Worth shooting in raw, since cameras sharpen better than computers now?

[glen]

Sharpness on the photo is how do you focus on the object - it should be discussed not about RAW vs JPEG, but about tripod vs monopod vs steady hands vs shaky hands....

Forget about sharpness of the photo - RAW vs JPEG - neither one would make a blurry photo look sharp...You can slightly - SLIGHTLY sharpen slightly misfocused photo...that's all...

Your camera setting - does sharpen the whole frame, not the object to choose to take picture of...You want to sharpen a bird, camera won't do that for you - you have to focus very good on a bird to get a sharp photo....in PS you can do a little sharpening of your object - Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask....

When talking about a sharp picture of a bird or wildlife - it isn't about RAW or JPEG, it is about handhedl, monopod or tripod....

I think this is a very good point.

 

[Anteaus]

Also, sharpness also varies with the lens, and most lenses tend to be sharpest around certain apertures which with DX lenses tends to be around f/5.6. That's an estimate though.

Thanks for the other images. Hopefully the OP can see the virtue of RAW processing, even if they ultimately stick with camera JPGs.

 

[iGas]

Her we go. More full size.

Here we go again!

LR5 JPG to JPG. It would be a lot better if the original is RAW.

 

[waterjug]

whoah, glen & iGas how did you do that? The jpg to jpg version that iGas posted is great

 

[glen]

LightRoom is well worth the $120. Took me literally, 1 min.

 

[Anteaus]

You guys are making me want to travel and take pictures again. Random stuff from the past year.

 

[Anteaus]

LightRoom is well worth the $120. Took me literally, 1 min.

Agreed. The day I switched to RAW/LR processing my interest in photography just exploded.

 

[iGas]

Agreed. The day I switched to RAW/LR processing my interest in photography just exploded.

I went to the Windows dark side just for LR after 12 years of Linux exclusively.

 

[glen]

Do you like this better?

 

[iGas]

Enjoy.

 

[waterjug]

LightRoom is well worth the $120. Took me literally, 1 min.

I have lightroom....could you walk me through what you did there, I'm clearly doing something wrong

 

[waterjug]

Do you like this better?

REALLY nice as well, what are you guys doing exactly?

 

[waterjug]

I try sharpening with LR and everything turns into a grainy mess, I try to smooth that out and everything gets blurred...

As for the colors, are you making saturation adjustments?

 

[Anteaus]

Try this. Import your raw file and just make everything default...don't use any of the presets expect for maybe standard or neutral. Sharpening should default to 25ish. Don't make any edits...just go to export a JPG and make sure you aren't resizing anything there. Keep the PPI at 300 and set the quality level to 80 (this is near optimal....more than that is just inflating file size with little gain). Don't apply any sharpening at export.

The exposure will be a lil off but it should help create a baseline and a clean image.

My personal workflow is very basic. Lens correction, adjust overall exposure level, white balance, a bit of vibrance to help bring colors out, and perhaps some contrast bump. 95% of my images will be close to perfect after that. Also, keep at eye on clipping...this is where the presets can get you in trouble as it can kill details. At that point its about small changes.

I'd try that and see what you get.

 

[Gintaras]

I haven't played with RAW files that much yet. I did hear that RAWShooter Essentials 2006 (Free) is a very good for editing raw files.

Keep the PPI at 300 and set the quality level to 80 (this is near optimal....more than that is just inflating file size with little gain). Don't apply any sharpening at export.

300 ppi is needed for prints only. for computer/web it doesn't matter....

 

[iGas]

First thing is to check white balance, exposure, and contrast. Then move the detail zoom to the area that you want to be sharp, and then zoom photo to 1:1 as it will show what your final image will be. Then play around with sharpening (20~40), radius (0.5~1.6), detail (default 25 but IMHO it pending noise), and masking (any amount, but the more the worst it get). Then play around with noise reduction, luminance, detail, contrast, and colour. Then recheck highlights shadows, whites, and blacks. Then check clarity, vibrant, and saturation. Then spot removal, filter, etc...

 

[AkumaX]

LightRoom is well worth the $120. Took me literally, 1 min.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Anteaus]

I haven't played with RAW files that much yet. I did hear that RAWShooter Essentials 2006 (Free) is a very good for editing raw files.



300 ppi is needed for prints only. for computer/web it doesn't matter....

