Sharpness perfect upon opening file, then degrades as I apply adjustments

[photomac]

Photos are sharp after importing them into AP, and remains so for a few adjustments, then they start degrading with further adjustments. By the time I've made a dozen or so, the image looks terrible. I've tried sharpening and not sharpening before making adjustments, to no avail. Sharpening at the end does not bring the image back to its original look. I've used AP for a year now, and never had this problem until a couple of months ago. I thought maybe it started when I upgraded to version 1.9, so I went back to 1.8.5; the problem exists there as well. As per some suggestions in the forums, I've tried doing my editing at 100%, but I don't see any improvement; plus the image is 3 times larger than my monitor which drives me nuts! (imported images have always come in around 30%, and I've processed them with no problems before this issue started). I shoot Canon RAW & JPG, and I'm scanning thousands of negatives. The sharpness problem affects all of them. I'm hoping you can help me; I sure don't want to go back to Adobe PhotoShop after they screwed me out of PS6 after paying $650 for it... but that's another story...

Edited February 15, 2021 by photomac

[NotMyFault]

Hi, 

 

sorry to hear about this issue.

Would it be possible for you to share an example document (afphoto file)?

 

[photomac]

Sure thing... The "before" image is a camera-produced jpeg; not cropped; resized to 6"x4"; dpi 180; resampled Lanczos 3 non seperable; exported.

The "tweaked" image was (in this order)

1. Resized to 6"x4"; cropped "custom ratio" to 6"x4" / 180 dpi

2. Horizon straightened

3. Selected (shadow side of RV) / refined / lightened.

4. Selected (shrubbery on left) / lightened.

5. Exported at 6"x 4", Lanczos 3 non-separable.

For what it's worth, my "normal" routine is to: import image; crop to desired shape; do any adjustments necessary; sharpen (I've used both the built in sharpening and NIK plugin); export at 2550 px either wide or high depending on photo orientation; Lanczos 3 non-separable, to a "finals" folder in My Pictures. I also keep all full size RAW & JPG files in another folder. From there I import the "finals" into Photoshop Elements 12.

Hope all this helps! And THANKS!!

IMG_7191_(2);_4x6_tweaked.afphoto IMG_7191-before;_resized_to_4x6.afphoto

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

the pixel size seems quite low (1025 x 690) for both files. You mentioned 2550px as export. This does not sum up.

180 dpi times 4 inch results in 720px, or 1080 for 6 inch.

My assumption (this could be wrong) is you may have resampled during your first resize, thus drastically reducing the rersolution too early.

Just uncheck "Resample" when resizig.

Normally, you do not need to resize (with resample checked) in your workflow, it can been done during export or as last step prior export.

 

An citing from help: For downsampling (from 2550 to 1080), the default "Bilinear" should be fine.

Upsampling will rarely lead to reasonable quality, especially for already compressed files or after editing.

Resampling methods

The following resample settings are available:

• Nearest Neighbor—simple resampling which has the fastest processing time. Use for hard-edge images.
• Bilinear—algorithmic resampling for use when shrinking images.
• Bicubic—algorithmic resampling for use when enlarging images. Resampling is smoother than Bilinear but has a slower processing time.
• Lanczos 3—complex algorithmic resampling which gives the best results but with the longest processing time. Available as 'separable' and 'non-separable'; the latter gives marginally better results, but is slightly slower than 'separable'.

 

[photomac]

OK, I think I'm beginning to understand all this. My goal is to start with either a RAW, JPG or TIFF file and end up with an image to put into my Photoshop Elements program suitable for viewing on a 25" monitor. I save the original file in My Photos, so can always go back to it if I need to make a print of any size (which won't be very often).

May I ask a favor of you? Would you give me step-by-step instructions, in the proper order, to do this? I would be forever grateful!!

Thank you !

Photomac

[NotMyFault]

Hi Photomac,

Unfortunately I can’t provide that, there are too many unknowns to me regarding your setup, workflow and intentions.

Never the less, simply stop using resize at all. It is not required in your case, but could degrade quality if used incorrectly.

To adjust rotation or the aspect ratio, use the crop tool instead - again without resampling!

For best quality,  start with the RAW file in affinity, and export only the edited final image as jpeg without reducing the resolution  

Never resample or change resolution without a good reason.

If possible, visit the video tutorials sections in this forum, all are excellent and fun to view.

I‘m certain most of your questions will be answered there.

Regards, Timo

 

 

Regards,

Timo