For web macro photos, is it sharper to shoot at full resolution and resize down, or shoot at the final pixel size?
Asked 12/7/2011
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2 answers
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I shoot macro photos of watches for web use only, typically displayed around 640×480 px. My camera can capture much larger files, but that means resizing during processing. If I instead compose/crop so the image is already close to the final display size, there is little or no resizing needed.
For best apparent sharpness on screen, which approach is theoretically better: shooting at full resolution and resizing down, or shooting closer to the final output size? My setup is a Nikon D50 with a 60mm macro lens, usually around f/8, at roughly 1:1 to 1:5 magnification.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
4
Most cameras have an anti-aliasing filter that can both reduce observed detail and moire patterns, especially when the image is viewed at 100%.
The practice I follow is to do all my toning and cropping at the image's original size and then size the image down to the size I need it to be and then apply a sharpening tool to the image, like Photoshop's "Unsharp Mask" or "Smart Sharpen". This to me gives the best sharpness. When working in RAW I tend to re-size in 16-bit and sharpen in 8-bit.
Here are some pages on AA filters and using smaller images at 100% versus sizing down, with image examples:
http://www.maxmax.com/nikon_d200hr.htm
http://www.ophrysphotography.co.uk/pages/tutorialmegapixelsharpness.htm
Originally by user2228. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2228
14y ago
0
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In general, shoot at full resolution (ideally RAW), do your edits and crop first, then resize down to your web size and apply output sharpening after the resize.
Why: capturing more pixels gives you more real image information to start with. Downsampling to 640×480 usually improves apparent sharpness and reduces aliasing/moire compared with using a smaller capture directly at 100%. It also gives you flexibility to fine-tune the crop so important details align better with the final pixel grid.
A good workflow is:
- Shoot maximum quality/resolution.
- Adjust tone/color and crop at the original size.
- Resize to final web dimensions.
- Apply sharpening for the final size (for example, Unsharp Mask/Smart Sharpen).
If your goal is ultimate screen sharpness, sharpening should be the last step after resizing, because sharpening settings that look good at full size are usually not ideal once the image is reduced.
So for web watch macros, full-resolution capture plus careful downsampling and final output sharpening should give the best apparent sharpness.
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