• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Offers
  • How tos
  • Listicles
  • Explainers
  • A-Z
  • Downloads
    • Adobe
    • DxO software
    • Capture One
    • Exposure X
    • ON1 software
    • Skylum
  • About

Life after Photoshop

  • Lightroom
  • Capture One
  • DxO PhotoLab
  • Nik Collection
  • Exposure X
  • ON1 Photo RAW
  • Aurora HDR

Do you sharpen on export? It makes more difference than you might think!

November 6, 2013 by Rod Lawton

04 Lightroom with standard sharpening

Aperture and Lightroom export sharpening

And there certainly is. The sharpened version is visibly crisper, and shows the benefit of using sharpening targeted at the final image dimensions and the type of use the picture’s going to be put to.

05 OnOne Perfect Resize

Aperture and Lightroom export sharpening

But now for the joker in the pack. For this final example I’m using an external resizing plug-in – Perfect Resize, which comes as part of the OnOne Perfect Photo Suite. It’s not a sharpening tool as such, but it does use highly sophisticated image detail analysis algorithms to resize and optimise images much more effectively than regular resampling tools.

Aperture and Lightroom export sharpening

I think you’ll agree that the difference is spectacular. Some might feel this result is almost over-sharpened, but I’m not so sure. It certainly has striking clarity compared to the other examples.

06 When to sharpen

Sharpening is a more complicated subject than it might appear. There’s no ‘correct’ set of sharpening settings for an image because you need to apply a different kind of sharpening to an image resampled for on-screen use than you’d need for a full-bleed image printed in a magazine. That’s why sharpening experts divide sharpening into three categories:

1) Capture sharpening: you use this to overcome any intrinsic softness in the capture device.

2) Creative sharpening: this is to highlight and enhance key areas of the picture relative to the rest – you might use it to enhance a model’s eyes and lashes in a portrait shot, for example.

3) Output sharpening: this is used to compensate for any limitations in the output device, and you apply it only when you produce an image specifically for that device at a known output size.

It’s the output sharpening (or lack of it) that you need to be aware of when you export images from Aperture and Lightroom, and their relative lack of control (Aperture, especially) leaves a big gap for specialist plug-ins like Perfect Resize, which can often do the job a whole lot better.

The alternative is to open your images in an external editor like Elements or Photoshop and do the resampling and sharpening manually, but I think the results from Perfect Resize are both quicker and better.

 

Related

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Filed Under: TutorialsTagged With: Sharpening

Life after Photoshop is owned and run by photographer and journalist Rod Lawton. Rod has been a photography journalist for nearly 40 years, starting out in film (obviously) but then migrating to digital. He has worked as a freelance journalist, technique editor and channel editor, and is now Group Reviews Editor on Digital Camera World. Life after Photoshop is a personal project started in 2013.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to this site

Enter your email address to subscribe to Life after Photoshop and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

Adobe Lightroom is not one program but three. You could … [Read More...] about Adobe Lightroom: what is it, where do you get it, what does it cost?

The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Choosing the best image editing software used to be easy. … [Read More...] about The best photo editing software for organizing, editing, RAW and effects

Layers explained

Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

Layers are a central part of many photo editing processes, … [Read More...] about Layers explained: what they do and how to use them

BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

Photo editing software does two quite different jobs. It can … [Read More...] about BAN adjustments… Basic And Necessary image corrections to do first

More Posts from this Category

Mission statement

Life after Photoshop is not anti-Photoshop or anti-subscriptions. It exists to showcase the many Photoshop alternatives that do more, go further, or offer more creative inspiration to photographers.

Affiliate links

Life after Photoshop is funded by affiliate links and may be paid a commission for downloads. This does not affect the price you pay, the ratings in reviews or the software selected for review.

Contact

Email lifeafterphotoshop@gmail.com

Copyright © 2023 Life after Photoshop · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in