Sharpening

[kalkadan]

Hi - I have been having a bit of a problem with a new nikkor, or maybe it is with the D200

I noticed the new lens was not producing sharp images. I mean sharp when you zoomed in playback on the D200 and not sharp on screen when downloaded.

Then I noticed in Preview on the Mac that, if I applied the sharpening slider to the mid-point, what I thought were pretty ordinary eyes on my subjects became as sharp as diamonds! The same thing happened in Nikon's Picture Project and in iPhoto, and in Adobe Lightroom - yeah, I've been checking around!

Is this normal? the D200 was set to normal sharpening. I banged it up to max sharpening, but the results were much the same - the best, the sharpest images were produced on the computer screen by moving the sharpening slider.

True, when the sharpening is applied, the images really pop. Having noticed this (I am quite a novice at digital photography) I went back and checked what I had thought were sharp images taken on the D200 with a 35mm f2 and a 70-210 f4.

Lo and behold they responded the same way - became really sharp! so I am now wondering about my lenses and the whole digital thing.

Another unusual thing has happened. When I save a sharpened image in some of these programs - it reverts to an unsharpened state! even with a different file name. And it does not appear, when uploaded to a web site or sent as an email attachment, to be as sharp as when I sharpened it on screen. What gives?

has anyone else been down this path?

many thanks

Dan

[kipper]

From what I've heard the D200 produces quite soft images out of the camera in comparison to the D2X and post processing sharpening is required more so than with the D2X. If anybody else has heard different then I'd be interested to know.

[Steffen]

Where to start?

I guess, with "Welcome to the digital darkroom". The good new news is, you won't have to tape up your windows and doors, or get your hands wet. The bad news is, the workflow is every bit as complicated.

Transforming a sensor capture into an image is a craft, and in-camera transformations can only do so much in the blink of an eye. It is probably worthwhile (telling from my own personal odysseys) to shoot in raw and learning your way around raw converters, in order to get the best out of your pix.

It is a well-known fact that that sensor captures require a fair bit of digital sharpening. They do, however, contain the information necessary to do that.

Apart from all that, posting samples of pictures you're not happy with will put us into a much better position to comment.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Matt. K]

kalkadan
What you are seeing out of your D200 is perfectly normal. If you intend sending your images directly to a one hour lab for printing then turn the sharpening up high in the menu and shoot JPGs. The good news is that when you process the images yourself through the computer a hefty tad of sharpening will bring your 'flat' images to life. Enjoy.

[kalkadan]

Steffen & Matt
Thanks very much for your advice.
Steffen, which Raw converter have you found works best with your Nikon? Is there a site or section on this site which discusses workflows which have been found to work?

You asked for the shots in question. These are some of them. They were taken as Jpegs with sharpening in the D200 turned up as high as possible. Yet in PictureProject or Preview on the Mac they look so much better after sharpening to the mid-point and even beyond that.

[Justin]

So these are before out-of-camera sharpening?

These are great - the softness of the light, and looking at the edges in focus it's fine. All would look great printed on 6x4



You are now in the realm of how you want your photos to look 'artistically', so here are my thoughts on what I would do...

#1 - perhaps a touch

IMHO, #2 needs some slight sharpening, remebering that you will lose some softness in the sand and clouds like those don't like too much sharpening (try heaps and see what I mean, you will start to see jagged edges where cloud meets sky)

#3 doesn't need anything, this would then depend on the look you are after, there is a nice warmth and softness that you will start to lose.

#4 - see #3

#5 this is perhaps the only one I would go for a lot of sharpening to bring the plants out. this is a little under-exposed. But what I am doing here is using sharpening in place of contrast / brightness. Perhaps increase contrast a little first, even an auto-levels in PS or auto-contrast in Picasa may bring this up.

[kalkadan]

Justin - really appreciated those comments. Thank you.

Do you have any ideas on my apparent difficulty in getting sharpened images to stay that way when posted to the web? Some people seem to have pin sharp images posted here and elsewhere. In portraits with the 85mm f1.4 for example. I can see something like that degree of sharpness on my monitor when I sharpen the shot here, but it seems to be lost in transmission.

[kalkadan]

For example, look at some of your Burning Fields shots! great stuff. The fern and the Spikes. So sharp.

[Justin]

I use Picasa2 for all my web exports. I process my images, work on the ones in photoshop that need it then export using Picasa. Those google guys are pretty good. They know when you export it you just want to put it on the web

Give it a try. I played with the last shot of yours at work today. Try the following in Picasa

'i'm feeling lucky'
'auto contrast'
'auto colour'
'fill light' - about 15-35%
'sharpen'
'saturation' - default, maybe 4-5% to the right from default
'colour temp' boosted about 15%
' highlights' and 'shadows' about 10-15%

I've over-saturated this - you'll get a better result 'cos you were there!

[kalkadan]

Justin - thanks again! that looks very like I get it when using sharpening on my monitor. I will try Picassa as you say.
Btw, yeah I was there, but you have got it right. It was just post-dawn with heavy cloud and the light was as you see it in the pic you have edited.
The lens was the 17-35 f2.8 and I am still getting used to it. Love the angles and the colour rendition it and the D200 produce. Using sharpening, it can give stunningly sharp results even wide open.
The colours in the following pics are so true, and although the web images do not appear to be too sharp they really look terrific on the monitor when sharpened, particularly the ones of the inside of the car, the tufts on the carpet, the lettering on the fire extinguisher etc etc I am hoping that I can get those snappy clear shots posted on the web before too long.
Again, really appreciate the advice. I am getting back into photography after a long lay-off, and trying to cope with the digital world at the same time. It's a bit daunting.