New member, looking for advice regarding image sharpness

Hi all, I was hoping that you can provide some insights and ideas for me so I can improve my results. The attached file was rejected due to sharpness, with "skyshot" being a secondary issue. As I can tell, this is pretty sharp, and I've seen other photos on here not quite as sharp as this. I played a bit with photoshop but am no pro. Seems like unsharp mask is a popular fix, but can someone point me in the right direction to use the unsharp mask properly? Thanks for you time and opinions!

Settings:

Camera Nikon D7000

Lens: Nikon 18-200mm

Mode: Shutter priority

Shutter 1/2500

F: 6.3

ISO 400

Zoom @ 150mm

This post has been edited by Lufthansa Flyer on 16th March 2012 - 06:00

Attached photos:

Hi there,

Have a look at this link, understanding the Unsharpmask tool will point you in the right settings :)

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/photoshop/cs/using/WSDFE786F0-6401-4dba-A009-5E15118B9A6Ca.html

Regards,

Andras

its definitely a learning curve. I also bought the book "comprehensive guide to mastering digital photography" that many on here speak of. Hopefully things improve! thanks for the suggestion.

OK, played with the settings based on instructions. Big mistake previously was using pixel setting of .2 per recommendation for another site. I think its a bit sharper, but it may be my eyes playing a trick.

Also, would you USM it before or after resizing it? I usually shoot in RAW then save jpgs after resizing to 1024, 1280, etc.

This post has been edited by Lufthansa Flyer on 16th March 2012 - 07:46

Attached photos:

It's image dependent every time, so a standard setting never applies ;) it's easier yes, but not knowing what it actually does will not get you the best results for each image. It's a good book, like many others. Have fun!

Thanks again for help and suggestions. I beginning to see what has to be learned and mastered!!!

There are a lot of pros en cons for sharpening after resizing, I've tested a lot of ways, and actually can't find big differences.. I do my workflow in LR -> PS -> LR again and then export the full image to a JPG size of my choice...

Regards,

Sharpening should always be done as the very last stage of your workflow, right before the final Save As.

If you can understand that every image taken in JPEG mode will have a degree of sharpening, that every image needs sharpening to some extent and the difference between a soft or under sharpened and an over sharpened image, which will destroy the fine detail and create noise in your picture then you will have mastered sharpening.

It is a steep road to travel at times.

Starting with a good file is always better then trying to make a bad file look good I would like to give you a few pointers.

I would advise you to close you aperture a bit more for increased sharpness.

You should be able to gain a bit more sharpness by using something like F/8.

Check this out:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/ISO-12233-Sample-Crops.aspx?Lens=672&Camera=614&Sample=0&FLI=5&API=2&LensComp=672&CameraComp=614&SampleComp=0&FLIComp=5&APIComp=3

Though I would make a few test shots with your own lens to see what aperture works best on your lens.

And 1/2500th is way waay more then you need.

Try aperture priority at F/8

Drop your ISO to 200

F/8 and ISO200 should still give you 1/800th of a second.

I know that I am not answering your question, but I just wanted to share this with you helping you to improve you photography!

Thanks every one for your great ideas and advice. I've printed the info and will be off to the local airport and start applying a few these things this weekend! And especially thanks for not treating me like someone who got in the way with stupid questions! :)

I wrote a few tutorials on sharpening on the old forum, you may still be able to view these

High pass filter - selective sharpening (a bit technical but my favoured method.)

http://forums.airplane-pictures.net/index.php?/topic/668-selective-sharpening/

High pass filter sharpening

http://forums.airplane-pictures.net/index.php?/topic/665-high-pass-sharpening/

Understanding sharpening

http://forums.airplane-pictures.net/index.php?/topic/257-understanding-sharpening/

Jonesy done one on edge sharpening, unfortunately it does not have and illustrations

http://forums.airplane-pictures.net/index.php?/topic/83-edge-sharpening/

I would second Lars' comments, understanding exposure and the relationship between shutter speed, lens aperture and "film" speed/ ISO is important.

Understanding that sharpening works best when the image has good contrast is also important to know.

I bet your head is bursting with all this new found knowledge by now. :)

This post has been edited by Wallace Shackleton on 16th March 2012 - 16:41

I just need to break it down into "bite size" pieces. First is to get the good image, with the right camera settings. Thats probably have the battle. Once I have a good image to experiment with, then I can really start playing with settings, etc and seeing what works and what doesn't it. If it was easy, it would not be any fun....