Should creative sharpening be done before or after resizing?
Asked 7/21/2013
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I understand that output sharpening is usually done after resizing because the final size and medium affect how much sharpening is needed. But what about selective or “creative” sharpening, such as making a subject’s eyes stand out more? If resizing comes later, is sharpening those areas beforehand a mistake? Or is creative sharpening normally done before resizing, with a separate output-sharpening step applied afterward for each final size or format?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The reasons for doing sharpening as the final step are primarily because the intended output media determines what sort of sharpening is applied, the idea is that you are compensating for any softening that will occur during printing, or resizing for the web.
However, sharpening is more or less a cumulative effect. This means that if you sharpen the eyes as part of regular editing, when you apply your final sharpening pass, say after resizing for the web, the eyes will still be relatively sharper than the rest of the face, i.e. resizing softens all areas more or less equally, it doesn't "reset" the image sharpness.
Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1375
13y ago
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Creative sharpening before resizing is not a mistake. It serves a different purpose than output sharpening.
A common workflow is:
- capture/raw sharpening to counter lens/sensor softness,
- creative/selective sharpening to emphasize important details (like eyes, hair, texture),
- output sharpening after resizing or at print/export to suit the final size/medium.
Why this works: sharpening effects are cumulative. Resizing may soften the whole image somewhat, but it does not “reset” sharpness. If the eyes were sharpened more than the rest of the face, they will usually still look relatively sharper after resizing.
Output sharpening is still done last because web export and print each need different final treatment. So in practice, creative sharpening is often applied during editing, then a separate final sharpening pass is applied for each delivered version.
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