Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Im using Lightroom on a Vista 64 system, printing to an Epson 3880. Im wondering, whether to turn off print sharpening in Ligtroom? In order to let Qimage do all the sharpening or let Ligtroom do the sharpening and turn off in Qimage???
I guess the same may apply in CS4?
I shoot RAW NEFs.

greyscale :-\

The simple answer is: if you are developing photos in LR or PS to be printed in Qimage, sharpen in LR or PS so that the photo has the appropriate sharpness when viewed at 100% (1:1) on your monitor.  Just don't resample the photo.  Sharpen it as much as it needs to be in order to get the original image to the amount of sharpness it should have.  Then let Qimage handle the rest.  Think of it as "restoring" the proper sharpness to the original: that should always be done to originals without resampling.  Then at print time, print "smart sharpening" is a secondary sharpening that is done by Qimage: sharpening that is needed to make the printed sharpness match that of the original photo.

Mike

Mike is referring to a sequence of sharpening that is sometimes called three-stage sharpening which is popularly associated with the late Bruce Fraser (http://www.creativepro.com/article/out-of-gamut-thoughts-on-a-sharpening-workflow (http://www.creativepro.com/article/out-of-gamut-thoughts-on-a-sharpening-workflow)).  I process my NEF files in Lightroom and apply capture sharpening there (what Mike refers to as restoring the image sharpness at 100% view).  I find that its sharpening algorithm is quite good for this.  I usually use 80 .7 40 40 as a starting point.  I also have some presets from different sources.  I save final files as TIFs in a separate folder titled "Final Prints" and make the prints through Qimage with Smart Sharpening at its default setting.  I also use Qimage to prepare files for printing at Costco using profiles from Dry Creek Photo (http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/ (http://www.drycreekphoto.com/icc/)).  The results are always outstanding.

You can also try the USM feature in Qimage with the print equalizer for capture sharpening, although I find the results less satisfactory than Lightroom.

- Chris

Mike & Chris, thanks for the info re: Lightroom sharpening.

I add a later caveat.  While I tend to find Lightroom's sharpening algorithm very good.  One can also use the USM and sharpening equalizer in Qimage to great effect for capture sharpening if one does not have Lightroom.  I find a setting of 1 250 50 to work very well.

- Chris