When is sharp too sharp?
Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:32 pm
It's been fantastic to take part in recent monthly photo competitions and I've been impressed by the incredibly high standards. Indeed, the best compliment I can offer is that I wish I'd taken many of the entries myself!
In looking at the pictures, two question frequently comes to my mind:
To what extent are images being 'enhanced' by the use of post capture sharpening and how much sharpening is really needed to yield a good result?
My take on the subject is that I strive to produce images that look as natural as possible. I try to hide the use of flash, and sharpen my images just enough to bring out detail, without any unnatural exaggeration to edges (unsharp-masking) etc. Obviously, I wouldn't have felt prompted to ask the question if I didn't feel that occasionally images are over sharpened (at least to my eyes and taste - clearly there's no hard and fast rule on this and the last thing I want to do is offend anyone!).
I wondered what others felt about this issue?
Best wishes
Malcolm
In looking at the pictures, two question frequently comes to my mind:
To what extent are images being 'enhanced' by the use of post capture sharpening and how much sharpening is really needed to yield a good result?
My take on the subject is that I strive to produce images that look as natural as possible. I try to hide the use of flash, and sharpen my images just enough to bring out detail, without any unnatural exaggeration to edges (unsharp-masking) etc. Obviously, I wouldn't have felt prompted to ask the question if I didn't feel that occasionally images are over sharpened (at least to my eyes and taste - clearly there's no hard and fast rule on this and the last thing I want to do is offend anyone!).
I wondered what others felt about this issue?
Best wishes
Malcolm