Best sharpening workflow in Photo

[DarkClown]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering what would be the optimal workflow whith regards to sharpening when you try to export (Exporting through the Photo Persona) a JPG from an existing picture? When I work on high res photos of course I don't want to resize the original before output to be able to properly adjust the sharpening settings for the required output resolution. On the other side a proper judgement of sharpening can only be done in the final resolution. The export dialog where you enter the output resolution does not allow setting the sharpening parameters for the entered resolution. I don't see a proper way in the export Persona either.

For proper adjustment I would need all sharpening parameters and a 1:1 pixel precise view in export resolution. To me this seems to be a quite commen process. How do you realise this in Affinity Photo? What is the recommended workflow.

Cheers, Timo

[Pšenda]

Export the image in the required resolution, Open it into APhoto, sharpening (or adjust other parameters that need to be corrected by reducing the image), and Save.

[DarkClown]

4 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Export the image in the required resolution, Open it into APhoto, sharpening (or adjust other parameters that need to be corrected by reducing the image), and Save.

OK, thank you.

It's not what I would call a proper "workflow" .... more something like a "workaround" 🙂 ... Let's wait for AP 2.0

[User_783649]

@DarkClown I fully agree with you — it would be nice to have a kind of output sharpening parameters section somewhere in export options. Having to go through multiple rounds of exports seems very inefficient.

Btw, I found your thread from 2017 with the same question: 

Unfortunately, it seems like nothing has changed in this regard.

Hopefully we'll see some improvements in next versions.

[DarkClown]

3 hours ago, Alex M said:

Btw, I found your thread from 2017 with the same question: 

Ohh, don't bring up the old stuff ... Only gets me into trouble. I always get a shitstorm for reposting
But frankly spoken I had the impression that 5 years gone by justifies to put up a little reminder .... and we are not asking for functions to construct frequency separated intersections between penguins and octagons.

<sarcasm on>
And I guess it's still a huge surprise for serif that there are people out in the world that try to productively use their tools
<sarcasm off>

But as I said - let's hope for AP 2.0

[Pšenda]

Personally, I think that when exporting, it is possible to do things that do not require visual inspection and possible response in setting and adjusting parameters. That is, changing the output format, color mode, ICC, etc. Other adjustments, such as sharpening, would still require corrections or reverting in most cases, so it would only complicate the process.
P.S. a similar method of processing is, in my opinion, more suitable for DAM.

 

1 hour ago, DarkClown said:

But frankly spoken I had the impression that 5 years gone by justifies to put up a little reminder

Just insert a "reminder" into the original thread, no need to create more and more with exactly the same topic, in addition, the context of the original contribution is lost.

[DarkClown]

1 minute ago, Pšenda said:

Personally, I think that when exporting, it is possible to do things that do not require visual inspection and possible response in setting and adjusting parameters. That is, changing the output format, color mode, ICC, etc. Other adjustments, such as sharpening, would still require corrections or reverting in most cases, so it would only complicate the process.

Fully agree! But sharpening is - depending on your area of work - a substantial part of the output process that can't be ignored or (I assume) made a lot less complicated, since an individual judgement of the sharpening results is inevitable.

[walt.farrell]

On 5/18/2022 at 8:54 AM, DarkClown said:

But sharpening is - depending on your area of work - a substantial part of the output process that can't be ignored or (I assume) made a lot less complicated, since an individual judgement of the sharpening results is inevitable.

"Sharpening" is also something that can be accomplished in several different ways, with different results, that may require a user choice/evaluation based on the image at hand. It might also be something that needs to be done to a specific area of the image, and not to other parts of the image.

Any simple "setting" that you can apply during Export would force you to use only one method, which might not be the best one for all of your images. And thus you might have many images that would need a different method, that would require the more complex workflow anyway.

So, perhaps, the current approach where you export to the final size or resize, and then sharpen, is an appropriate one?

[DarkClown]

25 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

"Sharpening" is also something that can be accomplished in several different ways, with different results, that may require a user choice/evaluatoion based on the image at hand. It might also be something that needs to be done to a specific area of the image, and not to other parts of the image.

Any simple "setting" that you can apply during Export would force you to use only one method, which might not be the best one for all of your images. And thus you might have many images that would need a different method, that would require the more complex workflow anyway.

So, perhaps, the current approach where you export to the final size or resize, and then sharpen, is an appropriate one?

 

This is a valid point. Just as a suggestion for an easy to implement intermediate (or maybe even final) solution: Why not include a checkbox in the export dialog that will automaticall open the exported file in a new document in AP for further devekopment?

[Pšenda]

And in the case of Export Persona, should all created slices be loaded / not loaded, or should it be specified separately for each slice?

[DarkClown]

10 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

And in the case of Export Persona, should all created slices be loaded / not loaded, or should it be specified separately for each slice?

I guess eventually this will be a designers question. I could imagine that a list comes up with all slices preselected for opening and the option to deselect whatever you don't need to open. Maybe even with the option afterwards to apply the sharpening setting applied to one slice to selected or all of the others. Just some thoughts ...

(Maybe with the last suggestion to apply sharpening to other slices, we are getting closer to the "frequency separated intersections between penguins and octagons" I mentioned above ). I learned to lower my expectation when it comes to workflow.

[nickbatz]

What Walt.Farrell says, and furthermore:

For what I use Affinity Photo for - Modern art "paintings" - it's not even a given that the best stage to sharpen is just before exporting. The reason is that fill, clone, copy/paste, etc. all over the place, and sharpening/not sharpening affects the borders and textures of individual elements within a composite.

I use a combination of upscaling to 300 DPI (at as late a stage as possible, because it does slow things down), the built-in sharpening filters, and Topaz Gigapixel AI - often in different areas of the same picture. None of this lends itself to a one-size-fits-all process.

Gigapixel AI is a whole other subject... but while I'm off on it, it would be great if the plug-in worked in Affinity Photo.