Nikon D70/Unsharp Mark/Capture/Defaults

Hi,

I've had my D70 for several months now and I very happy with it (and more
importantly the images!). However, like most people, I'd always like to
improve things.

I've lately been musing on the topic of sharpening, and reading up on the
web. I main use the D70 in Landscape or Aperture Priority Mode. I mainly use
Capture 4 for post processing (both RAW and JPEGs), although have recently
bought Photoshop CS2, but I haven't really started to play with this yet.
Most of the time I shoot the highest quality JPEG's, but occassionally if a)
it seems like a particularly nice composition or b) tricky lighting
conditions, I shot in RAW.

My question relates to the in-camera sharpening. I have read that this
introduces more noise and I should set this to none, and apply unsharp mask
in Capture or Edge Sharp in PS (I think it was Edge Sharp, something like
that). I have done that under Custom Mode which, as I understand it, WILL
effect my AP (or manual or shutter priorty) shots but NOT the landscape mode
ones. Would I be correct in also thinking that this will only effect the
JPEGs and not the RAWs? Surely a RAW is raw and there is NO in camera
processing? If so I think I might turn it back on - I take hundreds of
pictures and only a handful (usually the RAW ones) are ones that I want to
do extensive post processing on. Would a good default configuration be to
have the sharpening switched on in the camera for the day to day shots, but
then use the Capture/PS facilities for sharpening my RAW images, which are
usually the 'special' ones?

I'm rambling aren't I ?!? Advice on users own default setting would be
helpful/useful/interesting !

TIA.

 

One might say that.

First you choose whether you want to have full control over your images. If
the answer is yes, then the in camera settings don't mean a whole lot.
However, you need to be aware Capture will read these AND use them as the
defaults when you process images unless you override these settings. Other
raw converters such as Adobe ACR or Pixmantec's free RSE do not use the in
camera settings as defaults. By making this choice you then need to post
process each image.

The other side is if you don't want to process every image, then you have
to choose so settings and shoot jpeg. You are then at the mercy of your
choices for sharpness, tone comp, saturation, etc. Depending on the image
and your choices, this may mean the loss of information which can never be
recovered.

You have to choose what processing flow you are willing to do. Even when
shooting jpeg in my 990 and 5700 I chose no sharpening or tone comp . It
then still means one needs to post process..

It's your choice.

 

OK, I think I'll pop out tomorrow and take some test shots with the
differing in-camera settings and see what that gives me. I went through the
same loop with the in-camera saturation settings and finished up with it on
'normal' - ie. the default !

Thanks a lot for the advice.

 

Just to add some confusion, I find that slight "over-sharpening" can
look better printed. An unsharpened, or insufficiently sharpened image
tends to look too smooth when printed - to my eye anyway. OTOH
over-sharpening doesn't look that great on screen - especially when you
look close.

 

Saturation is the least destructive setting. Tone comp and sharpening are
the more destructive ones. Tone comp can blow out highlights. If you
intend to do any editing of even jpegs (rotation, cropping, etc), best to
set these to none imo. In a decent workflow, sharpening should be your last
action.

 

One can argue about the amount of sharpening. however it is quite
universally agreed it should be the last thing applied to an image. So if
you will do any editing, even simple cropping, then it's best to turn
sharpening off if shooting jpeg.

 

I agree with you 100% on that.

 

Yes I do quite often crop, even on the jpegs. I'll go ahead with my
experiment anyway, but it sounds like I'll be turning the in-camera
sharpening off.

I do do the sharpening last. In Capture I tend to apply Intensity 40, Radius
3, Threshold 10 to start with and then zoom to 100% on something with detail
and change the 3 settings either side of those original positions till I
like it. I then move to something with no detail and see how much noise
there is.

In the old days I only had to worry about what a) what film, b) what camera
exposure, c) what grade paper and d) what enlarger exposure. And I guess a
bit of dodging/burning. And who says digital is easier !?!?!