Advice Wanted to make sharper better quality photos/prints

hark

hark

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todd7500 said:
Thanks,
Just ordered the Pro-100 and an extra 10 pack of paper.
I have a backstock of Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II,
What are you using Glossy or Luster?
Guess its time to upgrade my PS. Whats your suggestion PS and LRCC subscription?
Should be here Friday.
Perhaps if you do start a thread on the topic, it will stir up some how to's
Click to expand...

Todd, personally I prefer glossy paper but actually use both. I have the PCC and LRCC subscriptions and feel they are the best for what I do. I started out with Photoshop Elements, but it lacks some of the tools and editing features that PCC has. They do require some RAM so be sure to check out specs on system requirements for your computer.

And my thread on the printer did get approved! Yea! :)
https://nikonites.com/deals-/40451-...00-printer-thru-12-31-17-a.html#axzz4wvVFDuIi
 
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spb_stan

Senior Member
As others suggested, f/16 is well into diffraction so images can't be very sharp, for those images, f/8 would be fine. Turn off Auto ISO and set it to 100 ISO for those daylight images. One of those was over 1000 ISO so noise is expected in the blue sky, and noise appears and indistinct edges. You can add sharpening to the desired Picture Control but if too much sharpening, artifacts are generated can appear as less distinct detail. Sharpening is better done in moderation in post processing,where you have more control. Seldom does the whole image need noise reduction so using a selective tool for noise reduction will reduce the visibility of noise or over sharpening artifacts. Keeping the sharpening in camera to the middle of the slider for Picture Control will prevent halos and other oversharpening artifacts.
Do you see anyone's photos being sharp on your monitor? If you are pixel peeping sharpness will seem poor but when viewed at normal distance and size is the real test of sharpness that matters.
Are you cropping any of the images? Cropping kills sharpness,frame the subject so the maximum number of pixels define the details of the subject.
The appearance of sharpness is mostly edge definition and edge contrast, so selective sharpening is best to keep noise less obvious and edges just sharp enough to convey the impression of sharpness without resorting to sharpening bright areas like the sky. After you get images looking sharp on monitor then you can tackle the printing sharpness and you will find different optimum sharpening settings are needed for printing versus screen viewing

Other factors in losing sharpness is saving JPG files. Only save an edit once, because each time it is saved and edited in any way, it is compressed all over again losing detail and image quality. That is one reason to process NEF Raw files so the original stays high resolution and every edit when rendered from the RAW file will be compress only once. Saving two versions of the image for print and for screen viewing, by editing the raw(the raw file stays original but edits are lists of instructions saved in a separate file of edits and instructions how the software will render the JPG. If you need other sizes, go back to the raw file and edit it for the size JPG you want and only save it once as resized JPG.
 
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aroy

Senior Member
First of all you must identify the reason for images not as sharp as you expect. Most of the time it is the technique, but limitation of lenses cannot be ruled out. I suggest that you perform a thorough optical test, as follows

1. Identify a planar surface with a lot of details - a fence is ideal, so is a naked brick wall. all else failing a fairly leafy tree would do.
2. Set up the camera on a sturdy tripod. This is essential to eliminate fuzziness due to hand shake. Use either RAW or JPEG fine for maximum resolution.
3. Mount your prime lens. Shoot at ISO 100 for the test.
4. Focus using AF and take a series of images at all apertures, starting from wide open to F/22, with VR (if there) off.
5. Repeat Step 4, but using Live view at maximum magnification with Manual Focus to get the focus spot on.
6. Repeat Steps 4 & 5 with Zoom lenses you use at 4 or 5 focal lengths starting at wide end, ending at long end.

Now sit on the computer and compare each image.

1. For each focal length you will notice that the lens has a sweet spot; at a particular aperture; where sharpness is maximum. That is setting you have to use to get razor sharpness.
2. In case the images are sharper with manual focus compared to AF, then your AF is off and you will have to fine tune the focus.
3. In case none of your images are sharp as you want, then search the reviews on the net for lenses which have better sharpness. Generally the sharper the lens the more expensive it is.

In my experience the best results are with images shot in RAW and then post processed. You do not need any expensive software, Nikon Capture NX-D does the job fine; at zero cost; for most of the adjustments. A RAW image will give you much better Dynamic Range which can be exploited to adjust the images for better sharpness, and you can always play around with sharpness and exposure controls till you are satisfied.
 
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todd7500

Senior Member
Update...
Thanks again for all the input... it will takes weeks to apply and test all the techniques that have been suggested.

Things are getting better thanks to the forum posts.

Down and dirty fixes: Some sharpening and saturation adjustments in camera.
Staying away from the f/stop extremes (although i question why I dump dollars into fast lenses). Looking into hyper-focus issue.

Test and evaluate each change/adjustment to see whats working best.

Viewing images on a better monitor... (started looking at them on a UHD monitor... they are sharper than I thought... )

Looking real hard at how I have been printing... so much to learn there thank god for YouTube.

I have a new printer sitting in the garage ready to be unboxed but before I introduce ANOTHER variable, I want to to squeeze better quality out of what I have. (Started by turning everything off and letting the printer profile ONLY take control) Once I get that tweaked I should have a baseline.

