Adobe Photoshop Lightroom comes with powerful tools to sharpen images during post-processing. Located in the Develop module of Lightroom, the “Detail” box contains both Sharpening and Noise Reduction tools that allow Photographers to enhance their digital workflows by fine-tuning images and getting them ready to be published and printed in a quick and efficient way. Since I have already covered the noise reduction part in my Noise Reduction Tutorial, in this article, I will show you how to properly use the Sharpening tool instead.
1) Problems with Sharpening Images
Sharp images look aesthetically more pleasing than soft or blurry images. Because of this, most photographers try to sharpen their images in post-processing applications, which can result in all kinds of problems such as:
- Over-sharpening – when too much sharpening is used, it results in harsh, visible lines on edges and around objects. Over-sharpened images often look too “textured”.
- Too much noise – using excessive amounts of sharpening can add a lot more noise to an image. The worst result is when an image is already shot at high ISO levels and sharpening is applied on top of the digital grain, resulting in even more noise.
- Zigzag lines – straight thin lines can get converted over to zigzags and circular shapes can get cubic transitions when excessive sharpening with a large radius is applied.
Here is an example of an over-sharpened image:
Over-sharpened Image
Note the amount of noise, visible lines, zigzag lines on the grass and too much texture – all because of over-sharpening an image.
2) Lightroom Detail Panel – Sharpening
Lightroom comes with a very powerful sharpening tool within the Develop module, under the “Detail” panel. It is very similar to Photoshop’s “Unsharp Mask” tool, but better, because it gives you extra controls over how you can sharpen your images. Before Lightroom, I used to sharpen every single image through Photoshop, which was painful, time-consuming and destructive (meaning once you make changes to an image in Photoshop, you cannot undo them). Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom does not modify images – it stores changes either in a separate file, or in image headers, depending on the image format. If I make a mistake or want to go back to the original image, I can simply reset the image to its original state or revert modifications through the history panel. Being able to specify custom settings on images during the import process is also another time saver, especially when working with thousands of photographs.
3) Sharpening Settings
It is always easier to explain things with examples. Go ahead and open a sample image in Lightroom, then do the following:
- Press “D” on your keyboard or click on “Develop” on the top right panel to get into the Develop module.
- Left-click your image to view it at 100%. I highly recommend to view your images at full size (100%) before making any sharpening changes.
- Expand the right panel in Lightroom and scroll down until you get to “Detail”.
The detail panel will look like this:
* Note that the Noise Reduction section will look different if you are using Lightroom 2.
The Sharpening Tool has four different sliders:
- Amount – the amount of sharpening you want to apply to an image. Zero means no sharpening is applied to the image. The higher the number, the more sharpening you will see. Too much sharpening will also increases the noise. I typically set 50 as the default value to my images, but sometimes can increase or decrease the amount depending on the image and noise levels.
- Radius – the size of the sharpening area around the edges. The default value of 1.0 means that Lightroom will apply sharpening over 1 pixel around the edge. If you increase the radius to a maximum value of 3.0, sharpening will be spread over three pixels around the edge, resulting in thicker, “shadowy” edges. I use the default radius value of 1.0 most of the time and I recommend to keep it under 1.5.
- Detail – as the name suggests, the detail slider controls the amount of sharpening on the edges or “details” of the image. A small value like 0 only sharpens large edges, while a high value like 100 would sharpen even the smallest edges. For example, if you are working on an image of a bird, if you leave the detail at “0″, only the edges of thick feathers would get sharpened, while using a larger number above 50 would bring out and sharpen even the thinner feathers. I try to stay below 50 on the detail slider, because higher numbers often considerably increase the amount of noise.
- Masking – the most useful and versatile feature that masks out areas that should not be sharpened, similar to the mask tool in Photoshop. This is the tool that would take care of the extra noise produced by “Amount” and “Detail” sliders around your subjects. While it is not very useful for images that have too much detail and too many edges all over the image, it works magic for images that isolate subjects from the background. The softer and less defined the background, the better the results. See examples below.
Combining the above controls, you could effectively sharpen your images without much work and dramatically cut your workflow time. Let’s now play with a real image to see how we can sharpen it in Lightroom.
