Sharp Series
1. Focus
2. Exposure
3. The Lens
4. Post ProductionWe have addressed correct focussing, getting the exposure right and using the best lens for the job and found your lenses sweet spots, there is really only one place left where we can turn that great shot into a spectacular shot.

Post production is very important for quality photography, just because we are not developing in a dark room does not mean we no longer need to develop our photos.

The light sensor within our digital camera blur images using a specific filter designed to avoid distortion known as moire 'this is a pattern that turns up in high detail parts of the image when the camera cannot process the amount of data' We can counteract this in post production using sharpening tools, the most common to use is the Unsharp Mask Adobe Photoshop and the sharpening tools in Adobe Raw & Lightroom.

We need to use caution when sharpening as from the perfect amount to to much is a fine line, make sure you add sharpening at 100% and zoom in to see the effects on the final image.



Unsharpened image



Lightroom correct sharpening
Lightroom RAW sharpening is a little more subtle than what unsharp mask produces which can be a little like a brick to the head, if you are using Lightroom try with the default settings first only varying the amount. It is also a good idea to apply your sharpening as a final technique after any initial image manipulations.



Lightroom over-sharpening
More forgiving than over sharpening in Photoshop with the unsharp mask, although it is still a good idea to avoid over-sharpening in RAW. Most images require no more than 50-70, if you are needing to add more sharpening than that then the original image is not sharp in the first place and one would be going back over the 4 part tutorial and maybe concentrate on part 1 focussing.



Unsharp mask correct sharpening
Like I said before the unsharp mask can be as subtle as a brick to the head, this makes it imperative to apply your sharpening with great care and check the results zoomed in. It all depends on your image but a good starting point is to set the radius to 1.5 and the threshold to 5 and apply at 100% as I say it all depends on the particular image so don't be afraid to experiment.



Unsharp mask over-sharpening
I have purposely over-sharpened this to a great extent so you can easily see the halos and the general picking up of unneeded detail and blowing out of colour. Over-sharpening actually starts just after a hint of perfect sharpening this is why it is essential to go slow and zoom in to see the results.

This brings us to the end of the 4 part series on pin sharp photos, hope you have enjoyed it and until next time happy snapping.