Picture Style Settings, How Much Sharpening?

[Steve Todd]

I've not used the highest setting (7) for sharpness in the picture style customization before, because I have just checked sharpness in DPP and made adjustments as needed. However, while shooting the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, CA last weekend - a long time friend and fellow NASCAR photog, told me he always sets the sharpness setting in the picture style menu to the max setting (7).

He said the max setting has given him sharper images right out of the camera that look sharper to him after processing in DPP, compared to adding sharpness in post processing of images shot at a lower sharpness setting in picture style.

I have the sharpness setting in my cameras set at one level past the center mark, and have been satisfied using this method. However, I'm always open to new methods that will produce sharper images. I am wondering what the rest of you set your sharpness settings at, and have you ever tried the max setting?

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[PureClassA]

Arre you shooting RAW? What camera is this? Maxing out sharpness will absolutely add false detail/artifacts. Real life isn't artificially sharpened. If you want sharper images, buy better glass. Fill in some details about what you're shooting with first ;D

 

[Goldingd]

No in camera sharpening, leave that to post processing, and preferably at or near the end of post processing.

Also no,sharpening upon import into your post processing (lightroom for example). Import your images, adjust white balance, adjust exposure, saturation, etc, adjust noise, modify, tweeking, crop, etc (different people different workflow) then adjust sharpening, but with a light hand, export that image to a folder specific as you see fit for whatever the method/file type of the published image will be (JPEG for prints, JPEG for facebook, tiff for whatever) then sharpen that image as appropriate for the final product (software like NIK Sharpener can sharpen differently based on what you tell it the published image will be used for )

Sharpening too early can creat artifacts, noise, unwanted contrast.

And yes, I am in the camp of rule one shoot RAW, rule two what did you not understand about rule one.

 

[Busted Knuckles]

Easy way to test this for yourself.

Use one of the shots you like best at the normal settings and push it up and down the scale.

Do this for the car shots, as well as, some of the people shots - see what it does for your eye and equipment.

Maybe you like it, maybe not. Sharpening can make better (perhaps even "OK") some of those shots that are just a hair out of focus

 

[PureClassA]

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/app/pdfs/quickguides/CDLC_PictureStyles_QuickGuide.pdf

Since it sounds more like you're shooting in JPG, read up. I'd encourage you to use RAW instead. Picture profiles and settings will not do anything to RAW files (except for White Balance)

I use the NEUTRAL profile in all three of my bodies 7D, 6D, 5D3, which is the flattest image with zero sharpening added. I never change it. I never shoot JPG. So why employ a profile then? This way the small jPG preview will render on the camera LCD to look exactly like what the RAW file will when I import to LR later, where I also keep the import settings a Camera Neutral so nothing gets added in. Flat. Unsharpened. After you do this a while, you'll start to see through the flat image to the final result. However, if you still want to use a Camera profile so you have some sense of a final EDITED shot will look like, then use Standard. But'd encourage you to use Neutral still so you're camera preview will look the closest to your RAW import into LR

 

[dak723]

Each camera seems to have a slightly different default for its settings, but I would never start with the max setting. On both my 6D and my SL1 I have sharpness set at 4.

The best thing to do, in my opinion, is shoot some RAW pics and then experiment in DPP.

 

[Marsu42]

No in camera sharpening, leave that to post processing, and preferably at or near the end of post processing.

+1, there's no point in betraying yourself with using sharpness in the picture style. It cannot live up to the results of good post-processing and makes checking for critical focus more difficult.