Smartsharpen for prints?

Dear All,

While I find CS3 Smartsharpen OK for web-destined photos, I have never really worked out what might be appropriate settings for files destined for printing. As a result I tend to use a High Pass approach. I make A4 or A3 prints at 360 dpi of 35mm or MF scans, and my subject matter ranges from street photos, to portraits to landscapes. Could anyone suggest appropriate starting values for Smartsharpen?

Yours,

John

John,

I like you don't really care for Smartsharpen, especially if I am sharpening film scans. My main problem is that it doesn't have a threshold slider so I find it tricky to control sharpening of grain. Having said this I do have a method that seems to work for me.

I set the Amount = 100%, Radius to between 4 and 5 and the "Remove" dropdown to Gaussian Blur. This is far too much sharpening usually so I then control it with the sliders in the Shadow and Highlights tab. Typically I start with these set to Fade = 50% and Tonal Width = 50% with a Radius of between 5 and 8.

I then find a dark area of the image and adjust the Shadow tab fade to a level where the sharpening looks good. I then find a light area of the image and do the same adjustment in the Highlights tab. Once done I check around the image and make any minor adjustments to control grain sharpening.

It seems to work but is a little too long winded for me when I get all the control I need from the unsharp mask and High Pass filter.

SmartSharpen is not intended to be a global, "Super Unsharp Mask" filter. It is meant to remove lens blur or Gaussian blur from specific areas of a photo, not the entire image.

The name is misleading. It is supposed to be called "smart" because you can control its effects in the shadows, highlights or midground of the image.

For global sharpening, it is best to use the good old "Unsharp Mask" filter.

The way I do it is to create a second, duplicate layer of the image (or part of an image) I want to sharpen and apply the USM filter to that. I apply just a hair bit more than I really want in the final product. Then I fade the layer's opacity to approximately 50% and experiment with layer blending modes until I get it to look the way I want.

My final settings usually end up being in the 30 to 50 percent range and I often find that setting the layer blending mode to "Luminosity" helps too.

Everybody has their own style and technique so the best thing to do is to experiment and see what you like best.