Sharpening in LightroomA Post By: Helen Bradley

5855

Shares

20

Share

0

Share

1

Share

16

Pinit

6

Share

0

Other

19

Comments

When you’ve finished doing your basic color correction toan image in Lightroom you’re ready to look into sharpeningthe image. In a previous posts I explained the basics ofsharpening and how to use the High Pass Filter inPhotoshop to sharpen an image. Today I’ll show you how tosharpen in Lightroom.

7 Quick Tips onHow to Use VisualBalance to MakeBetterPhotographs

Join over 1.4 millionSubscribers!

Photography Tips &Tutorials

You’ll find the sharpening tools in the Detail area in theLightroom Develop module.

It’s best to work on the image at a 1:1 ratio as this ensuresthat the sliders that you’ll use can be seen at work on theimage. If you aren’t in at least 1:1 view you will have to workfrom the small preview window. To select 1:1 zoom, clickthe indicator in the top left of the screen.

104 Brand NEWHackingPhotographyLightroom Presetsfor $10 [Save 94%]

WeeklyPhotographyChallenge -Holiday Lights

25 Glitzy HolidayLights Photos toSparkle up YourDay

Writer's FavoriteLens - Canon50mm f/2.5Compact Macro

Sigma 18-300mmF3.5-6.3 DC MacroLens Review

Contest: Win oneof Two TamronLenses

Hands-on with theMiggo SplatFlexible Tripod

Cameras &Equipment

You have four sliders in the sharpening area. Amountcontrols how much sharpening is applied to the image. Thiscan be considered to be your fine-tuning tool.

The Radius is one of the key settings to use. The Radiusvalue can be moved between 0.5 and 3. Typically, a goodRadius to start sharpening with is around 0.5 to 1 and thenadjust it from there if the sharpening is insufficient. Imageswith large areas that are not very detailed such as portraits,may need larger values for the radius where images with alot of fine detail may respond better to smaller values.

5 Essential ThingsYou Need to KnowAbout theLightroom LibraryModule

6 Photoshop ToolsEvery NewbieShould Learn

How to ReduceEditing Time byAutomating YourLightroomWorkflow

Macphun AuroraHDR Pro Software– First Impressions

Have you purchased amirrorless camera yet?2015 update

Post Production

Polls

Today’s Deal: $5 Snapn Motion mini-guide! BUY NOW

The Detail slider reduces the haloing in the image. Thehigher the value you use for Detail, the more halos you willsee around the edges in the image. The lower the Detailvalue the less halo effect and the smoother the result.

You can see how the slider works when you are viewing a1:1 preview size. Hold the Alt or Option key as you drag on aslider. The higher the Detail value the more lines you willsee in the grayscale preview indicting the sharpening effecton the image.

Vote View Results

Yes I have replaced myDSLR with a mirrorlesssystem

Yes I have replaced mypoint and shoot camerawith mirrorless

Yes I bought one inaddition to my DSLR

Yes it is my first digitalcamera

I'm still on the fence asa solid "maybe"

No way, they are stilllacking something in myopinion

What's "mirrorless"?

LatestAssignment

This week’sassignment

Holiday Lights

Read the rules andenter now!

The Masking slider works to mask out areas of smoothcolor. What it does is to enhance the edges and remove thesharpening effect from areas in the image that havesmoother color transitions which you probably don’t wantto be sharpened.

Again, you can hold the Alt key as you work with the slider.The slider values range from 0 – 100. At zero, everything inthe image is sharpened and at 100 only the edges aresharpened. In the preview, the white areas are those beingsharpened and those that are black will not be sharpened.

If you aren’t using 1:1 view you will need the previewwindow to be visible so you can see the results when usingthe Masking and Detail preview options. To view this, clickthe arrow in the top right corner of the Detail area.

When you’re starting out learning how to sharpen it can bedifficult to see just what effect the sharpening is having onthe image. If you press the backslash key you’ll return to the

unedited image rather than to the image as it was beforeyou started sharpening it.

This is a time where virtual copies can be useful. Wind backthe history to just before you started sharpening the image.Right click the image and choose Create Virtual Copy. Thiscreates a virtual copy of the image whose starting history isthe current view of the image after your initial fixes havebeen made.