4) The Option/Alt Key
I had to write about this in a separate header so that you don’t miss it. The Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) key on your keyboard can do a lot of the magic in Lightroom. One of the biggest challenges in sharpening, is seeing the effect of sharpening on your images. Sure, viewing the image at 100% helps, but playing with such sliders as radius, detail and masking often confuses Lightroom users, because slight changes could be invisible when looking at the image. That’s when the Option/Alt key comes in handy. Simply press the Option/Alt key on your keyboard and then use the mouse to move the slider from left to right for any of the four settings. You will see something like this:
That’s how the image looks like when I press the Alt button and move the “Radius” slider. It gives me a clear indication of how exactly radius will affect my image. As you can see, at the maximum setting of “3.0″, the radius around the edges is too thick, giving an unnatural look to the image and dark shadows around the subject. Pressing the Control/Alt key while moving the sliders for Amount and Detail will also show the effects on a gray background, giving us a pretty good idea on how the setting will affect the image.
The “Masking” slider works a little differently with the Command/Alt key. As I have explained earlier, the masking tool is used for leaving the smooth areas intact, while applying sharpening only to the edges. We can control where the edges start by moving the slider from 0 to the right. At “0″, no masking is applied to the image and therefore, the entire image is sharpened. If you have a smooth background like the sky, sharpening will certainly add noise to the sky, even when noise is very minimal to start with. Here is what happens when you start moving the slider:
As you can see, both the bird and the background have lots of grain. This means that sharpening is applied to all of those areas. Now take a look at this image:
As I moved to the right, I was able to get rid of the static/grain in the sky and only leave the bird in the frame. What this does, is it makes Lightroom apply sharpening only on the bird, leaving the surrounding areas intact. This is a great way to selectively sharpen subjects, without affecting the entire image.
5) Sharpening Example
Let’s now jump to a real example. Download the full-size version of the following image to your PC and import it into Lightroom:
- Inside Lightroom, press the “D” button to go to the Develop module. Once you are in the Develop module, open the right sidebar and scroll down to “Detail”.
- Hold the Command/Alt key and move the Amount slider to around 75. Note how the background gets a little noise when the value goes above 50. Try moving all the way to 100 to see plenty of noise in the background. Go back to 75 and release the Command/Alt key when done.
- Hold the Command/Alt key and move the Radius slider from 1.0 to 3.0. Note how thick the edges around the bird get. Release the Command/Alt key and see how badly the edges look in color. Now put the Radius back to 1.0 by moving the slider or typing “1″ on the right hand side.
- Hold the Command/Alt key and move the Detail slider to 75. Note the whiter edges and added noise to the background.
- Finally, hold the Command/Alt key and move the Masking slider from 0 to 50. Note that only the bird and the tree are visible – the background should be completely black.
- Look at the final result and press the “” button on your keyboard several times to see how the image looked before and after you applied sharpening to it. You can also see the Before and After images in two separate windows by pressing the “Y” button, or you can use the switch on the “Detail” panel to turn Sharpening on or off.
Here is a before and after example – move your mouse over to see the difference.
The above values are for this example only – I normally do not use values above 50 for Amount and Detail sliders.
6) What about Output Sharpening?
Many Lightroom users get confused about the Output Sharpening feature in the Export window. Should it be used after sharpening is already applied to an image? If you are exporting the image in its original size, then I recommend turning off Output Sharpening during the export process. If you are resizing the image to a smaller version for the web, then I recommend leaving it checked with the Screen/Standard amount of sharpening applied. When images are reduced in size via Lightroom, the sharpness is also slightly reduced, so sharpening the images a little bit does not hurt. Output Sharpening does not use the same settings you used for the image in the Develop Module though – it just slightly sharpens the entire image.
Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below.
About Nasim Mansurov
Hey Nasim,
I think, you fully covered the topic with this great article.
Thanks for it!
Thank you Gyula!
Excellent explanation! Thanks you very much.
Enche, you are most welcome and thank you for stopping by our blog!
Hi Nasim,
Very good description, I like Lr more than Ps for its simplicity yet powerful enough…especially when I need to process hundreds of images.
I often use the sharpening feature, but shamefully I don’t notice the “Option” key to see the sharpening effect ’till I read your post…
Thanks for sharing…
Wid.
Wid, you are most welcome!
I hope your workflow has gotten better, now that you use the option key :)
Thank you for such a detailed article! I’m experimenting with the Lr sharpening tool as right now and I’m getting some pleasing results. This is very helpful!
You are most welcome Kaspar! Let me know if you have any questions.
