Camera RAW Sharpening Defaults

[rpcrowe]

I am now using NIK Software hosted by Photoshop CS6 as my primary editing platform. Since I use the NIK two phase sharpening, I want to zero out the sharpening of my Camera RAW as is recommended when using the NIK Pre-Sharpening Filter.

From NIK Tutorial: https://support.google.com/nikcollec..._topic=3002209

We highly suggest turning off any sharpening in the camera and during any RAW processing. Sharpener Pro 3.0 contains a series of advanced algorithms that consider image details in order to provide the optimal level of sharpening in your image. This coupled with the advanced controls provided within Sharpener Pro 3.0 will deliver higher quality results than can be obtained by using the sharpening built into your digital camera or during RAW processing.

When I open Camera RAW, the default provides the following sharpening levels.



I have been individually zeroing out the sharpening for each image but, I wonder if there is a way to adjust the default sharpening of Camera RAW to zero so I don't have to take that extra step in processing each of my images...

Since this sharpening in Camera RAW states that it is for "Preview Only" do I actually need to zero it out in ordere to effectively use the NIK Pre-Sharpening Filter?

I just found out how to do this...

If you want to turn off this automatic, by default sharpening (so image sharpening is only applied if you go and manually add it yourself), first set the Sharpening Amount slider to 0 (zero), then go to the Camera Raw flyout menu and choose Save New Camera Raw Defaults (as shown here). Now, RAW images taken with that camera will not be automatically sharpened.

[DanK]

Richard,

Do you find that it is much better?

I edit many of my images only in Lightroom, apart from stacking in Zerene. I have been using LR's sharpening, including it's output sharpening. NIK filters are accessible in LR also, and I have used them a bit. I have only used the sharpener a few times and did not try any A/B comparisons. Have you tried any?

Thanks

Dan

[Colin Southern]

Hi Richard,

If it's set to "preview only" then no - you don't need to do anything.

As far as defaults go - if there are adjustment that you're making all the time then you can just do them once and then make them the default. The button to do that is ...

[Brev00]

I have the same Nik bundle and use the end sharpening tool but have not considered replacing my ACR sharpening with Nik's pre-sharpening filter. Please report on your results so far. Breaking routines can be hard but, if there are significant positive differences, I might want to give this Nik tool a try. You can definitely follow Colin's advice on avoiding the ACR sharpening. I would just make the zero setting my default setting. That is what I have done with all the other often desired settings in ACR. That way I would keep the sharpening page live. Otherwise, I might forget it is in preview when I do want to set a level.

[rpcrowe]

I have not actually do any A-B tests regarding NIK sharpening. However, the images that I sharpen using NIK seem just fine. But, I don't really know if they are any better than what I was dong previously.

I generally like the results from my NIK filters pretty well and have decided to give the sharpening a try.I am interested in the NIK-Multi Pass Sharpening Technique...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE_JeP06IG4

[Colin Southern]

Sharpening is the one thing I don't do in ACR; ACR can't apply multi-pass sharpening, so you're limited to capture sharpening, and ideal capture sharpening is typically 0.3px @ 300%, and ACR starts at 0.5px.

There will be an equivalent, but it's easy just to setup an action - turn on button mode - and it's "all over rover" with 1 click per image (plus, sometimes you'll get a better result when doing spot/dust bunny removal with tools in older versions of Photoshop if you to it before capture sharpening).