Now when you sharpen the image and use the Before andAfter settings you can see the change that the sharpening isapplying to the image because that’s the only change to thevirtual copy that you are editing.

Typically, if you are displaying images on the web you wantto sharpen the image so that what you’re seeing on thescreen is what you want to see when the image is on theweb. On the other hand, for printing you generally applyheavier sharpening to the image as some of this will be lostin the printing process.

1761Shares

If you enjoyed this article, youmight also like...

MOST POPULAR RELATED POSTS

8Reasonsto UseSilverEfex Pro

...2 years ago

Read more from our Post Productioncategory

Helen Bradley is a Lifestyle journalistwho divides her time between the realand digital worlds, picking the best fromboth. She writes and produces videoinstruction for Photoshop and digitalphotography for magazines and onlineproviders world wide. She has alsowritten four books on photo crafts andblogs at Projectwoman.com.

8 Sites for FreeAdobe LightroomPresets

How toCreateYourOwn

Lightroom Presets9 months ago

Share Share  

A Helpful Checklist to UseBefore PhotographingAnything26 comments • 13 days ago

Martin Tolley — And whenyou come home at nightand download thoseimages from the memory

Writer’s Favorite Lens –Canon 50mm f/2.5 CompactMacro1 comment • 15 days ago

Michal Rosa — "oftenreferred to as “thriftyfifties”" - actually, almostnever referred to as such,

Contest: Win one of TwoTamron Lenses340 comments • 4 days ago

Donna Read — Last year Iwas homeless and living in

6 Tips For PhotographingLive Performances5 comments • 16 days ago

Kav Dadfar — No worries,glad you found it helpful

ALSO ON DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SCHOOL

Comments Community Login1

Share⤤ Sort by Best

Join the discussion…

• Reply •

Mathieu Laflamme • a year agoHI, my question is if you sharpen using the sharpen panel,do you still need to sharpen on export? I assume not, butI'm wondering why there are 2 ways to sharpen and ifthey're meant to be used in conjunction or not. Thanks!

△ ▽

• Reply •

Helen Bradley • a year ago> Mathieu Laflamme

Matthew - on export you will probably want to add abit more sharpening for the destination output device- less for screen and, typically, more for print. TheExport options let you do this.

△ ▽

WHAT'S THIS?

Recommend

Share ›

Share ›

Some Older Comments

Magnus K May 14, 2011 09:37 pm

Nice one. I was never really happy with mysharpening skills in Lightroom and it haskept me from publishing a few shots. Butthe small tip with the alt key really made adifference in getting it right

gregor April 22, 2010 11:34 pm

Hi Michael. not sure if this will help, butcheck you've changed your image to 8bit inorder for the Jpeg option to becomeavailable in PS. Gregor

Michael Padnos March 28, 2010 10:43 pm

You have been a great help to me on avariety of subjects, so I fling myself at yourfeet with the following:1. After reading your explanation of theadvantages of Lightroom, I took the plungeand bought a copy. At first I was very happywith it: i imported a whole afternoon's

shoot and was able to select the bestpossible image to work with in just a fewseconds; a significant savings of time overmy previous, clumsy and time-consumingprocedure.2. I fiddled with my picture in Lightroom;but then , heeding your cautions, I wantedto do some pixel-by-pixel manipulation, so Iopened the image in PS4 and did whatneeded to be done.3. Then came the problems. First of all, ican't figure out how to save the improvedimage in JPG. (I can save it w/o any problemin TIFF, which is fine for printing, but I needto send this particular image over the netand for some strange reason, Picasadeclines to send a TIFF image -- or at least,THIS Tiff image. And PS 4 doesn't offer JPGas an alteernativeay to save this importedimage.4. Nor can I send the improved image backto Lightroom. The improved image is notlost -- it is accurately stored in the file Ioriginally downloaded from my camera --but I can't figure out how to get it back toLightroom, where I would like to store itpermanently .Why won't PS4 let me store an image fromLightoom in JPG? And why can't i send thisimage back to Lightroom for storage? Anywhy won't the $!!#%%#$$!!! Picaca let me e-mail a TIFF image?GGGRRRR!Thanks for the help!MPPS In appreciation for your wisdom, I havenoted my website, something which I neverdo except for friends and clients. I hope you

enjoy it.

