Digital sharpening and resolution, upload advice
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:05 pm
I'm hoping someone can offer me some basic advice on how i should go about improving images off my digital cameras. I have one camera (EOS400D) that shoots Raw/Jpegs so maximum flexibility but no idea as yet how to use raw. Then my sons camera does only Jpegs.
I can manage to crop and adjust brightness, contrast and colour by eye ok. But what im unclear of is sharpening techniques and when to apply . As an example I start with a jpeg file and in Photoshop CS crop it to an aesthetically pleasing look. Without saving it (as i know multiple saving of jpegs causes reduction in mage quality) i then tweak brightness/contrast and adjust colour by eye. (im not sure if there are histograms in Photoshop CS?). Next I apply sharpening. Ive tried the unmask sharpening tool and the edge sharpening. Never sure what to do for the best. The ones I uploaded in the September sightings images today had 70% sharpening and 1.5 pixels. No idea whats too much or not enough. I wasn't sure if this varies on how much you cropped in in first place. For example - if you really crop in thight first then sharpen is the effect different compared if you sharpen the entire image first and then crop. I keep hearing about digitial workflows and assume there is a correct order in which to do this editing?
Anyway, Finally i save it as a different file name. Now in order to get it onto this site i read that I should make it no more than 800pixels wide. In PS i did this by selecting image> Image size > AUto resolution (best) = 266pxl/inch (default seems to be 72dpi). In the same window I then changed the width to 750 pixels wide > ok. Having gotten the image to the right width, I found that the file size was too big to upload even though 800pxls wide. I then used the save as function again and Jpeg option gives a slider to reduce image size from large file (max 12) so i slid this until it fell below the 256k max upload. Now am i doing this all wrong as ive had no practical advice and self taught myself so far. I note that the images i put up on the Sept post today look (to me) ok 'ish but noteed i still needed slider bars to see the whole image (i chose 750 pixel wide rather than 800 because i figured less would ensure i get them on with no sliders?). Ive just realised Ive asked a million questions here and now unsure if anyone knows what it is im trying to ask (and ive not even begun to get my head round Canons Digital Professional RAW editor software). Any advice on post image capture processing (or whatever it is called), tops tips for butterflies etc would really be welcomed! Obviously i use PS CS. Anyone recommend any books for RAW editing advice?
BW
Mark
I can manage to crop and adjust brightness, contrast and colour by eye ok. But what im unclear of is sharpening techniques and when to apply . As an example I start with a jpeg file and in Photoshop CS crop it to an aesthetically pleasing look. Without saving it (as i know multiple saving of jpegs causes reduction in mage quality) i then tweak brightness/contrast and adjust colour by eye. (im not sure if there are histograms in Photoshop CS?). Next I apply sharpening. Ive tried the unmask sharpening tool and the edge sharpening. Never sure what to do for the best. The ones I uploaded in the September sightings images today had 70% sharpening and 1.5 pixels. No idea whats too much or not enough. I wasn't sure if this varies on how much you cropped in in first place. For example - if you really crop in thight first then sharpen is the effect different compared if you sharpen the entire image first and then crop. I keep hearing about digitial workflows and assume there is a correct order in which to do this editing?
Anyway, Finally i save it as a different file name. Now in order to get it onto this site i read that I should make it no more than 800pixels wide. In PS i did this by selecting image> Image size > AUto resolution (best) = 266pxl/inch (default seems to be 72dpi). In the same window I then changed the width to 750 pixels wide > ok. Having gotten the image to the right width, I found that the file size was too big to upload even though 800pxls wide. I then used the save as function again and Jpeg option gives a slider to reduce image size from large file (max 12) so i slid this until it fell below the 256k max upload. Now am i doing this all wrong as ive had no practical advice and self taught myself so far. I note that the images i put up on the Sept post today look (to me) ok 'ish but noteed i still needed slider bars to see the whole image (i chose 750 pixel wide rather than 800 because i figured less would ensure i get them on with no sliders?). Ive just realised Ive asked a million questions here and now unsure if anyone knows what it is im trying to ask (and ive not even begun to get my head round Canons Digital Professional RAW editor software). Any advice on post image capture processing (or whatever it is called), tops tips for butterflies etc would really be welcomed! Obviously i use PS CS. Anyone recommend any books for RAW editing advice?
BW
Mark