Macro Sharpening

N.Stocks · 07-05-2009, 01:08 PM

Hello,

Basically I just wanted to ensure that the majority of my Photo libary has been edited correctly. When it comes to the sharpening panel in Lightroom 2, I generally set the amount between 60-100 with a radius of 1.3. Is this O.K, I mean could I push the radius any more, or is this the ideal setting for macro shots ?

Thank You

**Marc Langille** · 07-05-2009, 01:31 PM

If you are shooting with a very low ISO, try 105% - 135%, radius 0.7 to 0.9 and let me know what you think.

Here is a sample post I put up (with images): Hover Fly macros

Regards,
Marc

N.Stocks · 07-05-2009, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by Marc Langille

If you are shooting with a very low ISO, try 105% - 135%, radius 0.7 to 0.9 and let me know what you think.

Here is a sample post I put up (with images): Hover Fly macros

Regards,
Marc

It's kind of hard to tell... Which is suppose to be better for Macro shots ?

Regards,
N.Stocks

**Marc Langille** · 07-05-2009, 01:50 PM

Did you try select the areas to be sharpened instead.

I am suggesting this option above only if you have little time to work on it. The key is to look at both the sharpened areas and whether or not the out of focus (bokeh) areas show sharpening artifacts. That might be your best clue. No one way is right, but perhaps selective sharpening might be best.

Of course, this is quite a generic post, since I am offering suggestions on very little information...

Regards,
Marc

*newarts* · 07-05-2009, 02:11 PM

I've been thinking along the lines of correcting focus rather than sharpening.

Focus correction by deconvoluting does not (in principle) add artifical edge enhancements, so its effects should not depend on the final display size. Here's a random example of a long lens focus correction made with FocusMagic. It does a good job I think and might be a useful addition to a toolkit:

From the first of your Hoverfly macro examples:

Maybe Focus Magic went too far?

Dave

N.Stocks · 07-06-2009, 03:50 AM

Originally Posted by newarts

I've been thinking along the lines of correcting focus rather than sharpening.

Focus correction by deconvoluting does not (in principle) add artifical edge enhancements, so its effects should not depend on the final display size. Here's a random example of a long lens focus correction made with FocusMagic. It does a good job I think and might be a useful addition to a toolkit:

From the first of your Hoverfly macro examples:

Maybe Focus Magic went too far?

Dave

The portrait shot doesn't look to good, I think the radius is way too much.

The macro shot is better, but again it looks like it's haloing the Photo a little.

I think I will stock with Radius 1.3, 100 %, but will always experiment with other suggestions.

Thank You

*lunelson* · 07-09-2009, 01:07 PM

I generally start at 100%, 0.5 radius, and go from there. If I find that I can see artifacting in some areas but it looks nice elsewhere, I'll apply it, then go back with the history brush and tone it down where I need to. It's a quick and easy way to do a selective sharpening, but it is destructive (not on its own layer).