Sharpening for unknown print sizes

egordon99 · 01-04-2008, 06:50 AM

So I just took some amazing (IMHO

) event photos, and the family loved the shots online. They now want a CD of high-res so they could make their own prints. I'm fine with this as I offered it to them, but now for my question - For the web shots, I used AbsoluteSharpeningWeb to downsize and sharpen them to 600 pixels wide. I shoot RAW and do ALL my editing in ACR, so the only sharpening they get is during the web conversion. I've read that you should sharpen for print based on output size, but what if I don't know what size they want? Should I just run the sharpening action (from ASW) on the original image size (~3000x2000) and keep the sharpening to normal or low? (I use strong for the web stuff). When I shot JPG, I would just upload the original JPG (either from the camera or after some basic Picassa editing) to Costco and any print size would come out great (and sharp) because the JPGs were sharpened in camera. But I'm afraid if I just send the "as-is" ACR-converted JPG, they'll come out soft. And I'm afraid if I sharpen the "original" size, smaller 4x6 prints would look awful....
Thoughts?

egordon99 · 01-07-2008, 09:05 AM

Anyone?

Tom Lusk · 01-07-2008, 09:49 AM

I'd be interested in the answer to this too. I've run into problems where the sharpening I applied ruined the photo produced when it was printed at a different size than originally intended.

egordon99 · 01-07-2008, 09:54 AM

I just ordered some 4x6 prints, and I resized them to 1000 pixels wide and set ASW's sharpening to "Normal". I'll let you know how they turned out

jfdavis58 · 01-07-2008, 10:17 AM

Are you familiar with the material at Pixel Genius? This is both the source and the focal point of 'output based sharpening'. Fraser et al developed a three step sharpening workflow and Photoshop Plug-in that rather completely addresses the issue. You might enjoy reading some of that material.

You could create three different sizes of files; each optimized for a particular output dimension. As an alternative you could size the image for some maximum, say 8 by 10 (inches){300 ppi=>2400 by 3000 pixels}, while sharpening for 5 by 7. The resultant file should be good at both 8 by 10 and 4 by 6 while it is excellent at 5 by 7-a compromise. Another alternative is to give them a full sized JPEG, fully processed and let them worry about downstream difficulties. You could also ask what their output needs might be.

Originally Posted by egordon99

So I just took some amazing (IMHO ) event photos, and the family loved the shots online. They now want a CD of high-res so they could make their own prints. I'm fine with this as I offered it to them, but now for my question - For the web shots, I used AbsoluteSharpeningWeb to downsize and sharpen them to 600 pixels wide. I shoot RAW and do ALL my editing in ACR, so the only sharpening they get is during the web conversion. I've read that you should sharpen for print based on output size, but what if I don't know what size they want? Should I just run the sharpening action (from ASW) on the original image size (~3000x2000) and keep the sharpening to normal or low? (I use strong for the web stuff). When I shot JPG, I would just upload the original JPG (either from the camera or after some basic Picassa editing) to Costco and any print size would come out great (and sharp) because the JPGs were sharpened in camera. But I'm afraid if I just send the "as-is" ACR-converted JPG, they'll come out soft. And I'm afraid if I sharpen the "original" size, smaller 4x6 prints would look awful....
Thoughts?

egordon99 · 01-07-2008, 10:27 AM

Thanks for chiming in, I didn't think to give them three different sets of files. I can calculate how big to make each file for a given output size (using the 300dpi calculation), so maybe I'll just have 4x6, 8x12, and full size (for stuff bigger than 8x12).

Or maybe I'll just ask them...... Thanks again!

carpents · 01-07-2008, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by egordon99

I just ordered some 4x6 prints, and I resized them to 1000 pixels wide and set ASW's sharpening to "Normal". I'll let you know how they turned out

I do what Mr. Davis does. If I'm making a CD, it will have a folder for 4"x6" prints and 8"x12" prints (or whatever larger size you're thinking). I have actions set up in photoshop to reduce them to the appropriate pixels (300ppi) and apply sharpening based on that. I actually have the actions set up so that it does a 'Save As' to an 8x12 output folder, then reduces the size to 4"x6" and Saves to the 4x6 folder. For me it's just one click! I usually give a little more sharpening to larger print sizes, but I'm pretty judicious with sharpening at all. It might end up getting trumped by Wal-Mart when they print it anyway.