I have the sharpness options -2, -1, 0, 1 or 2 on my camera but I don't know which one I should set it to. I don't want the camera to apply any sharpening to the pictures, so this presumably rules out 1 and 2. Of the remaining numbers, which represents "no sharpening" and what do the negative numbers mean?
I have the sharpness options -2, -1, 0, 1 or 2 on my camera but I don't know which one I should set it to. I don't want the camera to apply any sharpening to the pictures, so this presumably rules out 1 and 2. Of the remaining numbers, which represents "no sharpening" and what do the negative numbers mean?
0 (zero), the default setting, represents no sharpening. Most of us use the default and apply sharpening, more precisely, in an editor, although, I have to admit, I've set mine at 1 (+ 1) with good results.
Likewise, like zeuszen I mainly use 0, but lately have tried 1+. I think 1+ looks better right out of the camera if I want to just go to Walmart and process some 5 by 7 or 8 by 10 prints for the family. My D P Challenge pics I use 0.
Images captured by a digital sensor are always soft. In-camera sharpening brings back the sharpness in the photos.
The 0 setting represents the camera's "default" sharpness. +1 and +2 are more agressive sharpening levels, while -1 and -2 represent less sharpening applied.
While most will be happy with the default, some may want to pump it up to add more "pop" when printing photos. On the other hand, some do not trust in-camera sharpening and do their own sharpening. Usually these people will shoot with minimal (-2) sharpening.
Sharpening also increases noise levels as the sharpening algorithm isn't able to tell the difference between noise and a sharp edge of a picture. Therefore, if shooting at high ISO, it is also common practice to reduce in-camera sharpening, then apply a judicious amount of Unsharp Mask to sharpen the image without accentuating the noise.
I have the sharpness options -2, -1, 0, 1 or 2 on my camera but I don't know which one I should set it to. I don't want the camera to apply any sharpening to the pictures, so this presumably rules out 1 and 2. Of the remaining numbers, which represents "no sharpening" and what do the negative numbers mean?
0 (zero), the default setting, represents no sharpening. Most of us use the default and apply sharpening, more precisely, in an editor, although, I have to admit, I've set mine at 1 (+ 1) with good results.
Yes I agree with zeuszen . But I newer use same settings, so the picture like this is +2
No, 0 just means the default in-camera sharpening. I do believe that -2 is still sharpened somewhat. It can be an advantage to sharpen beforehand as the sharpening is applied to the raw image data and not to the jpeg, as far as I understand.
Originally posted by zeuszen:
0 (zero), the default setting, represents no sharpening. Most of us use the default and apply sharpening, more precisely, in an editor, although, I have to admit, I've set mine at 1 (+ 1) with good results.
No, 0 just means the default in-camera sharpening. I do believe that -2 is still sharpened somewhat. It can be an advantage to sharpen beforehand as the sharpening is applied to the raw image data and not to the jpeg, as far as I understand.
Originally posted by zeuszen:
0 (zero), the default setting, represents no sharpening. Most of us use the default and apply sharpening, more precisely, in an editor, although, I have to admit, I've set mine at 1 (+ 1) with good results.
I stand corrected, although... even reviewing an image shot at -2 would take a little getting used to: thus the default setting [no indicator symbol on LCD].
I've done some pretty carefully tests between the sharpening settings and I prefer the 0 setting. On close inspection there were many small details that were blurred too much at the -1 and -2 settings that those details couldn't be recovered. I wasn't convinced that the minus settings have sharpening applied because of the loss of detail. I suppose there could be slight differences between cameras as well and that could account for some of the different opinions here. I used to use the +1 setting and they photos did look pretty good right out of the camera but, like others have said, setting it to 0 and then doing your sharpening can yield better results