Bit the bullet and signed up for the Lightroom/Photoshop package from Adobe (grumble, grumble) thus updating from my Elements 15. Why did I upgrade?... this will make some of you laugh... there are great videos out there on photography and printing etc but they are mostly based on Photoshop Full Version, not Elements. With the full version... I can duplicate EXACTLY setting by setting what works best.

TW
 
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gustafson

Senior Member
todd7500 said:
Update...
Thanks again for all the input... it will takes weeks to apply and test all the techniques that have been suggested.

Things are getting better thanks to the forum posts.

Down and dirty fixes: Some sharpening and saturation adjustments in camera.
Staying away from the f/stop extremes (although i question why I dump dollars into fast lenses). Looking into hyper-focus issue.

Test and evaluate each change/adjustment to see whats working best.

Viewing images on a better monitor... (started looking at them on a UHD monitor... they are sharper than I thought... )

Looking real hard at how I have been printing... so much to learn there thank god for YouTube.

I have a new printer sitting in the garage ready to be unboxed but before I introduce ANOTHER variable, I want to to squeeze better quality out of what I have. (Started by turning everything off and letting the printer profile ONLY take control) Once I get that tweaked I should have a baseline.

Bit the bullet and signed up for the Lightroom/Photoshop package from Adobe (grumble, grumble) thus updating from my Elements 15. Why did I upgrade?... this will make some of you laugh... there are great videos out there on photography and printing etc but they are mostly based on Photoshop Full Version, not Elements. With the full version... I can duplicate EXACTLY setting by setting what works best.

TW
Click to expand...

Sounds good. Would be interesting to hear if you find a smoking gun or two.


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Roy1961

Roy1961

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todd7500 said:
WOW!
This is how I ended up finding this forum to begin with. So where does someone go for help? There are no "camera clubs" to speak of near me. I went to one a few times but it wasn't for me.
Click to expand...

keep an eye out for the yearly nikonites walkabout in Florida (somewhere) @Marilynne will keep you informed if you are interested.
 
Marilynne

Marilynne

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T

todd7500

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gustafson said:
Sounds good. Would be interesting to hear if you find a smoking gun or two.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Smoking guns...
Well, I am still working on things large and small. Some of them were/are misconceptions on my part and I am still trying to validate some of the tests and results....

Lets start with some easy ones:

I bought a couple of faster lenses now (theoretically) I understand that lenses misbehave at the hi and low ends of the f/stop range.
More to learn about "hyperfocusing". I like landscapes when we travel and many of them are shot at the infinite end of the focus (so i thought) now I hear I need to rack in a little. So thats a combination of possible problems often occurring together, its a bright day, distant landscape, so you stop down to f16 or higher, focus all the way out and bingo. double trouble.

I tweaked the in camera setting a bit, added some sharpness and some saturation. BUT, I think thats only going to help the look of the jpegs, not the RAW files, more learning needed.

I know full well that higher ISO equals noise. I relate noise to grain (old school thinking, probably inaccurate ) BUT... I plunked down a fair chunk of money for a camera claiming to shoot at a zillion ISO, surely it should shoot noise free (or close to it) at ISO 1000

Printing... a whole world of troubles here...

Lets start with easy ones...

For whatever reason, the color profiles in PS Elements were set to Pro Photo or Photo Pro... whatever... and I couldn't find the magic combination to get them back to sRGB. A simple button click? ... not so much. Doesn't matter, I knew I was upgrading to PS(CC). When I installed that and verified that the profile was set to sRGB, my prints were immediately better out of the box (formally, with the "pro photo profile(?) I think the term is "bronzing) whatever the right name is, I was battling a really bad color cast. Everything looked dull, lack of contrast, colors way off, just crap. So to compensate, I was jacking up the adjustments in PSE and trying to guess what I needed to add cause I had no way to "soft proof" so I was printing test after test till I got close by trial and error...

Are you saying to yourself... "Did this idiot think to calibrate his monitor?" the answer is... Yea, I thought about it... that's gonna be a whole other topic but the short version is I bought a Colormunki and succeeded in calibrating my laptop... LAPTOP?? (I can hear you saying). Yes laptop. The way my PC is set up, ( I will do some of the post work on the PC then use the laptop to print) I can't calibrate the monitors... I need a different video card... one that has a separate driver for each monitor rather than sharing one driver. Lets just say... I am not in the frame of mind to tear down (or have someone else) tear down my PC and start mucking around with the video cards etc PLUS having to invest in TWO new monitors (when that time comes, they will be UHD) so for now... it is, what it is.

So... I watched a bunch of printing videos (I think we can all figure out the guy...Very nice gentleman... lets just call him Jose R) I REALLY like this guy... he tells it like it is. So I drank the Cool-Aid and now I have a new Canon (sorry for saying the name Canon, I guess its like saying Beetlejuice here ) Pro 100 Printer and a proper version of PS. So now I can play along at home and follow step by step what works best for him and others. Bottom line... prints getting better.

I am not there yet. Still don't see razor sharp, hi contrast, zero grain (noise) images. I am closer than I was but still not where I want to be... OCD?

Results may vary... more to come!
TW
 
T

todd7500

Senior Member
J

J-see

Senior Member
If you print yourself it is rather important that you scale your photos depending on the size/dpi you'll be printing and sharpen after having them scaled. It's not because a photo looks sharp at one size, it'll look equally perfect at all other sizes.
 
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