Do you sharpen your photos?

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Question from Lissa: “I’ve seen lots of actions out there for sharpening photos for print. I don’t usually do this. I’m just wondering if other photographers out there sharpen images before printing or before giving CDs of images to clients. Thanks.”

Mollie:  I don’t usually, but it couldn’t hurt, if the image is just a touch soft. You want to be careful you don’t get dependent on it.

Jodie:  I sharpen almost everything in Lightroom. Even if it’s just a little bump. It really makes a difference.

Anna: I always sharpen.

Debra: I always do 🙂

Cristen: Always. Remember that images always print softer, so what you see on your computer is sharper than what will actually print. I try to account for that.

Ani: If you’re shooting RAW, sharpening should be part of your workflow.

Karen: Always…just a little goes a long way!

Amanda: I always sharpen when I websize, and am specific to sharpen to the actual photo size when I print. Otherwise, I only sharpen what I need to at 100% if I’m selling a disc of full sized images. When I sharpen for web, I used to use the high pass filter, then switched over to in sharp mask, but just discovered on my own that sharpening with noise correction looks the smoothest in FB (when sharpening for web)

Savannah:  Opps I never sharpen :/

Tom:  I sharpen about 99.9999999% of the images I shoot. Like Cristen said, printed images are not as sharp as your computer screen, so I always sharpen.

Cortney:  Unsharp mask in photoshop to every photo!

Victoria: Hm, learned something new again!

Sue: of course we sharpen and too much sharpening causes the picture to pixelate and just awful better to use the clarify tool

Colleen:  yes…I sharpen only the parts I want sharpened…using unsharp mask and a mask… (I created an action)

Cher: Never thought of doing this, will try it out…thanks for the tips 🙂

Dana:  Some printing companies sharpen when they print, so I look for that information and adjust accordingly.

Rob:  Always do, always last action, always minimal increments

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