(I originally wrote this article way back in 2009. Some portions were revised in February 2019 to reflect changes to sharpening tools and some different ideas I have developed regarding sharpening settings. It was updated and modified again in 2023.)

I just posted something elsewhere about how I sharpen for prints and I figured I’d get some extra mileage out of it by posting it here as well. First, few disclaimers…

• The title of this article originally referred to a “quick overview.” Clearly, it is too long for that! But there are whole books on sharpening, so by contrast I think this qualifies as a quick description. In fact, I’ve left a lot out of the description!
• There are people with far more expertise on this topic than I have, and I have no illusions that this description represents the “right” way to do this, much less the “best” way!
  

The subject of how to sharpen photographs in post for print or electronic output is one that confuses many people… and a subject to which many books, online articles, and forums posts have been devoted. There are any number of ways to get the desired results via sharpening, and different techniques are called for depending upon taste, the nature of the image, and the final form of presentation: size? print? jpg? etc…

Here is a general description of what I do when I print. I’ve left some variations out of this description. The description also covers software that I use in my workflow — you might prefer something different, but you might still be able to adapt these ideas. You’ll note at least one controversial method later in the list, but try it before you dismiss it. The approach I use could well be “over-kill” if you just want to pump out a bunch of jpgs to share with friends and family or if you want to make some small prints — my end goal is good sized prints, and I work on each one rather carefully rather than mass-processing them and printing a bunch at one time.

And please understand that I’m most certainly not implying that my way is the right way. It works for me, and that people who view my prints often remark on their sharpness and detail. (And a few other things, too, I hope! :-)

1. Shoot RAW and, of course, pay careful attention to stuff that affects image sharpness – choice of lens, aperture, careful focus, consideration of DOF issues, diffraction blur issues, tripod, mirror lockup or live view (with electronic first curtain, if possible), remote release, etc.

2. Using ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to do my conversion I remove any dust spots, try to maximize image dynamic range without losing shadow details or blowing highlights, perhaps do some color correction, etc. 

3. These days I move more and more of my post-processing into ACR rather than holding off until I move the file to Photoshop. Almost as a rule, I now do several types of sharpening in ACR. Here’s an overview, updated with settings I have more recently come to use.

Amount varies depending on image content and the camera system used to make the image. For Canon 5DsR files I typically start with 40 in ACR. In theist my Fujifilm x-trans sensor files may have used a bit less “amount” – perhaps around 125. However, with my newer 40MP sensor camera by starting point is to use the same setting I use with Canon files.

Radius also varies for the same sorts of reasons. A typical setting is in the .3 to .5 range, though I may occasionally go as high as 1.0. My default starting level is .5.

Details can amplify the sharpening effect in areas with more details. On my Canon 5DsR files I frequently set this to 50. or so With older Fujifilm files I used a lower value and might leave it at zero. Again, with the new 40MP sensor I tend to use values more like those on the Canon.

Masking lets me minimize sharpening of solid or smooth gradient areas — sharpening there would only make noise more visible. I adjust it while holding down a key (depends on whether you use PC or Mac) that previews the effect, with the goal being to minimize noise in solid and smooth gradient areas while sharpening hard edges.

Clarity settings can be quite useful. Adding a bit of clarity (perhaps in the 10-15 range) can make the image seem a bit sharper. By contrast, sometimes I want a softer effect and I  may apply a negative clarity value such as -12. (The clarity slider can be an addictive drug, so proceed with caution!)

Dehaze is a new, complex adjustment in ACR that partially does something like clarity, but which also alters colors and contrast. I don’t always use it, but at times I may raise it a little bit… and with great care. Like clarity, overuse can lead to addiction!

4. I open the image as a smart object in Photoshop in 16-bit mode. (My workflow is almost entirely non-destructive since I use smart objects — these allow me to return to ACR for further adjustments after opening and editing the file in Photoshop.)

5. Although many of the post-processing techniques I may apply in Photoshop are not strictly “sharpening” techniques, it is important to note that the subjective impression of sharpness in a photograph is the result of many things that are not strictly sharpening techniques. For example, I may do a lot of work with masked curves to increase contrast in certain areas of the image, to recover shadow details and so forth. You can do all of the “sharpening” in the world, and your print may still look dull if you don’t deal with this stuff.

On to actual sharpening…

7. Using a smart filter (e.g. – selecting the bottom “background” smart layer, and then selecting from the Filter… menu) I first apply smart filtering. Actual settings can vary depending upon the nature of the image, but a decent starting point for my 50MP FF images might be 150, .5. I often lower the second value a bit, perhaps to .3 if I notice halos near edges, since doing so makes them narrower. I watch the screen at 100% magnification while I do this – I want to verify the quality of the sharpening and make sure that there won’t be visible sharpening halos around high contrast edges – if there are, I reduce the radius value first, and in a few cases I may need to reduce the amount value as well.

(I may to resort to trickier approaches such as varying the amount of sharpening in different areas of the image – but I’m not going to try to explain that here.)

8. I save the entire Photoshop file will all layers intact. Before preparing the image for print or digital output I duplicate the image and then work on the duplicate. The first step is to the flatten the duplicated file. What I do next depends upon whether I’m printing or making a small jpg for online presentation.

9. If I am printing I use the image size dialog to set the print size in inches. I may or may not interpolate or “up-rez” the image to a higher resolution.* In other words I may let the “resolution” end up being whatever it ends up being when I select my target print size. More recently I have again taken to setting the resolution to 360 instead of letting it float.)

10. Now, at 100% magnification, I do another smart sharpen operation. The idea here is to over-sharpen a bit – at 100% on the screen the image should look a bit “grainy” or “crunchy” – not pretty at all. The goal is to compensate for the ink spread (known as “dot gain”) that will take place when this slightly over-sharpened image ends up on the paper. You have to do some testing to figure out the best values, and they will be different for different types and brands of paper. I print on Ilford Galerie GFS for the most part, where typical “output sharpening” settings might be on the order of 200, .3. The first number might to as high as perhaps 240 or as low as perhaps 100, and the second value might be .4 in some cases.

11. Print.

(If I’m going to create a jpg for screen presentation, I obviously have to down-rez the image to smaller size. Without going into the gory details here, I may use slightly different sharpening settings for jpg files.  (I’ve tried the method for web sharpening described by Ian Plant and I think it may produce better results than that approach I’ve been using.)

Good luck!

Credit Where Credit is Due Department: Charlie Cramer helped me understand the basic concept of the “output sharpening” for printing and showed me some starting points for determining settings.

(Note: There are a few important things to say about the procedures described here. First, there is no single correct way to sharpen — this represents an approach that generally works well for me. Second, while you could do exactly what I do as a starting point, you might instead this description as a model to use as you come to understand how to do your own sharpening. Third, this description is Photoshop-based, and folks using Lightroom and other software will need to adapt this approach to make it fit.)

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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