Sharping.

[keith mitchell]

Nikon D4
Nikon 300ml 2.8
1/800@f7.1
iso400
Would be very interested to know others points of view re sharpening, got a real thing about birds that are sometimes posted that look over worked and over sharpened in my eyes( everyone to there own of course) which does make me shy away from the sharping ,which I use modestly .Please have a look at this image and tell me what you honestly think, in my eyes this looks sharp enough but still keeping the natural look of the feathers.
Thanks Keith.

[Ashley Cohen]

There's a strange blue tint to the image for some reason. Sharpening levels seem about right, there's no right or wrong until you really mess it up but I would say it falls into acceptable sharpening perhaps a little over but nothing more than I do myself sometimes. In all honesty it's the one area I never feel I get quite right and can spend ages trying different methods and levels of sharpening.

[David Kenny]

It appears on the over sharpened side to me. Make sure you resize for web and then sharpen. If you sharpen first it can have some strange effects on the photo. Something seems strange about the color / contrast as well. Maybe increase the blacks or try increasing the contrast a little. The blacks seem to have a blue tint to them.

[Diane Miller]

A nice bird on an interesting perch. It looks like the tail or maybe wing is a little sharper than the head, though. You do have a low contrast image here, with a blue cast. If you correct color and contrast (check the ends of the histogram) it will appear sharper.

For me it's not really oversharpened, but maybe 10% above my average. Every image is so different. I usually only work up images that are tack sharp at capture, and leave the Lightroom sharpening at its default 25. Occasionally I'll nudge it up a little more. Then when I'm done (including with work in PS) I export it from LR and compare both standard and high sharpening settings, which compensate for resizing. That's usually all I need to do and it rarely gives an oversharpened appearance even on the high setting. You can do the same thing with Save for Web in PS -- you can choose the output size and a sharpening algorithm in the dialog box. There shouldn't be a major advantage to resize, then sharpen, then save the JPEG.

An image that wasn't that sharp to begin with will need more work, of course, and there is a limit to what you can do.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Great shot, Keith. You definitely don't need to sharpen it more than this! Not sure why but it looks like it lacks a bit of depth to me (almost two dimensional?).

[Steve Kaluski]

Keith, is this a crop, if so a little or big amount?

Think you can reduce some blue though. I know you don't have LR, but even at default 25 LR adds a % of sharpening depending on model & make of your camera. Personal I think you need to take time to learn adding some in PS as the Module is the same as LR and once you get the hang of it you will see the difference in your images IMHO, as you need to toggle the sliders, but you will see instantly in real time how it works as you adjust the sliders. Understanding what each one does is key, with high & low frequency.

[keith mitchell]

Thanks for your reply's to my question, it sounds like the sharping is about right maybe leaning towards being to sharp.
Think the blue is down to me using auto tone in CS 5 which maybe I did not fade enough. Steve it is a small crop which I should not have to do photographing birds at my pool/feeder set up as I can get very close, but I was half expecting a hunting male Sparrow Hawk to join me ,so it was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone if you will pardon the expression.
Thanks a lot Keith.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Keith, thanks for the clarification as it does make a difference. Great you can have them coming in at close quarters, just work on the angles. Not sure about the Sparrow hawk, but if you get some images on a kill, well...

I am around although heading north tomorrow shooting over the next 12 days if you want any more discussion or to expand on sharpening thoughts, if you think it is easier to talk? Certainly you are moving in the right direction.