Your articles are always useful, thanks for your sharing
You are most welcome Tao, thanks for visiting!
Wow! Finally, someone explains it all to me in a very clear and concise manner. I am so thankful for this. I was one of those people getting confused by the various sharpen features and had no clue about the ALT function on my Mac. I recently had a shoot with a friend of mine and had some shots that I wanted to clean up and save but had no idea how to go about doing it with the very limited knowledge I had about Light Room 2. I will employ your suggestions as soon as possible now that I am psyched about my prospects! Thanks so much, Nasim!
Sean, I’m glad that you found the article useful. Thank you for your feedback!
Thanks a lot for this useful tutorial!
You are most welcome Eric!
one word….wow ….
fantastic….never knew importance of sharpening till i read n did this in practical….
wow wow wow
U r my mentor …n i ll proudly mention your name to anyone n everyone who asks me how i do what i do ;)
thank u so very much
god bless
“Stop War – Do Photography” ;)
Subodh, thank you for your kind words. Good luck!
Thanks so much for this article…I am fairly new to LR3 and this has saved me a ton of time.
You are most welcome Pak!
Thanks for your various helpful Lightroom posts. One quick question — the output sharpening in Lightroom is in addition to whatever sharpening was applied in the develop module, right?
Thanks!
Bill, the output sharpening is in the export dialog box.
This was an excellent tutorial. Without use of the command and option key, its like stumbling around in the dark. Thank you very much. I now see where I went wrong and how to do it better.
My question is, what are the settings for output sharpening? I can’t see their actual values anywhere.
I have been turning off the output sharpening since I don’t know what it is adding to the image.
A client of mine submitted one of my images to a national magazine for an ad, and it looked hideously over sharpened, yet it looked fine on my monitor. I hate cringing when I see it in print.
???
Marsha, leave output sharpening on when you downsize images. So, if you have a sharpened image at full resolution and you are converting it to 1024×1024 for web, the image will look a little soft when you downsize it. Leaving output sharpening on will sharpen it further more after the reduction process runs.
Hope this answers your question.
Nasim- I just sharpen on export, depending where it is going..web or printed in a magazine.
To understand, I should sharpen in Develop mode and not sharpen on export unless I am downsizing?
Great tutorial! One question: are these slider number recommendations/guidelines for RAW files? I sometimes shoot JPEGs and I am seeking guidance for a starting point on the detail slider numbers. Thanks!
Lori, no, the slider recommendations work for both JPEG and RAW. The only thing to keep in mind, is that the camera already applies some sharpening when the image is shot as JPEG, so you have to be careful at what values you use for sharpening. Do not over-sharpen JPEG images…
I really learned a lot from this article. Being a fan of Lightroom for a couple of years and not knowing these simple tricks! Unbelievable! I am very happy with your advice as now I see the sharpening process as something logical and tangible.
Thank you for your feedback Andre!
Hi Nasim!
Thank you for your explanations on sharpening. I learned a lot and have known features I did not know before.
I am a bird photographer in the Philippines.
Is it proper to do all the sharpening and denoising in LR using the raw files, rather than in PS after exporting the raw into tif file? Or is it better to do some sharpening and denoising in LR, and then make the final ones in PS after cropping the tif picture into the desired composition?
Essentially, my question is – is it better to sharpen and denoise the picture in full resolution using the raw file, or after cropping the tif file into the desired composition that we then apply the sharpening and denoising? I’m a bit confuse in this regard.
Thanks!
Alain Pascua
Alain,
I personally do all the work in Lightroom first and then take it to Photoshop for additional changes, if necessary. If you use Photoshop plugins like Nik Software Dfine or Viveza, I would pre-process and crop in Lightroom, and then remove noise/sharpen in Photoshop. Once saved, it will become a large TIFF file.
If you are not using any Photoshop plugins, then do everything in Lightroom.
great tutorials!!
congratulations and thanks for sharing
1) why do you prefer ‘use Photoshop plugins, like Nik Software Dfine or Viveza, in Photoshop’ , once you can do it directly from Lightroom ?
2) defaults values sharpening in Lightroom: are they applied to ALL IMPORTED PHOTOS ? how can we disable that in Lightroom?
3) default sharpening in-camera is applied also to raw files?
Many thanks,
Jovelino
Hello,
This is an excellent article – thank you! I have one question: is it better to sharpen before cropping or after cropping?
thank you
Rukkas
Rukkas, I personally do it after cropping, although some amount of cropping is already applied to my images in Lightroom.
