Sharpening digital camera images for photo-store printing

MH
Posted By
Matti Haveri
Aug 26, 2003
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340
Replies
4
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Closed
My very first Olympus mju/Stulus 300 6×4" (15x10cm) glossy prints at a local store were surprisingly good. I did a very basic tonal and color correction with Levels and minimal cropping (mainly to convert them to 3:2 aspect ratio).

What about sharpening the images before printing at a store?

I guess it is best to set the digital camera to highest jpg quality to avoid the jpg artifacts which sharpening exaggerates, right?

But at least my camera tends to have noise which even a mild Unsharp Mask makes ugly very quickly so should somehow blur the images before sharpening?

An old source recommends the following action for digital camera images: New Layer, Filter/Noise/Median 2 (or even 3), Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur 1, Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask 500/1/0, Layer Opacity to 30-50%, Layer/Merge Down. Then just before printing Unsharp Mask 200/1/0.

Some sources recommend Unsharp Mask 250/0.6/0 for detailed images and 70/2.7/4 for soft images. Is this a good amount for Photo-store printing or is this for halftone printers? And is it a good idea to somehow blur the image first?


Matti Haveri

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JT
Jim Townsend
Aug 26, 2003
Matti Haveri wrote:

My very first Olympus mju/Stulus 300 6×4" (15x10cm) glossy prints at a local store were surprisingly good. I did a very basic tonal and color correction with Levels and minimal cropping (mainly to convert them to 3:2 aspect ratio).

What about sharpening the images before printing at a store?
I guess it is best to set the digital camera to highest jpg quality to avoid the jpg artifacts which sharpening exaggerates, right?
But at least my camera tends to have noise which even a mild Unsharp Mask makes ugly very quickly so should somehow blur the images before sharpening?

You’ll probably get several opinions on this.. But I usually don’t sharpen images I’m getting ‘store printed’.

An image might look soft full size on a 17 inch monitor, but on a 6×4 piece of photopaper they look a lot better.

I also find even moderate sharpening causes grain and artifact exaggeration in prints..

However.. For web use, sharpening works just fine..
B
ben-dover
Aug 26, 2003
i usually tone down the sharpness of my digital photos to get rid of the raggy look by using gausian blur but i dont create all that other stuff you were talking about.
"Matti Haveri" wrote in message
My very first Olympus mju/Stulus 300 6×4" (15x10cm) glossy prints at a local store were surprisingly good. I did a very basic tonal and color correction with Levels and minimal cropping (mainly to convert them to 3:2 aspect ratio).

What about sharpening the images before printing at a store?
I guess it is best to set the digital camera to highest jpg quality to avoid the jpg artifacts which sharpening exaggerates, right?
But at least my camera tends to have noise which even a mild Unsharp Mask makes ugly very quickly so should somehow blur the images before sharpening?

An old source recommends the following action for digital camera images: New Layer, Filter/Noise/Median 2 (or even 3), Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur 1, Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask 500/1/0, Layer Opacity to 30-50%, Layer/Merge Down. Then just before printing Unsharp Mask 200/1/0.
Some sources recommend Unsharp Mask 250/0.6/0 for detailed images and 70/2.7/4 for soft images. Is this a good amount for Photo-store printing or is this for halftone printers? And is it a good idea to somehow blur the image first?


Matti Haveri
<http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/>
MM
Marvin Margoshes
Aug 27, 2003
It is possible that the local store’s photo printer does image enhancements, including sharpening. My HP printer has that as an option; I keep it turned off.

I like the result of PSP 8’s One Step Photo Fix for about 3/4 of my photos. It uses two sharpening steps; Edge-Preserving Smooth and Sharpen, but not Unsharp Mask.

"Matti Haveri" wrote in message
My very first Olympus mju/Stulus 300 6×4" (15x10cm) glossy prints at a local store were surprisingly good. I did a very basic tonal and color correction with Levels and minimal cropping (mainly to convert them to 3:2 aspect ratio).

What about sharpening the images before printing at a store?
I guess it is best to set the digital camera to highest jpg quality to avoid the jpg artifacts which sharpening exaggerates, right?
But at least my camera tends to have noise which even a mild Unsharp Mask makes ugly very quickly so should somehow blur the images before sharpening?

An old source recommends the following action for digital camera images: New Layer, Filter/Noise/Median 2 (or even 3), Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur 1, Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask 500/1/0, Layer Opacity to 30-50%, Layer/Merge Down. Then just before printing Unsharp Mask 200/1/0.
Some sources recommend Unsharp Mask 250/0.6/0 for detailed images and 70/2.7/4 for soft images. Is this a good amount for Photo-store printing or is this for halftone printers? And is it a good idea to somehow blur the image first?


Matti Haveri
<http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/>
MR
Mike Russell
Aug 28, 2003
Matti Haveri wrote:
My very first Olympus mju/Stulus 300 6×4" (15x10cm) glossy prints at a local store were surprisingly good. I did a very basic tonal and color correction with Levels and minimal cropping (mainly to convert them to 3:2 aspect ratio).

What about sharpening the images before printing at a store?

Nothing wrong with this, though my guess is they are doing some sharpening already, and your images will look fine out of the camera for 6×4. You will probably see the most improvement setting the correct shadow and highlight value, and removing any color cast with – you guessed it – curves.

I guess it is best to set the digital camera to highest jpg quality to avoid the jpg artifacts which sharpening exaggerates, right?

Again, this is true for larger prints, but not an issue for 6×4

But at least my camera tends to have noise which even a mild Unsharp Mask makes ugly very quickly so should somehow blur the images before sharpening?

Yes, do both, but sharpen to gain detail, and blur to remove chroma noise as follows: Convert your image to Lab mode, and blur the a and b channels to remove chroma noise. You may be fairly agressive with sharpening the L channel, since there will be no color fringing. Then blur the a and b channels slightly – radius 1.5 or 2. Convert back to RGB of course, before sending your images to be printed.

You may also get interesting results converting to CMYK with light GCR and sharpening the K channel only.

An old source recommends the following action for digital camera images: New Layer, Filter/Noise/Median 2 (or even 3),
Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur 1, Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask 500/1/0, Layer Opacity to 30-50%, Layer/Merge Down. Then just before printing Unsharp Mask 200/1/0.

My guess is these settings were designed for a lower rez, noisier technology than your camera provides.

Some sources recommend Unsharp Mask 250/0.6/0 for detailed images and 70/2.7/4 for soft images. Is this a good amount for Photo-store printing or is this for halftone printers? And is it a good idea to somehow blur the image first?

I would not recommend blurring before sharpening for a photograph.



Mike Russell
http://www.curvemeister.com
http://www.zocalo.net/~mgr
http://geigy.2y.net

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