This, essentially, is how you undo the inherent softness of a photograph – softness caused by factors that are impossible to counteract in the field, such as the low-pass (anti-aliasing) filter in many cameras. The first, fundamental type of sharpening is called deconvolution or capture sharpening. Still, it is an important part of post-production, particularly if you are making prints. Sharpening is nothing more than increasing the local contrast of details you already captured. As an example, cropping and then adding a vignette in Lightroom produces the same effect as adding a vignette and then cropping.)Īlso, before I cover three-step sharpening, remember that it is impossible to restore detail that your equipment did not capture in the first place. Unlike many programs, the order of your Lightroom adjustments has no effect whatsoever on the final image. (With Lightroom, and some other non-destructive post-processing software, this does not apply. Note: No matter the scene you photograph, you shouldn’t do any sharpening until you have made all your edits already! In other words, sharpening should be your final adjustment before making a print. If you are trying to use the best sharpening settings – including the lowest possible levels of noise and other artifacts – the ideal method is three-step sharpening.
Some post-processing software has so many options that it is hard to know where to start others do not let you use optimal methods in the first place. Sharpening remains a particularly confusing topic among photographers, especially given the tremendous number of post-processing options available.