d100 - my jpeg sharpening setting

The D100 has four sharpening settings:
none, low, normal, high
plus the setting 'auto' which means do the sharpening at
the level appropriate to the image.

For images captured in jpeg the sharpening is done in the
camera but for raw images (nef's) the sharpening is done
in the PC.

Sharpening done in the PC is clearly better than that
done in the camera, thus leading people to want to use
nef images rather than jpeg images, despite the 3x increased
size and increased workload to process nef's.

There are other reasons besides sharpening to use raw format
and if possible you always should shoot nef images. However
there are times when processing time and disk space are
very important and you want to shoot jpeg and and naturally
you want to get the best image you can.

I've read comments on this topic before and one I've seen
a few times is that people knowing that in-camera sharpening
is not as good set sharpening to None and just plan to
sharpen their jpeg's outside the camera.

I photographed some small text at various sharpening settings
in raw and jpeg (I only had to take one raw picture since the
sharpening is specified by Nikon Capture).

My conclusion for this test:

1. Auto sharpening is the same as Normal sharpening.
2. jpeg,None is the blurriest
3. raw,None is very similar to jpeg,Low
4. raw,Low is very similar to jpeg,Normal
5. raw,Norm is the best
6. raw,high is showing sharpening artifacts, but jpeg,high is worse

thus the order from least to most sharp is:

jpeg,none

raw,normal is the best.
jpeg,normal is too blurry and jpeg,high is too sharp. There should
be a setting between normal and high for the in camera sharpener.

Then I tried sharpening the jpeg's using Photoshops's Sharpen function.
I repeated applications of Sharpen until sharpening artificats appeared
and I then undid that Sharpen. This is a baseline for the results
of out of camera sharpening. You can do better if you're willing to
spend more time.

I found that I could achieve an image equivalent to the best
image (raw,Normal) by sharpening the jpeg,Normal image.

This wasn't possible with the other images. In particular
sharpening the jpeg,none image gave poor results. It appears
that jpeg compression of a blurry image throws away too much detail.

So when I shoot jpeg I'll leave Sharpening on Auto.

john foderaro said:

Then I tried sharpening the jpeg's using Photoshops's Sharpen
function.
I repeated applications of Sharpen until sharpening artificats
appeared

Click to expand...

Big, big mistake. Photoshop's sharpening algorithm, a simple convolution filter, is the wrong tool. You should use Unsharp Mask. Do a search on this forum for details.

john foderaro said:

I've read comments on this topic before and one I've seen
a few times is that people knowing that in-camera sharpening
is not as good set sharpening to None and just plan to
sharpen their jpeg's outside the camera.

Click to expand...

It's not an either or, here. There are reasons to believe that some sharpening in-camera, and additional sharpening on the PC, are optimal for JPG.

Remember that JPG is a compression scheme designed for direct viewing, not storing images for post-processing. JPG compression of a "sharpening=NONE" image may lose the subtle contours of luminance and color that speak volumes to sharpening algorithms which identify edge areas and turn subtle contours into detail.

At the same time, you are right that the algorithms in-camera are sub-optimal, and this is not just a Nikon problem.

Out-of-camera processing that significantly improves sharpening without aggravating noise is best done through "edge sharpening". (A quicky and dirty alternative is playing with the "threshold" level of USM. There are some USM threshold partisans here, but the experts agree, you should learn edge sharpening or find an action/package that supports it).

Again, the best way to go is a combination of methods. For JPG, let the camera do some baseline sharpening, "Low" or "Normal". (I'd forget about "Auto", personally). Then do advanced edge sharpening in Photoshop.

With RAW, you get the intriguing opportunity to export images at sharpening=None, without losing any of the subtle contours ... so long as you export to TIF w/o passing through JPG.

So, on an image-by-image basis, you can decide whether or not to use baseline sharpening. If you apply absolutely no sharpening at all to the sky, that means pristine blue vistas become standard on the D100.

All the nonsense about noise levels on the D100 boils down to reviewers not understanding how sharpening algorithms heighten noise levels so differently, depending on the camera and bundles software.

