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Thread: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

  1. #1
    rpcrowe's Avatar
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    Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Do you tend to sharpen before or after making the HDR composite?
    Last edited by Dave Humphries; 11th May 2010 at 05:30 PM. Reason: amend title

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Sharpening itself is generally a destructive editing method which is why it (along with noise reduction) are often recomended to the the final stages of a photos workflow in editing. Furthermore the ouput use of the shot itself often defines how much or how little sharpening is needed -a shot for the web needs a different hand toward sharpening than a shot for printing (and then comes the question of what size the print is to be).

    For me creating an HDR image or even a tonemapped image the HDR/tonemapping part is the starting point - after RAW processing the composit is the very next stage. Once I have the images merged into a single final work I then start to use other editing processes to bring the best of the shot out - along with sharpening and editing in thefinals. If you are using HDR software to make the composite it is even more important to have done as little editing before as possible as the software needs all the data it can get to produce a good final image - if you cut away some of that data you are running the risk that the software won't be able to produce as clean a finished product at the end.
    Last edited by Dave Humphries; 11th May 2010 at 05:31 PM. Reason: amend title

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    Moderator Dave Humphries's Avatar
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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    I agree with overread (and I don't even do HDR )

    Actually, this post is mainly to mention that although posted in exactly the right forum, which gives context, I made the post title a little more specific to aid future generations searching for this discussion.

    Cheers,

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Quote Originally Posted by rpcrowe View Post
    Do you tend to sharpen before or after making the HDR composite?
    After, definately.

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Quote Originally Posted by Colin Southern View Post
    After, definitely.
    Colin, is that all sharpening, or would you do capture sharpening on the HDR images before combining?

    Cheers,
    Rick

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Quote Originally Posted by rick55 View Post
    Colin, is that all sharpening, or would you do capture sharpening on the HDR images before combining?

    Cheers,
    Rick
    Hi Rick,

    I was thinking content/creative sharpening, but I don't think capture sharpening would make any difference either way.

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Don't do it; you get a greater dynamic range merging RAW files and I can't save to RAW, so leave sharpening and noise until after merging.

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Quote Originally Posted by arith View Post
    Don't do it; you get a greater dynamic range merging RAW files and I can't save to RAW, so leave sharpening and noise until after merging.
    It's not really an issue when shooting for HDR Steve as you're not relying on dynamic range contained within a single exposure - you obtain the required dynamic range by shooting a bracket of shots.

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    Re: Sharpening... (in HDR workflow)

    Hi Guys - I agree with the points made above. I sharpen after the merging process. However, just to confuse matters, with HDR PhotoStudio software (and Artizen?) you can sharpen the HDR merged file itself, before tone-mapping. This may have some advantages although I think this may be an area for some research with test images.

    David

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