Nasim,
Thank you for the time to write, detail and explain a great tutorial.
I have been looking all over the web for this!!! Thank you for explaining it SO well!!!
hello nasim
what is difference b/w lightroom and photoshop,,which is a better tool
siju
Awesome tutorial.. Could u apply settings like this on import to all photos as a base, and then adjust from there?
Do you find 50 is the minimum amount for most photos?
Very detailed tutorial.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
-Alex
This really is a great site, loaded with tips for “beginners”. I still learn a lot! Thanks.
Awesome, Big Fat Thanks ;)
Best explanation I’ve seen yet. Thank you!
Thank you for this great tutorial now i know how sharpening is done properly
Love your photographic inputs, very helpful! What is the best measure for this sharpening technique if using Photoshop CS5? Thanks!
Is LR3 an appropriate solution for “final” sharpening? Or should I sharpen, export, the re-sharpen in PS or some other external editor? Thanks.
Eric, it depends on what you are trying to do. For web use, I believe it is. I typically sharpen it at around 50/25/50 in Lightroom and apply more sharpening when resizing for web. However, if I need to sharpen specific areas of an image without touching the sky or other areas, then I use Photoshop plugins from Nik Software to do that.
Really nice article…. on sharpening in Lightroom…
i’m buying a nikon d3100 for Christmas and i’m using your blog as reference. it’s so newb-friendly and it doesn’t kill amateurs with all those complexities! keep up the good work sir!
Hello Nasim,
I’m a beginner in photograpy and I apologize if my question might be a no brainer. I’ve noticed some of the photos posted on pixel-peeper are so clear and crisp. Do you know whether or not they use RAW images or JPEG and do they use Lightroom to sharpen images or they just have excellent cameras? I have similar lens to what they use but some of the images are way too sharp and crisp to mine. I hope I’m not being too wordy here. I would appreciate any response. Thanks!
Before I used picasa to edit my photos. Recently I starting shooting in RAW and moved on to LightRoom. In LR all these time I was using the sharpening tool without even having any idea how it actually work. I watched few youtube videos on LR sharpening but they were not that much of a help for me.
Your article is complete. You explained everything so nicely. Now I know exactly how these 4 sliders work.
Thank you so much for taking your time to write this.
Very helpful! :-)
Thanks for the excellent post! I just discovered your website and I have to say it’s really interesting and professional!!
I am new to RAW processing and I am currently using Adobe Photoshop CS5/ACR plus Noise Ninja. I have some doubts with my workflow since I could use sharpening and noise reduction both on ACR and Photoshop/NN. My workflow (focus only on sharpening/noise) is:
- ACR Sharpening: Set optimal
- ACR Noise reduction: Not used
- PSP Noise Ninja: Set optimal
- PSP unsharp mask. Set optimal
What do you think about this, is it correct or could be improved?
ciao!
Best article about that i had read. Thank you so much.
Greetings from Spain
Nasim,
Excellent site long time reader first time poster.
I have a Nikon D7000 and wanted to know your thoughts regarding capture nx2 vs lightroom.
I am an amateur shooter and workflow is not really a problem,i post process very few pictures.
I workflow is not an issue do you think capture nx2 is better than lightroom.Some ppl say it can access nikon raw data better than lightroom.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
Really excellent and in-depth post about Lightroom sharpening, thanks a lot! I have been using export sharpening more; will start to get to grips with the process you suggest here. Cheers!
Thanks for the great article, Nasim!
It would be great to know you recommendations on in-camera sharpening:
1. what values are optimal (D7000) and whether to use it at all considering that sharpening can be done in post-production?
2. If in-camera sharpening is used, does the original image get modified irreversibly (RAW), or sharpening is just saved as a part of metadata? If it’s a part of metadata, do you have any info on whether software like PS/LP can properly recognize it?
Thanks in advance,
Andrey
Hello,
Nice tips indeed but…Regarding before/after comparison of a bird picture, for me it’s hard to believe that you could actually recover so much details from such a blurry photo…:)
Regards
Radek
Hi,
Iam new to the DSLR world. Recently owned canon 550d. Still exploring, really enjoying it. this website has given me lot of inputs. very very clear & informative. thanks a lot.
hi
thanks as always for the insightful articles
i sometimes use the sharpening in my Nikon ViewNX 2 software.
i find this software very intuitive and therefore easy to use. how has been your experience of this.
one major defect, however, is that View NX 2 drastically reduces the size of the images after any editing, incl. say sharpening or brightness.
some nikonian forums reccomended buying and using the Capture NX 2 software instead.
what are your views on the same as non-pro like me would like an intuitive software as opposed to something as forbidding as Photoshop.