In fact, a camera like the Canon D60 is not sharpening the blue sky, as it is applying an algorithm that recognizes areas of smooth gradients and masks them out before sharpening goes to work at full strength. It may even be selectively blurring it. Mistakenly, the CMOS imager is given full credit for low noise. (At its foundation, CMOS is a much higher noise technology, accounting for extreme measures by companies like Canon to reduce noise, both in the hardware and in the software. Nikon, with CCD technology, has invested less time and money on noise reduction, including on the software side).

The D100, in camera and in Nikon Capture, applies a more simplistic sharpening algorithm. That's part of the design approach ... minimal processing done by the camera and the bundled software. You need to turn to Photoshop and its brethren for the best results.

With learning and practice, you can get images of amazing clarity and shockingly low noise levels, particularly from NEF files exported to Photoshop with sharpening turned "OFF". That's where your task begins.

How would I go about learning these methods? The obvious answer is to play with PS, but if you never knew about them in the first place, it would be a long time before you figured it out.

Thanks!!

mo-jord said:

How would I go about learning these methods? The obvious answer is
to play with PS, but if you never knew about them in the first
place, it would be a long time before you figured it out.

Click to expand...

I sense your exasperation. You may want to try Vtie's sharpening tool which is free, or Fred Miranda's Nikon PS PRO Sharpening Photoshop plug-in for $15. It may be just what the doctor ordered. Many swear by it. Seems that NEFrodite is sold on that type of edge-sharpening tool. I have them myself but they get little use. For most images, I prefer the USM in Capture to those sharpening tools. Through experimentation, you will find out what the optimal settings are and it does a really good job very quickly. That's just my opionion. Others might tell you that it is practically useless compared to other methods.

Craig

It is important to remember that edge sharpening is just a method of putting a mask on top of USM. Some additional procedures, such as separating the "lightening" and "darkening" effects of USM, and ways of analyzing the histogram to vary the intensity of the USM, I also favor. But it's still USM under the hood.

What we "edge sharpening" folk are really about is using more sophisticated methods of "thresholding" the sharpening.

Take a good look at the judgments made by edge detection in Photoshop to see where you think it's making mistakes. Unfortunately, it's harder to take a look at where USM thresholding is making edge judgments, but you can do it by playing with images and using subtractionn layers, etc.

You'll see that thresholding is procrustean, first generation, laughable edge sharpening. Don't know why some people swear by it.

You can do 16-bit edge sharpening pretty easily. If you're enjoying USM'd NEFs processed by Nikon Capture, you should dig up a 16-bit edge sharpening action to make a fair comparison.

Craig Robinson said:

Many swear by it. Seems that NEFrodite is sold on that type of
edge-sharpening tool. I have them myself but they get little use.
For most images, I prefer the USM in Capture to those sharpening
tools. Through experimentation, you will find out what the optimal
settings are and it does a really good job very quickly. That's
just my opionion. Others might tell you that it is practically
useless compared to other methods.

Craig

Click to expand...

I bought several of Fred's actions and I am more than pleased. His sharpening action runs through many Photoshop steps to achieve crisp images and really stream-lines the workflow.

My sharpness settings: NEF--> none JPG's--> low
Post process all images with actions or USM in NC3 or Photoshop

John

Craig Robinson said:

I sense your exasperation. You may want to try Vtie's sharpening
tool which is free, or Fred Miranda's Nikon PS PRO Sharpening
Photoshop plug-in for $15. It may be just what the doctor ordered.
Many swear by it.

Click to expand...

While I like a lot of Fred Miranda's Actions (DV Pro, D100_SI_PRO and Frames Pro) I really don't care for his D100 sharpening actions as I don't feel they do that good of a job... I actually find that I like Thom Hogans simple sharpening action much more.

--
http://www.pbase.com/elterrible

John Hutzler said:

My sharpness settings: NEF--> none JPG's--> low
Post process all images with actions or USM in NC3 or Photoshop

John

John Hutzler said:

I sense your exasperation. You may want to try Vtie's sharpening
tool which is free, or Fred Miranda's Nikon PS PRO Sharpening
Photoshop plug-in for $15. It may be just what the doctor ordered.
Many swear by it.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...