Over-Sharpened

I often get photos rejected for over-sharpening even though I never even sharpened them. Can someone please explain this? I'm not sure if it's camera settings, downsizing, etc.

Here is an example of one that was rejected because of over-sharpening (even though I never even edited at all) ; plus it being a sky shot.

Attached photos:

Hey Zach, fancy seeing you in here haha!

Well to me it looks a little bit edgey, as if you sharpened it TOO much. But i have no idea how or why this is happening. Sorry i wasn't much help

Thanks Peter, haha. I didnt expect to see a response from you haha, but ya i didnt sharpen in at all. So i dont know whats up. But thanks for your thoughts.

I have had the same problem especially with the sharpening. I think downsizing may work??? not too sure.

Well I Think the problem is downsizing it. It seems to sharpen the photo when I downsize it which may be a problem. Also some of the editors have stated that there is JPG compression visable which i dont know if thats the same or not and if has any correlation with downsizing the image. I am still a beginner with this whole thing.

My camera (Canon DSLR) applies a sharpening routine automatically when it writes the JPG. If you shoot in RAW, the sharpen setting is adjustable on the computer after you download the shot. If you shoot JPG, the sharpen setting can be adjusted in the camera, or turned off completely. However, this is only available before you make the shot. Definitely check your camera settings.

Thanks for the help. I will definately check that. I have a nikon, but it might have the sharpening feature too.

Tue, in-camera settings are always applied, but my point is in RAW the settings are adjustable on the computer with software even after the shot is made. The most common example is white balance which can be changed easily if it's a RAW shot, but not without loss if it's JPG. Same thing for sharpening, which can be undone if desired if you shoot in RAW. You can't undo the sharpening on a JPG.

It was my belief that Canon Picture Styles applied a level of sharpening even if you used RAW. Certainly Standard Style applies sharpening (Contrast and colour adjustments as well) when viewed in Canon's RAW converter program DPP. I do not know if this is the case for Adobe Camera RAW converter.

The point made above is still valid don't apply any in-camera sharpening and then you will reduce any sharpening issues to a minimum and use RAW instead of JPEG as it does give you the most flexibility in post processing.

Using Canon all i can say is that it all depends on your camera settings.

As you know, RAW-data isn't visible, the pre-view you see on your body is a JPEG, even shooting RAW only.

Using Picture Styles alters the settings on a JPEG, but only adds a 'layer' of info to the RAW.

Picture Styles can be added/changed later in DPP, the extra 'layer' on top provides this data, so i think it's important to use the converter provided with your camera [ assuming you'll want to use the Picture Style in-camera data ].

I really don't see much advantages in using presets, it's more timeconsuming after all.

Zach, i think you should see into your camera setting's.

My 2 cents.

Brian,

I think Nikon also provides the posibility to use unprocessed data like Canon does.

Dont ask how, but settings is the key-answer.

In-camera processing results in a [visible ] JPEG, exporting the much bigger .RAW results in a file which is in need of special viewer/plugin to be visible on your [ my! ] screen, it still has to be converted to JPEG.

That step, RAW editing, is the step you likely miss, like you stated earlier [ Posted 11 August 2012 - 23:03 CET ]

Canon provides USM in DPP, i used to use USM in Photoshop [ using JPEG ] but knowing USM can be used before processing changed my whole point of view.

@ Zach, i know Nikon is your brand, in Canon's DPP i clearly see difference between different Picture Styles when applying.

Especially the ones using sharpness one way or another really lowers the quality of the final JPEG, like someone mentioned before, looks like TOO MUCH sharpness.

Really look into RAW and USM, it's worth it!

There are some great RAW processing tools available to anyone.

No big science and you can begin with RAW immediately. In general there is much more room for experimenting and post-processing compared to the options you have with the JPEG data.

Try RawTherapee or UFRaw and get maximum from your shots, the tools are available:

- For Nikon or Canon, or other RAW camera formats....

- For Windows, Linux or other OSs

Once the image processing in the RAW editors is done, just load the image to your favourite photo editor and perform the final workflow steps (e.g. some final retouching & sharpening).

UFRaw:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ufraw/files/ufraw/ufraw-0.18/ufraw-0.18-setup.exe/download

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

RawTherapee:

http://rawtherapee.com/downloads

http://rawtherapee.com/

Thanks everyone for the help. I'm sure these tips will benefit me greatly in the future.

Murmeldeier has pointed something out that I had forgotten and it is worth knowing if you use Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) as your RAW converter

ACR automatically applies sharpening to your images in conversion. An amount of 25%, a Radius of 1 and a detail of 25. (Also a colour noise reduction of 25)

To remove this sharpening, select the DETAIL tab in the ACR converter. Left mouse button click on the tab to the right and select Save New camera RAW defaults.

From now on you should have no sharpening applied during the RAW conversion.