Scot S di Vincenzo October 13, 2009 01:59

am

As for sharpening "Perfectly Clear" iswaiting for Adobe to release its LR code so aplug in can be developed * The stand alone version will be releasedsoon and it sharpens AND reduces noisehttp://www.athentech.com/

Ed September 25, 2009 03:25 pm

Fabulous! Useful tips Helen.

Tysen September 25, 2009 07:19 am

I like how the Alt masking view looks withthe black and white. Anybody have asuggestion on how to create that look inLightroom or Photoshop?

jeoxenx September 25, 2009 04:22 am

Great explanation! Thanks a lot. That was one of the last basicsI was completely avoiding in Lightroombecause I just couldn't get it to work...

Missy September 25, 2009 02:29 am

When following sharpening tutorials for PS,I've always been told to size the image atthe final output size - say 5x7 at 300dpi fora print, and THEN sharpen. I suppose this isbecause when you're looking at the image1:1 and sharpening, you're viewing theactual pixels that will be in the final print.With Lightroom, would this still hold true? Itseems that you only really get "final size"when you export from Lightroom andspecify the output size. If you're using cropto "size" an image in LR, you're really onlychanging the aspect ratio, not final pixels.

James September 24, 2009 05:38 am

As a total newb to Photoshop as well as

Lightroom could you break down the majordifferences in sharpening in Lightroom vsPhotoshop. I was told a while back that it isbetter to sharpen in Photoshop…is thistrue? And if so why?

Chris September 24, 2009 04:55 am

Also note that the clarity adjustmentincreases local contrast which enhances theapparent sharpness. In addition, chromaticaberration also causes softness which canbe fixed by the chromatic aberration slider.

Fletch September 24, 2009 03:48 am

KlausThe output sharpening doesn't use any ofthe settings in the develop module. It usesthe resolution and the output type todetermine how to sharpen the image basedon how it will be displayed. Screen has lesssharpening tha printing. You can set low(which is almost zero), meduim (which is alittle bit) or high (which is a decent amountbut not loads).

sergey September 24, 2009 03:28 am

Helen, great post as I am always under-estimatingthe power and sophistication of Lightroom.The more I use it the less of a need forPhotoshop. The least understood panel by me has beenthe sharpening and I now quite understandthe "sharpening for the web" portion. Anyadvice or future posts on sharpening forprinting?

Nicholas Downes September 24, 2009 03:01

am

Great article Helen, especially the Althotkey, the resulting view of which I havesorely missed compared to sharpening inPhotoshop.Klaus, the sharpening feature on export is islimited in comparison - note that itsapplying a set of pre-defined variables to allimages, which is probably great if all yourimages of a similar subject matter. If, like me, you photograph a hundreddifferent subjects with different lighting,exposure, WB etc, then an image by imagesharpening procedure will give you more

control over the result.And ensure you don't have any spare time.Many thanks, Nick

Klaus September 24, 2009 02:12 am

Cool! And what about the Output Sharpeningselectable in the Export menu. Does it usethe Mask, Radius and Detail settings fromthe Develop module? Or is it just a general sharpening performedon top of the "input" sharpening of thenamed module?

Elle September 24, 2009 01:58 am

This is excellent; thanks for sharing!

astronautaperdido September 24, 2009

01:46 am

Great tutorial... Simple and detailed!!!Thanks for this!!

Nico September 24, 2009 12:50 am

You could just use the \ key to do before-after comparison :)

About dPS Latest Posts Need SomeInspiration?

About dPS

Write for dPS

Advertise on dPS

Affiliate Program

USEFUL LINKS

Courses

Presets

Bookstore

Forums

Contact & Support

Tips & Tutorials

Writer'sFavorite Lens -Canon 50mmf/2.5 CompactMacro

7 Quick Tipson How to UseVisual Balanceto Make BetterPhotographs

104 BrandNEW HackingPhotographyLightroomPresets for $10[Save 94%]

WeeklyPhotographyChallenge -Holiday Lights

© 2006 - 2015 Digital Photography School, All Rights Reserved / Disclaimer