Agreed, except there is no reason not to do it and every reason to do it....setting it lower doesn't affect file size yet will hurt you if you ever need to make a print down the road. Better to just always use 300 ppi and leave options open later, especially if you delete the raw file and can't reproccess which some people do to save space.

 

[xSauronx]

I have lightroom....could you walk me through what you did there, I'm clearly doing something wrong

just for future reference

http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...7j5.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.heaNNInp1po

seriously, you can learn a lot of lightroom on youtube.

 

[waterjug]

First thing is to check white balance, exposure, and contrast. Then move the detail zoom to the area that you want to be sharp, and then zoom photo to 1:1 as it will show what your final image will be. Then play around with sharpening (20~40), radius (0.5~1.6), detail (default 25 but IMHO it pending noise), and masking (any amount, but the more the worst it get). Then play around with noise reduction, luminance, detail, contrast, and colour. Then recheck highlights shadows, whites, and blacks. Then check clarity, vibrant, and saturation. Then spot removal, filter, etc...

The noise reduction/luminance is where I really f up...on the picture above that you fixed, what settings did you use? I try using it and i just get a blurry mess no matter what I try.

 

[waterjug]

one last question, how do you add a layer mask or whatever, so that all this sharpening, etc. doesn't end up making the background pixelated, etc. I know how to do it in photoshop, am I looking right at it in LR?

 

[jhansman]

Sharpness aside, shooting in RAW makes all the sense in the world when you consider how much control it gives you over every aspect of your exposure (with the possible exception of crappy composition )

 

[waterjug]

Yeah I'm starting to get why to shoot in raw. I DO have other methods of sharpening. My favorite:

1. open picture in photoshop
2. right click on the background layer, click duplicate
3. change that duplicate layer's blending from normal to overlay
4. with the duplicate layer selected, go to filter-->other-->high pass
5. set the radius to something low, usually 2.5 is as high as you'll really want to go.
6. click ok
7. for more sharpening change layer blending from overlay to hard light, for less sharpening change from normal to soft light.

to make the sharpening only effect the subject, click on the duplicate layer again, and create a layer mask. Use the brush to color that mask black in all the areas you don't want it to sharpen.



I may just do some slight sharpening of my RAWs in LR, and focus mainly on color, etc. in there. I'm sure by adjusting contrast, whites/colors, vibrance, shadows, etc. I'll bring out some of the detail. Then once I do all that I can re-open the raw in photoshop to get the level of sharpness I want, and then save as jpg.

 

[iGas]

The noise reduction/luminance is where I really f up...on the picture above that you fixed, what settings did you use? I try using it and i just get a blurry mess no matter what I try.

http://i.imgur.com/Gi6lReL.jpg

I manipulated the above picture in LR5 and crop to get the last result.

WB
+8 temperature
+25 tint

Tone
-24 black

Presence
+40 clarity
+40 vibrant
+40 saturation

Sharpening
25 amount
1.6 radius
25 detail
20 masking

Noise Reduction
50 luminance
50 detail

Post-crop vignetting
Highlight priority
+5 amount
50 midpoint
50 feather

Radial filter 1
-1.00 exposure
100 contrast
-31 clarity
-31 saturation
-29 sharpness
60 feather

Radial filter 2
80 contrast
100 clarity
50 feather
Invert mask

 

[Gintaras]

Yeah I'm starting to get why to shoot in raw. I DO have other methods of sharpening. My favorite:

1. open picture in photoshop
2. right click on the background layer, click duplicate
3. change that duplicate layer's blending from normal to overlay
4. with the duplicate layer selected, go to filter-->other-->high pass
5. set the radius to something low, usually 2.5 is as high as you'll really want to go.
6. click ok
7. for more sharpening change layer blending from overlay to hard light, for less sharpening change from normal to soft light.

to make the sharpening only effect the subject, click on the duplicate layer again, and create a layer mask. Use the brush to color that mask black in all the areas you don't want it to sharpen.



I may just do some slight sharpening of my RAWs in LR, and focus mainly on color, etc. in there. I'm sure by adjusting contrast, whites/colors, vibrance, shadows, etc. I'll bring out some of the detail. Then once I do all that I can re-open the raw in photoshop to get the level of sharpness I want, and then save as jpg.

As I said, I did little playing with RAW.

To sharpen JPEG in PS, I do:
Select object to sharpen, then - Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask