The Canon Magazine 59
SHARPEN YOUR SKILLS
Try using the + and
- keys to change
the sharpening
sliders, as this
gives you greater
scope to judge fine
increments
QUICK TIP!
01 PREPARE THE VIEW
Get the shot into Lightroom Classic, then go to the
Develop Module. After making some tweaks in the
Basic panel, go to the Detail panel. Click the Before/
After view at bottom left, then zoom in close to the
image. A 100% view is best for judging sharpening.
03 SET DETAIL AND MASKING
The Sharpening Detail slider controls how much fine
edges are sharpened. High amounts can amplify
noise. Masking lets us correct this. Hold Alt and drag
Masking for a black and white view. Softer bits show in
black as you drag and are masked from sharpening.
05 ROUND-TRIP WITH PHOTOSHOP
Next, take the image into Photoshop for retouching.
Right-click the shot and ‘Edit in Photoshop’, choose
‘Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments’, hit OK. In
Photoshop, use the Patch tool to remove the leaf by
the lizard’s head, close the image to go to Lightroom.
02 APPLY CAPTURE SHARPENING
Begin in the Detail panel by upping the Sharpening
Amount. Next, Adjust the Radius, which sets the
distance from edges in which the sharpening occurs.
A low radius is usually better for high-frequency detail
like the lizard skin. We’ve set Amount 90, Radius 0.9.04 FIX THE NOISE
We could reduce noise using the sliders in the Detail
panel, but we only want to correct the softer areas,
so selective adjustments may be better. Get the
Adjustment Brush, check Auto Mask, set Noise
to 80 and paint the blurred areas to reduce noise.06 FINAL OUTPUT SHARPENING
Finally, export the image for a print size and use Output
Sharpening. Go File>Export, set Image Format to JPEG.
In Image Sizing check Resize to fit: Long Edge, set 18cm
at 300 pixels per inch. In Output Sharpening pick
Sharpen for Matte Paper, Amount Standard and hit OK.STEP BY STEP SHARPEN UP WORKFLOWS
Understand sharpening workflow and learn how to round-trip images with Lightroom and Photoshop
NEXT MONTH
DODGE & BURN
LANDSCAPESCREATIVE
SHARPENING
As well as Capture
Sharpening (which
happens at the start of
a workflow) and Output
Sharpening (which
occurs at the end) you
might also want to try
Creative Sharpening.
This is an optional third
stage in the sharpening
workflow that happens
between the other two.
This is where we can
use selective tools to
crisp up the details in
the image that matter
most. We could, for
example, use Lightroom’s
Adjustment Brush to
add extra sharpening to
the eyes and skin of the
lizard here. You could
also use the Sharpen
tool in Photoshop, or
apply sharpening locally
using a combination of
sharpening filters and
layer masks.