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Sharpening for Print

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:13 pm
by Craig Lipski
A couple of ignorant questions here.  Mods - if this belongs in "Digital Topics," feel free to move.

I'm an amateur - I'm not selling fine art prints, but I do want to hang some of my shots on the wall or gift them, so I want them to look good.
In the past, I've used WHCC, and I've been happy with their prices, quality, ease of use, and turn-around time.

A few shots I want to work with were shot w/ my 40D (10 mpx,) but most w/ my 1D MkIV (16 mpx,) if that matters.

In the past, using a cheap Dell monitor that I inherited, (about 10 years old, probably came in the package my mom bought for surfing the web and emailing,) I'd view the image at 50% and slightly oversharpen (PS6 Smart Sharpen) - this seemed to work well enough for my eye (untrained, but critical of my own work.)

Now I have a Lenovo laptop with a high resolution screen - 2880x1620 (as well as that Dell monitor on the desktop.)

Without getting too technical, (obviously much of this will be well over my head,). . .
1) Would the same sharpening "technique" work the same on both monitors?
2) Nik Sharpener Pro 3 Output Sharpener has several output options besides "Display" - Inkjet, Continuous Tone, Half Tone, and Hybrid Device - Would one of these work better?
3) Other ideas / advice?

Thanks in advance.

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:25 pm
by E.J. Peiker
1. As I'm sure you know that for the same photo, using the same sharpening settings will print identically regardless of what monitor is attached to the computer so whatever you did in the past is valid now although the image might look a bit different on the monitor than it did on your old one. It will be a matter of recalibrating your eyes for what a good level of sharpening looks like on your new monitor for a given print sharpness.

2. For prints, it would be Inkjet

Re: Sharpening for Print

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 5:27 pm
by Mark Picard
I have been using PhotoKit Pixel Genius (Photokit Sharpener 2) for many years now, and it is very simple and uncomplicated to use. Check out this review here: 
https://luminous-landscape.com/photokit-sharpener-2/    You simply tell it what size you are using, and it automatically sharpens to your selections (prints, web) . It also will sharpen jpegs for the web, etc.

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 8:26 pm
by jrhoffman75
If you use Lightroom for editing it has a good output sharpening engine. Its my understanding it was developed by the Pixel Genius folks - primarily if not exclusively Jeff Schewe.

Posted: Sun Apr 30, 2017 9:53 pm
by Craig Lipski
Thanks!

Re: Sharpening for Print

Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 8:19 am
by Buckmaster
Mark Picard wrote:I have been using PhotoKit Pixel Genius (Photokit Sharpener 2) for many years now, and it is very simple and uncomplicated to use. Check out this review here: 
https://luminous-landscape.com/photokit-sharpener-2/    You simply tell it what size you are using, and it automatically sharpens to your selections (prints, web) . It also will sharpen jpegs for the web, etc.


Doesn't this sharpen the whole image this way? What do you use to Selective Sharpen, say just the moose in photo and nothing else..and if you do selective sharpening wherever you want in the image do you still use Photokit to do your final output sharpening too?

Re: Sharpening for Print

Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 9:30 am
by E.J. Peiker
Buckmaster wrote:
Mark Picard wrote:I have been using PhotoKit Pixel Genius (Photokit Sharpener 2) for many years now, and it is very simple and uncomplicated to use. Check out this review here: 
https://luminous-landscape.com/photokit-sharpener-2/    You simply tell it what size you are using, and it automatically sharpens to your selections (prints, web) . It also will sharpen jpegs for the web, etc.


Doesn't this sharpen the whole image this way? What do you use to Selective Sharpen, say just the moose in photo and nothing else..and if you do selective sharpening wherever you want in the image do you still use Photokit to do your final output sharpening too?
Photokit has many different options, depending on which ones you use it may or may not sharpen everything.  It also applies it's effects as a layer mask so it's easy to undo sharpening anywhere you don't want with a simple paint brush.

Re: Sharpening for Print

Posted: Wed May 03, 2017 5:48 pm
by Mark Picard
Buckmaster wrote:
Mark Picard wrote:I have been using PhotoKit Pixel Genius (Photokit Sharpener 2) for many years now, and it is very simple and uncomplicated to use. Check out this review here: 
https://luminous-landscape.com/photokit-sharpener-2/    You simply tell it what size you are using, and it automatically sharpens to your selections (prints, web) . It also will sharpen jpegs for the web, etc.


Doesn't this sharpen the whole image this way? What do you use to Selective Sharpen, say just the moose in photo and nothing else..and if you do selective sharpening wherever you want in the image do you still use Photokit to do your final output sharpening too?
I selective sharpen first in ACR under the Detail tab. Hold down the Alt key under the Detail menu (PC) (the screen will turn white initially, but changes to darker once you slide the slider to the right)  drag the Sharpen/amount slider to your liking (the edge of objects that stay white are sharpened only). After that I rely on the Photokit Sharpener II to finish the job after deciding what output size I want. I do that last.

Re: Sharpening for Print

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:12 pm
by Bill Chambers
Mark Picard wrote:I have been using PhotoKit Pixel Genius (Photokit Sharpener 2) for many years now, and it is very simple and uncomplicated to use. Check out this review here: 
https://luminous-landscape.com/photokit-sharpener-2/    You simply tell it what size you are using, and it automatically sharpens to your selections (prints, web) . It also will sharpen jpegs for the web, etc.
I used to use Photokit Sharpener 1 a long time ago but I lost the computer it due to hurricane damage.  I would like to upgrade to Photokit Sharpener 2 and start using it but it appears Pixel Genius doesn't support Windows 10.  Does anyone know if this is correct?  Windows 10 has been out a good while now; hard to believe it's not supported.

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:27 pm
by signgrap
If you're using Win 10 get Qimage and you don't have to do any print sharpening as Qimage does it for you. Ask Royce how he likes Qimage as he's been using it for as long or even longer then I have which is a good many years now.

Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2017 11:27 pm
by Bill Chambers
Thanks Dick; I'll definitely check that out.

Posted: Sun Sep 24, 2017 12:07 am
by Justin C
Another vote for Qimage. I find their DFS sharpening very good indeed and on the very limited number of comparisons I've tried, I prefer it to Nik's Output Sharpener, which is also very good. I find a 50% view on the screen gives a reasonably good idea of what the sharpened print may look like, but for large prints or ones that really matter then a hard proof can't be beaten, or perhaps printing a small section of it.