Btw – what in your view is the best book for learning photoshop for beginners?
Thanks & Regards,
Amartya
Hi Nasim, im fairly new to Dslr , when I purchased my first one three months ago I’ve never taught id be improving so fast in learning all the techniques thanks in part to your website wich has always been a great support for my learning curve.However I’ve never taught editing pictures would be such a huge part of the job, but when I saw what could be achieved I wasted no time in shooting raw and trying to attain the best possible in photography. Anyways I hope you will be able to answer this question . I’m very divided between Capture NX and Lightroom . I’m using both right now because sometimes I find its very hard to attain particular goals in lightroom and the same could be said about Capture NX. And also the colors and sharpness of the unedited raw with the nikon editing software is much better at the start. IHowever even with this tutorial and trying every wich way possible I find that with the picture control utility (and some of the capture nx settings) I’m most of the time able to reach a certain sharpness in some pictures that I just can’t with lightroom. Dont get me wrong sometimes my sharpness is just has good with LR but lots of times some picture I dont know why I cant get the sharpness I get with capture nx or even View nx its like theres is a small blur that I just cant get rid of in lightroom ?
sorry for the long text your answer would be really appreciated
thank you
André
oups sorry I forgot to mention that blur is mostly visible once that particular shot is converted in jpeg (in lightroom ) (I make sure the quality is at 100%)
thank you
André
Thank you! I also didn’t know about command option in lightroom! Now, I’m getting better results when sharpening.
Thank you, this was very helpful. I was using sharpening just on export and found some images to be very noisy. I’m also finding they seem darker after export, do you know what this is due to?
:)
You dont know how helpful is your tutorial for me !!!!
thank you :)
God bless
Thank you very much! That was a great help.
Great explanation! What, if anything, would you change to update the specifics you discussed for LR4?
Great article. I am always afraid of oversharpening and seem so have trouble with choosing the “correct” amount and detail even with the ALT grayscale screens. Any tips on how you decide.
Great article, as a LR newbie I am happy to read from the experts. Now one question I have, is there any way to export that sharpen mask into Photoshop along with the image for later final sharpening of the PS edit? Would save a bunch of time over the whole !glowing edges! method!!
Thanks
Neil
By far the easiest to-understand-explanation on LR sharpening I have found. Suddenly the lights have come on. Many thanks
this is great. my understanding of sharpening was blurry before. not anymore ;)
Again a brilliant tutorial! I have been using lightroom since a year and did sharpening just by hit-and-trial. No other blog explained amout,radius and masking so precisely like you did.
Thanks again! :)
Again a brilliant tutorial! I have been using lightroom since a year and did sharpening just by hit-and-trial. No other blog explained amount,radius and masking so precisely like you did.
Thanks again! :)
Thanks for this write up. Was editing an awkward photo last week and applied your masking tips to it. made it perfect. Big thanks.
I’m trying to use the alt/option button but it doesnt always work. Is there a setting or something I need to change?
Need to hold down the Alt key while moving the slider around with the mouse. Took me a few times to get it…
Great articles as always! Very succinct & clear explanation. Is there a guide for using Spot Removal & Brush adjustment tools?
Thanks so much~~
Very nice explanation.
Is there a way to apply “spot” sharpening? e.g. only to the eyes of the bird
Thank you.
Thank you so much for this amazing article. With this and your noise reduction article i have just redone a number of photo’s for a friend and the results are incredible. Thanks for taking the time to provide such a concise and easy to follow explanation. I particularly like your little touches such as the before and after noise reduction just by placing the mouse over the pic. Great job.
Hi,
Great article. I am still a little confused. If I do sharpening in the sharpening panel, do I still do some sharpening in the printing module before printing?
Also, if I have a photo in Lightroom, make some adjustments there, and then send it to Photoshop and do sharpening via unsharp mask in photoshop and then take the photo back to Lightroom for printing, do I use the sharpening section of the print module to do more sharpening?
Thanks,
Joseph
Wow. Didn’t know alot of this stuff. Thanks for teaching it!!