Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [123]
Default sharpening settings
The standard default sharpening setting for raw images uses the settings shown earlier in Figure 4.4. This isn't a bad starting point, but based on what you have learned in the last few examples, you might like to modify this and set a new default. For example, if most of the work you shoot is portraiture, you might like to use the settings shown in Figure 4.7 and set these as a default and make this setting specific to your camera (see pages 167–168).
1.
After configuring the Detail panel settings, go to the fly-out menu and choose ‘Save Settings…’
2.
This opens the Save Settings dialog shown here. Check the Sharpening box only and click the Save… button.
Settings folder location
On a Mac, the Camera Raw Settings folder location is: username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Camera Raw/Settings. On a PC, look for: C:/Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/ Adobe/CameraRaw/Settings.
3.
Now name the setting and save to the default Settings folder. Don't change the directory location you are saving the setting to here.
4.
When you need to access the saved setting, go to the Settings panel in the Camera Raw dialog and click on a saved setting to apply it to an image. Since the setting here has been saved with the Sharpening adjustments only, when you select this preset it will only adjust the sharpening sliders when you apply it to another image.
Capture sharpening roundup
Hopefully this section has given you the confidence to now carry out all your capture sharpening in Camera Raw. Remember, the only images that should need pre-sharpening are camera shot raws or scanned TIFFs, although you can process any image in Camera Raw providing it is in a JPEG, TIFF, raw or DNG format and in an RGB or Lab mode color space.
As I explained in the previous section, you should use the Camera Raw Sharpening controls to tailor the capture sharpening adjustment to suit the image content. Soft-edged subjects such as portraits will suit a higher than 1.0 Radius setting combined with a low Detail and high Masking setting. Fine-detailed subjects such as the Figure 4.8 and 4.9 examples will suit using a low Radius, high Detail and low Masking setting. The aim always is to apply enough sharpening to make the subject look visually sharp on the screen, but without over-sharpening to the point where you see any edge artifacts or halos appear in the image. If you overdo the capture sharpening you are storing up trouble for later when you come to retouch the photograph.
Two Smart Object sharpening layers
An alternative approach is to use the ‘Open raw files as Smart Objects’ technique described on pages 158–161 to open an image twice (see also pages 393–394). You can then apply one set of Detail panel settings to one Camera Raw Smart Object layer and a different type of sharpening effect to the other Camera Raw Smart Object layer. You can then use a layer mask to blend these two layers so that you are able to combine two different methods of sharpening in the one image.
Selective sharpening in Camera Raw
With some images it can be tricky to find the optimum settings that will work best across the whole of the image. This is where it can be useful to use the localized adjustment tools to selectively modify the sharpness of an image. Basically, whenever you are using the adjustment brush or the gradient filter tools in Camera Raw you can use the Sharpness slider to add more or less sharpness. In particular, with Camera Raw 6.0 as you increase the Sharpness, the sharpness applied using a brush or gradient increases the sharpness ‘Amount’ setting based on the other settings already established in the Detail panel Sharpening section.
Negative sharpening
You can also apply negative local sharpening in the zero to –50 range to fade out existing sharpening. Therefore, if you apply –50 Sharpness as a localized adjustment this means you can use the adjustment tools to disable the capture sharpening. As you apply a negative Sharpness in the –50 to