gerry

I've always read to NOT sharpen in the RAW editor, and to do it as the last step in your workflow.

Johnny

http://www.flickr.com/photos/latitudes/

You can do either or both and you won't be wrong for several reasons. Sharpness in either is just your perception of edge contrast. The main caveat in RAW sharpening, then further editing in PS is that the editing you do may influence the RAW sharpening by either exaggerating the edge contrast or reducing it. There is no magic formula as image content, size and output media are all factors in how the results turn out. Plus, your perception and interpretation of sharpness may be totally different than mine or others so in the end, you should experiment to see how the interaction between the 2 methods best fits into your workflow.
Regards,
VG

gdgeisler said:

I've been using USM in the Photoshop editor but I realized I'm
sharpening twixe since the RAW ediitor has a default sharpness
setting. Should I just be doing my sharpening in RAW and bumping it
up a tad there if I need to?
Gerry

Click to expand...

Gerry,

Sharpening can be a very distructrive process if not done correctly, it can make or break an image. I have delt with many well know photographers that have the lasting effects of badly sharpened images in their portfolios, usually using USM.

I suggest (and this is just a personal opinion that works for me and others I have instructed), using the Sharpen in ACR in "Preview" mode only, when you have finally completed all your FX and edits to the image in Photoshop make the shrpening the last thing you do and do not use USM, instead use High Pass sharpening method.

I will add an action to my Website Blog for you to download with 10 levels of High Pass.
Regards
Del

http://www.digitaldel.com

There is much written about sharpening. There is no ONE best way. There are many thoughts on the subject. Some say sharpen Last others say sharpen twice and then there are those that advocate Three Phase Sharpening. Image content often plays a large role on methods will work best on it. Personal taste plays a big role. Generally you will create two versions of a image one for electronic Display and one for printing. These are sharpened for the intended output. Printed Images requite more sharpening then electronic displayed images this me be because they are downsized from the large size they were which tends to make images appear sharper in the first place.

Here is a link to Glenn E. Mitchell II, Ph.D. The Light's Right Studio sharpening document:
http://www.thelightsrightstudio.com/tools/TLRProfessionalSharpeningToolkit.pdf

Glenn is passionate about his work and he has chosen to freely share it. His site has a wealth if information worth a visit. There are many Free download on that site. Most are very good and through. IMO some are more then I want and take to long to process. There are quicker ways to get nearly the same results.
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JJMack

i turn off sharpening in the raw editor...nikon capture
and then apply 3 stages of sharpening...
capture sharpening using unsharp mask in NX capture
creative sharpening in Photoshop...using lab mode...(eyes lips hair)
and then output sharpening either web or print
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badui bourizk

Unless you're doing a lot of production work and the ultimate quality isn't the issue, no, you want to capture in stages on an existing rendered image. You NEED the pixels to do this correctly.

Read this (keeping in mind it way predates anything Dr Mitchell did with respect to sharpening):

http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html

--
Andrew Rodney
Author: Color Management for Photographers
The Digital Dog
http://www.digitaldog.net

Thanx, everyone. Much food for thought.

Ps Del,

I do use High Pass sharpening, but generally only man made objects like buildings, city skylines etc etc.

Gerry

The way I use sharpening is purley based on personal taste and the results from my printer. I think that the High Pass is a nice simple and effective way to acheive the results that work for me and my clients.

In the end that is what it is all about. An I agree with the previous posts there are "many" way to sharpen, but then again there are many ways to do everything in Photoshop, that is what makes it so cool.
Enjoy.

Del

http://www.digitaldel.com

As Del said sharpening can be very destructive to a image, I personnaly do it as a last step in PS not in Capture 4.4.2 or NX, I use High Pass as well.

Here's a link to another method I use often called edge sharpening what I like about it is that it doe'nt add noise unless you go into 300 amount or a high radius, I never go above radius 1.5 and 250 amount.
Hope this helps
Roger

Scroll down to Edge Sharpening its a few steps but once you do it it becomes very easy & fast.
http://www.bythom.com/sharpening.htm
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Roger