Sharpening images correctly in editing
Sharpening adds crispness but can create halos and noise. Learn capture, creative and output sharpening.
Photo by Hanna Lazar on Unsplash
All digital images need some sharpening, but too much creates halos, crunchy textures and amplified noise.
Three stages of sharpening
- Capture sharpening: compensates for the softness of the sensor and lens. Lightroom applies a default amount to RAW files.
- Creative sharpening: local, applied to eyes, textures or the subject using masks.
- Output sharpening: adjusted for screen or print size at export.
Lightroom’s sharpening controls
- Amount: strength
- Radius: width of the edges affected; keep it low, 0.8 to 1.2
- Detail: how much fine texture is sharpened
- Masking: hold Alt or Option while dragging to see which areas are sharpened; raise it to protect smooth areas like skin and sky
Do not fix focus errors
Sharpening cannot rescue an out-of-focus image. Tools like Topaz Sharpen AI can help somewhat, but not miracles.
Apply noise reduction first
Sharpening noise makes it worse. Denoise, then sharpen.
View at 100 percent
Judge sharpening at actual pixel size, not zoomed out.
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