› ›kelbyone.com065CREATE SHARPENING PRESETS
To make life easier, I suggest you save the above settings
as custom sharpening presets. You can do this by applying
a custom sharpening setting in the Detail panel, then go to
the Presets panel and click on the new Preset icon at the bot-
tom. This opens the New Preset dialog, where you’ll want to
select Details from the Subset menu. Name the sharpening
preset at the top of the dialog, and click the OK button. As
you work on other images, you can choose to either leave
the Detail panel settings as they are at the default setting, or
select one of these custom settings from the Camera Raw
Presets panel.
DEMOSAIC PROCESSING
Another key component of the capture sharpening process
is the demosaic processing method used. Now, if you shoot
in JPEG mode, this will all be carried out in-camera. But if
you shoot RAW, you have a choice of image processors.
In my view, Camera Raw and Lightroom do a pretty darn
good job of extracting as much detail as possible. This is
because the Process 2012 demosaic processing removes
all the color noise artifacts and pattern noise we would
find noticeable, but manages to preserve the fine, random,
grain-like noise we find more pleasing. The result is a RAW-
processed image that preserves as much fine detail texture
as possible. This provides an optimum starting point for all
further RAW image editing, including the sharpening and
noise reduction.CREATIVE SHARPENING
Capture sharpening is all about applying just the right
amount of sharpening to correct for the loss of sharpen-
ing that occurs at the capture stage. Too little and you’ll fail
to reveal the full sharpness of the original; apply too much
and you’ll end up with visible sharpening artifacts that make
retouching (and especially masking) much harder. But even
when you’ve added just the right amount of capture sharp-
ening, there may still be areas of the image you’d like to be
sharper where the focus isn’t quite as crisp as it should be.
This is where you can use Photoshop sharpening techniques
to selectively sharpen the bits that need sharpening most.